Bustle and flow: Cemetery Walk Costume

The first official costume of the season has been completed! I volunteer at the local history center and I was asked to help out with the annual 'Cemetery Walk' that they do. It is a pretty cool guided history tour with actors at some spots. Both the actors and guides dressed up. This year's theme was 'crimes and crimefighters' and it was really interesting. It turned out to be a gorgeous day as well and as weird as it sounds the cemetery was really beautiful. But then again I am the weird girl who actually really likes cemeteries.

Problem was I needed a costume and fast. After some research I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to to. A recent problem I have been having is going out too soon and buying a bunch of supplies before I look and see what I already have. Being a pack rat/border line hoarder I had MORE than enough stuff for this project (with just a few bought fill in supplies) and it was a good de-stash project. We have so many clothes and dresses at our house that we are sure we are going to find that 'perfect' project for. Well I found it this weekend and had a blast making a brand new costume that will hopefully serve me many times over (as opposed to say my care bear costume...don't know how I am going to squeeze some more use out of that one!).

On to the costume....

Pretty much ALL of my ideas for this came from two old Threadbanger videos. This one is all Steampunk outfits but the layering idea was super inspiring.  The other is a 'Sweeney Todd' episode that I have watched a ton of times, it begins with a great interview of Colleen Atwood (LOVE HER!) and ends with an inspired outfit.


This costume was made in 3 days with an $8 total cost. Yay for being creative!

This is the first dress. Too tiny but cool fabric. Skirt will be used for bustle.

 It already has some cool shaping to the back that I am just going to use.

 Second dress from stash. Long jersey type. This is going to be pretty much my top layer.

 Some pinning and sewing and we have a top! No cutting involved, if I needed too I could take out the stitches and it would be exactly where it started from.

 The only supplies I bought.

 Stash dress #3. Another too tiny dress that no one actually ever wore. Took out the zipper from the back, detached the bodice from the skirt, saved the frothy layer for another project and used the satiny underskirt for my ruched layered skirt.

 Old wedding petticoat from the costume stash. Used a ton of times. These things are like costume gold.

 Hat I made from felt, the feather I bought and random scraps from the sewing room. No sewing here only hot glue!

 Putting it all together:

Step 1: Put on (now gray) petticoat

 Step 2: Layer overskirt. This was also dyed gray in the same dye batch as the petticoat. Added a drawstring waist and ruching all the way around.

 OMG I LOVE GRAY!  This was my first diy dye job ever and I am in love with the results. Love love love.

 Step 3: Layer on bustle. This is a skirt that I sewed to a black ribbon to tie in the front. Added just a couple of rows of ruching to give the front some shape and then I added all the 'poofy stuff' from the original dress under the back to make the bustle. Historically accurate? Not so much but cheap yes!

 Ba-donk-a-donk shot for ya. Also I do not recommend driving in a bustle.

 Step 4: Layer on the jersey tank dress from earlier.

 Step 5: Wiggle into 'corset'. Made from the bodice top of the black and white dress. I was too lazy/time crunched to make it a lace up corset in the back to I just added a few rows of black elastic.

 And done! I added a black shrug that I made about a year ago since it was chilly out. I pinned on my hat and wore some fingerless black crochet gloves and was pretty adorable. I was going for 'victorian mourning wear' but everyone thought I looked more like a saloon girl. Whatever. The costume was a big hit either way!

I think my favorite thing about it is that since it is all separate pieces and each piece is either drawstring and or stretchy that this costume can be mixed and matched with different pieces to make a whole new look that will fit a variety of different sizes. I loved the dyeing process and sort of want to dye everything now! It was a lot less intimidating than I thought it would be.

Currently Obsessed With: The 'Drive' Soundtrack

First off you should go SEE THIS MOVIE! It totally rocks. Fair warning, it gets pretty violent. But trust me when I say that this movie is pretty much perfection. All of the acting is brilliant and the soundtrack gave me chills throughout, which is why I now need to own it. Any Ryan Gosling fans out there? Every single one of you needs to see this movie because damn plus the boy can act. Who knew driving gloves were so sexy? The movie also has the best elevator kiss scene ever. Yeah I rate that kind of thing.




You didn't believe me did you? Well anyway I want the soundtrack so it can play in my car when I drive anywhere.

Maple Cookies

Working in a bakery my little inner home-baker gets pretty excited. Completely convinced that I would rock at cake decorating I decided to start small and tackle some cookies.

I have been trying to find a recipe/baking technique that produces super smooth professional looking cookies. This one wasn't bad but I feel I can do better! Then I just googled a maple glaze (since I am in full Autumn flavor mode right now) and then topped the cookies with some orange frosting just to play around with decorations.

 I boxed some up to give to my friends. Too much cookie goodness to keep to myself!

I got some good reviews from my taste testers so I will have to make another batch soon!

Halloween shopping

Here are some of the first purchases of this haunting season. While I love me some Halloween DIY there is something about buying Halloween stuff that makes me super happy.

 These technically count as diy items since they will be used in some crafty goodness. And you are right those are indeed 'grow your own' body parts. Hehe.

 Mini baking dishes! Only $1 a piece and they are oven, microwave, and dishwasher safe. Score.

 These last two are my faves.

Also over on Pumpkinrot there is a rumor of pumpkin spice waffles at Target. I must investigate.

Countdown to Halloween

This is pretty exciting! Already September and Halloween is just around a dark and spooky corner. Fall temperatures are finally here and I am all sorts of ready for sweater/layering season.

In honor of my favorite holiday I am taking the plunge and committing to the 'Countdown to Halloween' a month long blog-a-thon. In all honesty I have already started a list of posts for October so it seemed only right to make a real commitment. If you are interested in also doing so check out the website.

They also have some really cool badges up this year that you can use to spruce up your blog! My favorite is this Vincent Price badge.

 

That is some Halloweeny goodness right there folks!

Other things from RubyMarilyn to come include: Food, crafts, decor, costumes, zombies, films, and 'vintage Halloween' posts. 

Happy Haunting!

Adorable request.

Back in June when we went glamping camping our friends Ellen and Brent became engaged. Now us few tight-knit girls were fairly certain we would be in the wedding party but Ellen was not going to officially ask anyone until her fiance figured out exactly who he was going to have as his groomsmen. Then of course she couldn't just ask us, oh no, she had to ask in the most adorable way possible. One day in the mail I got a letter from her. Inside was a folded piece of paper asking if I would be a bridesmaid and carefully folded up inside this piece of paper was this:

The most adorable paper chain of all six bridesmaids, each individually styled with our names on the bottom. Too cute. Of course I said yes! Now we have another wedding to plan, yay!