One Little Girl in a Pale Pink Coat Heard...

Aprile took me to a sing-along screening of 'The Sound of Music' to celebrate my birthday. There was a fancy dress competition, and I immediately knew that I wanted to create a costume based on the marionettes from 'The Lonely Goatherd' scene.

I made:

- a circle skirt, 

- a very quick corset-front vest, traced from a tank top,

- ears/horns (using my beloved gardening wire and masking tape, of course),

- furry boot toppers.

These were paired with tights, a white blouse, and a pink cardigan that are all part of my existing wardrobe. 

'The Lonely Goatherd' is one of my top 3 songs from the film (along with 'Maria' and 'Something Good'), and is, I think, generally under-appreciated by the film's loyal fanbase. I enjoy this song because it is upbeat, catchy, and challenging to sing (I did work on it in vocal lessons) and the scene with the marionettes is fun to watch. Although it's not considered to be authentic yodeling, the vocalizations sure are fun!

Here are some pics of my my fancy dress competition winning costume, in process, and completed!

Mad Hatter Madness

For Halloween 2016, my friends and I have chosen to go as characters from Alice in Wonderland. This decision was made in November of 2014 as we browsed in a consignment shop in downtown Toronto. It was at that time that I purchased the hat. It is a magnificent Holt Renfrew beaver skin top hat.

Last year my friend informed me that her daughter wanted to be The Mad Hatter for Halloween, so I immediately went into auntie-mode. "DOES SHE HAVE A HAT!" I practially squealed, knowing that this would be the perfect opportunity to add bits an baubles to the Holt Renfrew hat. And of course that is exactly what I ended up doing! Process pics below. :-)

Maleficent

This is Lauren as Maleficent.  This costume was made for her to cosplay at Fan Expo Canada 2014, and for Halloween.

The horns and the back are what seem to draw the most interest. The horns were formed  with gardening wire, small starter pots, and making tape (all dollar store materials). From sculpting to paint and varnish, the whole horn-making process took about two hours (excluding the paint-drying time, of course).

This costume is my version of what I thought to be the most remarkable scene from the Maleficent movie; just after her wings have been burned off. Also, I didn't want to make wings (lol). The wounds were easy to make. The dress material kind of melted, and left the solid scorched bits around the edges. Then I sewed in some bathing suit liner, and painted it with acrylic paint and white glue.

Feedback from Lauren was that the top was hard to get into for Fan Expo. It is very tailored to her, so I added a side zipper, running from the left armpit down to the bottom of the blouse.

The staff is a painted branch from the garden, topped with LEDs and a substance called Goo-Hu, that is moldable rubber/epoxy which dries into a super bounce ball.

I'm very much looking forward to going out with her and my friends this Friday for Halloween!