Halloween 2022 - Be Your Own Lydia Deetz, Broadway Edition

 Threads has a Broadway inspired costume post from a year back:

https://www.threadsmagazine.com/2021/10/06/pattern-roundup-broadway-inspired-halloween-costumes

with how to dress up as Broadway characters for Halloween.

(or any day really)

I appreciate their devotion to trying to recreate the Six musical costumes

Pro tip: the costumes have microphone holsters on their waistbands .Why do they cover them with their hands in this photo?

the red circles are around the microphone holsters

also if you just want close ups

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/theater/showstoppers-spectacular-costumes-exhibition.html

adding this V&A video on the costumes 

https://youtu.be/9zIIXX6CY9U 

Added: Simplicity Andrea Schewe does it again

https://simplicity.com/simplicity/s9627

and https://simplicity.com/simplicity/s9628

Whoa.

But why stop there?

Beetlejuice is still playing

Beetlejuice's suit is just a men's suit, but Lydia Deetz' dress is a very specific thing

Kinda a Lolita thing. Or a prairie thing.....

https://simplicity.com/simplicity/s9653

I'm not super into Joann's but I'm very pleased with the hour I spent at work assembling a list of the things you could buy there right now to make this dress.

Prairie, but make it black

https://www.joann.com/casa-collection-eyelash-lace-fabric-56in-solids/zprd_15832280a.html

So, local high school musical theater, I have solved for your future Lydia (if ever any show was born for high school musicals, it's Beetlejui - if I type it three times....)

While I was searching on Lydia dress images with googly eye, this came up

and I realized this is nothing but a patchwork dress of different prints overdyed with black. Maybe that's what I do with the left over quilting cotton stuffs.

If you already have a prairie dress that wants to go goth, you could over dye it (Rit makes a darker than black overdye kit, and the website is full of information on using black dye successfully

https://www.ritdye.com/instructions/how-to-get-as-dark-a-color-as-possible/

https://www.ritdye.com/products/back-to-black-kit/ 

You would have to add your own ruffle ruff collar and safety pins. Easy enough.

Homework is a lot, work is killing me, all my work files are GONE and we just got Windows 11 at work and Paint is unrecognizable. So I will get less collage work done at work for awhile.

Belated Costume Patterns and A Tiny FanFic

 I missed these patterns at Joanns in October, or maybe they are just gift sewing choices

Kind of two classic Joker looks for the comic books

The Care Bears?  Is this a New Generation thing? Why do they have Shrek ears? (there is no licensed Shrek pattern btw)

They had a pattern line

There was a whole series of them. This is not my copy. I have one of these  patterns, but I am too damn lazy to go dig up the photo or dig the pattern out and take another photo. Someone had an entire set at Value Village and it blew my mind. I could only take one.

there is a three piece face mask pattern included. It's tempting if it goes on the big sale

Of course, the Child, DBA Grogu.

this is creepy. It really is.

I can see buying this.

But what did come home with me was a yard of this 'retro' Darth print.

Okay, I see this as Pride Vader. He spent his youth trying to free his mother, and his teenaged years with another older woman, probably had more of a crush (I mean, the gal had a wardrobe I'd die for) than love for. Anakin never did like sand, it was too rough and coarse. What else do we know about him? Very little. All we know is that he likes making stuff out of broken stuff; the best mechanic in the galaxy?

Society's expectations broke him and made him into a weapon.

Poor kid.

Plague Doctor, Health Screener Edition 2020

https://www.etsy.com/listing/236325647/plague-doctor-mask-pattern-pdf-download

Cartoonist/illustrator Erica Henderson prompted this project, after her Toucan Sam Plague Doctor, 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_8DBpgh16Q/

I figured I could make a fabric one for my job as a health screener.

I sewed the paper pattern together to test it

It just seems like the right costume at the right time at the right job.

This style has the added ridge down the nose which gives it more structure. I had considered adding a wire in that ridge if necessary, but on trying it on I realized it wasn't necessary.  The proportion of the width of the face portion vs the length of the nose, plus keeping this in as light a fabric as possible (I used muslin) keeps it from being too heavy. 

I took off the forehead piece and eyepieces, and contoured the upper seam to fit my face with my glasses on. The glasses definitely do the work here, I didn't need to duplicate 'eye coverings'.

Adding a second layer (one of the light poly cotton pieces from my regular face mask) makes it feel more like a real mask and reinforces the structure around the face. And adding the straps to hold it in place keeps the shape open and stabilizes it.

And it would be nicer if I had planned on adding it when I was sewing this together.

I could make it washable and finish it more nicely, but I'm hoping not to get a lot of use out of this one.

Getting a Snuffalupagus vibe here

This took less than an hour. Which shows, and you'll be more careful.

I modeled it with various hats. It needs the broadbrimmed original.

Frankly, I like it better out of paper. You could make this out of oaktag or craft foam and do fine.

The only sad thing is that the day before Halloween is going to be a very quiet day at work with hardly anyone to see the costume. And after polling the neighbors, we're not going to get any trick or treaters. This is my favorite holiday, I can't deny how sad this makes me.

To cheer myself up, I'm going to plan a sewing project for an outdoor decoration that is appropriate for every holiday. I mean, these things are SEWN.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Warner-9-5-ft-Pre-Lit-Beetlejuice-Sandworm-Animated-Airblown-Inflatable-224336/308475547

One last minute costume suggestion:

https://wintercroft.com/

You can cut them out of paper and decorate them and wear them and hang them on the wall.

They make splendid things.

Costumes of 2019

This year, it finally happened:

I am happy it's a family set, but Dad's a Slytherin. 

 I'll be honest: this really is years too late. The licensed fabric is still full price at Joann's though.

Or the bathrobe version, if you prefer double duty.

I think I prefer the unlicensed costumes this year, which is good because they vastly outnumber the official ones.

I mean, what's not to love about this description?

Also loving the Branded familiar pillow pals (Hedwig, Crookshanks,Pigwidgeon - what, no Scabbers?), and the Unbranded Fantastic Beasts pillow pals - Platypus and Owl.

As for the McVogurrickity patterns, mostly available at Joann's*

I believe this is a riff on Greatest Showman (see the upper right red). It needs the coat.

I have no idea what this is. I'm guessing it's a game, but it is very specific. Also, dad/kid cosplay sets are rare, so I'm giving it love, even if I have absofrigginlutely no idea what it is.

One of you will enlighten me.

I know the right is a Red Riding Hood, but....who is the one on the left? It's so very Cowboy specific, and I can't find a reference anywhere that links up with it. Overwatch?

HELP ME.

Nov 25: I have asked every meme-lovin costume sewin' human I can find about this, and only one person thought Maybe Somewhere in Kingdom Hearts? Or One Piece?

Still we don't know.

The spotters guide (aka Spirit Halloween online) isn't helping

https://www.spirithalloween.com/thumbnail/halloween-costumes/mens-costumes/

The rest of these make sense. Whew.

Finn, Rey, Aquaman with interesting faux Maori face painting, and Kate Bishop Hawkeye.

It's a nice set of costume pieces, frankly.

I appreciate the 'We Can Do It' reference, and I appreciate the heavy black backpack straps to imply you could do some Ghostbustin' in the khaki version

This is from last year, but I felt you should get more coveralls action plus Rose Tico 

 A little Game of Thrones "inspired" for you

She Who Drinks Wine All Season and Arya

Cersei look two

Daenarys, two looks

Wednesday from Addams Family finally gets her due

https://blog.pattern-vault.com/2019/10/29/the-addams-family-patterns/

Star Wars never goes bad, this one is new

Arya on the right, Rey and Rey on the left

This one is from last year, but it's still a killer.

And I could not find any Pennywise patterns. I know you guys have been sewing your own; any patterns you're using?

*there is something going on with the high numbered patterns not being available at Joann's and it's bugging me. They are just available on the website and grrrrrrrr

Radost Folk Ensemble Frog Hat

If it's Memorial Day Weekend, Radost is dancing at Northwest Folklife Festival.

It is the first one without Tom Deering, who was one of the founders and a good friend. He passed this February. Although the stories that people told today indicated that as long as they are dancing, Tom is there.

http://seattledances.com/2019/03/farewell-tom/

https://tomdeering.com/index.html

And it's his wife Sidney who has asked me time and again if I can sew 'a little something'.

Today's international dance afternoon schedule

This year, it was a frog hat for the children's dance.

First you get a hat and a frog

There's a moment that's a little Joker Origin Story, but it passes

We will not show the remains.

You sew it on. You didn't cut enough to cover the back, so I'm not showing that to you.

Of course it's a circle dance. Forest friends save the day. Forest friends RULE. That's Sid in the middle. Not quite herding cats. They are good cats.

Radost Folk Ensemble photo

That's my frog.

More dance outside 

And art booths too. Not shown: hundreds more art booths.

And a billion food trucks.

One more day on Monday, May 27th. Still free, still fun, still real Seattle.