Happy Halloween!

Apparently, one year when I was pretty young I told my mother that Halloween was my "High Holy Day." I'm not even sure if I knew then what a high holy day was but celebrating it to the max has definitely resolved itself into a personal tradition. Now that I work in a costume shop, I knew that this year I had to pull out all the stops.

For the first time maybe ever I decided to go with something scary:


Remember this? It's a literal mash-up where author Seth Grahame- Smith inserts a spooky zombie tale right into the original text of Pride and Prejudice. HI-larious! Here's how my costume came together:

1.) Bought a pattern for a Regency period dress. Ripley helped.

2.) Made the dress.
3.) And then...... I pretty much destroyed it.

Before:
After:
I got to learn a little about distressing costumes during our recent production of Sweeney Todd: it's really fun! For Sweeney I got to get into the heads of the characters... think about how they lived and how their clothing would wear and show age. In this case, my "characters" only real motivation was "braaaaaaiiiiiins..." so I got to do whatever I wanted. (That's brown and red rit dye, lots of tearing, some sand paper and some brown acrylic paint.)

Then for the make up:


I know pretty much NOTHING about zombie make up so my friend, Maggie, agreed to help me out: she'd taken a stage make-up class in grad school and was excited to get out her kit again!

The key ingredients for awesome zombie make up? Liquid latex (for the peeling effect) and fake blood. This stuff was edible and tasted minty! Fortunately for anyone I hugged hello during the course of the evening, it also washed out with water.

All that was left was for me to find some brains... and maybe a wealthy husband.

(Check out the rest of my halloween photos at my flickr! And lots and lots of halloween photobooth photos, too!)

Priestly Robes in the Church of Prince

First there was the Clanket.... and then there was...

The Prancet

That's right, friends... a PRINCE THEMED SLANKET. Made to order for my good friend, Lisa Giokas!

NRR: So Lisa, I take it you are something of a Prince Fan. When did you first know you were going to fall in love? For example, what was your first album?

LG: Let's see- well the first Prince song I really remember is "1999". I loved it instantly and at the time (1983), 1999 seemed way far off in the future. Soon after I got hooked on "Little Red Corvette". The first Prince album I bought with my own money was of course "Purple Rain" and yes it was vinyl!

NRR: Prince has had some pretty spectacular fashion moments over the course of his career; what do you think was his high-point? His low point?

LG: I think we all know about the famous ass-less yellow pants he wore- I think it was to the MTV awards? Definitely a low point. I've never really liked his hair long and straight either. I think it looks much better short. The past few years he's been wearing some amazing custom made suits. And we can't forget the killer shoes he wears!! I read once that Prince has all of his shoes custom made for him by a cobbler in Spain. I don't know if that's true or not but it certainly sounds fancy :D No matter what Prince is wearing, he looks pretty damn good for a man about to turn 53.

NRR: What made you first interested in having a Prancet?

LG: I saw the awesome "Clanket" you made for your roommate Lucy and thought it looked so cozy and fun. My mind just started brainstorming and I came up with the Prancet idea. Having seen your work before, I knew you'd do a great job at constructing this very special garment. I think it's pretty cool that Prince has created a symbol that is instantly recognizable as his. It's like his own personal hieroglyph. I still think you should make a reversible black/white swan blanket which would of course be called The Swanket!

NRR: You've just gotten all your Prancet desires fulfilled; what are you gonna do next?

LG: That's a good question. I have some sewing projects of my own that I'd like to start working on (a long neglected counted cross stitch project, a jumper and a gift for a friend). Then I'll be doing a little traveling this spring and summer (NYC and Oregon for a friend's

wedding).

My closing thoughts on Prince- if you ever get a chance to see him play live- do it. I promise you won't regret it. He is truly one of the most talented musicians living today. He's always on those lists of most underrated guitarists. Check out his solo on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".

Thanks again Nora for collaborating on this project! It was a blast.

A hearty thanks and your welcome to you, too, Lisa! I love working on crazy awesome projects like these- especially for friends! I hope you get many cozy winters' use out of your Prancet!

Many more photos over at my Flickr stream; go check them out!

My parting thoughts on Prince? I think this video of Prince on The Muppet Show pretty much sums it up. There's something all too fitting about seeing him with muppets after spending so much time with polarfleece that was that shade of purple...

Squiddy Squid vs. Sharky Shark

(This is a repost of a blog entry I did for the Lill St Textiles blog! Which you should probably read because the faculty members there are all awesome! Anyway- enjoy!)

* * * * * *

Halloween is right around the corner and, it being the high holy days of our home studio (The Burrow), my roommate and I have been hard at work creating our costumes!

I decided to multi-task and also prep for my upcoming Hoodie Class (look for it in the Early Winter schedule- available soon!), so the costumes are based on a basic pattern for a hooded sweatshirt. Loosely based:

Lucy's going to be a squid!


(People seem to really like how it turned out. Check out the squid costume on the web! On BoingBoing, Super Punch, and Lucy's flickr stream.)

I am going to be a Hammerhead Shark! My costume is based on the same sweatshirt pattern: with a few alterations...

Fins!

Oh man- these costumes are so cozy to wear! They're basically a hybrid between comfy sweatshirts and giant stuffed animals!

Sewing is awesome. Are any of you working on stellar halloween costumes? Let's see 'em!