Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Hope your Halloween is going great & you're getting lots of candy! I dressed up and brought my pumpkin to work today. I have an appointment later on do to a walk though of a house, I wonder what the lady will think when I walk in...

This is a costume from 3 years ago. I didn't have a plan when I started out. I was always in love with orange and black 1920's ready made costumes like these:

It's cute and it's cheery and I've never seen another like it!

Close up of the painted kitty. It's hard to see, but every dot, stripe and edge of this costume is covered in sequins and beads.

RIP Grandma Thompson 1927-2013

My grandma passed away last Wednesday night. I got a call at work saying she had 24 hours to live, but she only had 9. It was so sudden. Saturday night we called each other and chatted about the Canucks game like usual. Tuesday night I called her and we argued about where to go for dinner on my birthday. My mum and I rushed up to see her and she was lucid and normal. At 11PM I went home alone to her house and my mum was to stay the night in hospital with her. I woke up in the middle of the night hearing someone call my name from upstairs and I was so scared. Just then my mum called me and said she was in the driveway and would I let her in? I opened the door, look at my mum, aunt and uncle and fainted. What a horrible night. At least she was not in hospital long. My aunt and I had to tear the house apart the next day to find her will and her final wishes. Thank goodness she wrote down what she wanted because we were in to state to decide anything and the funeral home wanted to know immediately what was do be done. Note to self: Pre-plan your own funeral. When my boyfriend and I met, we had 4 grandparents between us and now we have none. I feel so old.

This was taken by Vancouver's Foncie's photos. Probably mid 1940's. 

My grandfather and grandmother. Weren't they cute?

My grandmother's birthday was Halloween and she loved to dress up, wear masks and be goofy. On the left she's wearing a 1940's maid dress with her creepy mask last year. In the middle as a 1950's "girl".

 This is the last photo I took of her. She was matching the display of Lake Louise blankets at Hudson's Bay. She said her friends would be so envious because of her jaunt downtown. We went to the Spaghetti Factory, drove over the Burrard Street bridge and tooled around Kits.

October 2nd Costume - Corpse Bride

I made this costume several years ago for my mum's Halloween party. My boss gave me a size 26 wedding dress she had, which gave me quite a lot of fabric & lace to cut up and play with. I couldn't bear to paint it, so I painted the shredded lace trim instead. The top is a steel boned corset with little fimo ribs. My veil is a curtain I painted out on the lawn. The wig is the "official" Rubies one & it was a nightmare. I itched all day and night with that damn thing on. 

My boyfriend was Charlie Chaplin that year. He said the corpse bride was his favourite costume on me - probably because my cleavage was on view...

My mum was a clown - do you like the big red lips I painted on her?

October 1st Costume - Revolutionary War Dress

I recently completed this dress - I've been working on it for 3 months or so. It is for my step mother who is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She will be wearing it in a parade and to veteran's events in November. She lives in California, so I only had one opportunity to try a partially made bodice on her in June. Fortunately she and I are of a similar height and size. 

I bought the main fabric for $6, the hat trim fabric for $3 and the petticoat fabric for $4 at the Goodwill. The hat was $1, but I uncoiled it and re did it into a flat crown. The corset is made from leftover upholstery fabric from a job I did and the panniers and pantaloons are from free sheets I got at a rummage sale. I know everything is not totally historically accurate - but it's tons better than a ready made costume bought off the net. It is a mix of old and new sewing patterns. The panniers are from Norah Waugh's  Corsets and Crinolines, although much smaller.

I really must thank American Duchess for all the inspiration for this costume. I endlessly poured over the details of her dresses and hats. Especially the idea for the covered buttons up the front, this solved a huge headache for me!

 My step mum is not a costume person, so I took a series of photos of the proper order to get dressed.