Sammy's Halloween Costume - Masquerade Style

So this year for Halloween me and my friends got tickets to a masquerade ball where the dress code was either Black Tie with a Venetian mask or just a cool costume. This was an easy choice for several reasons. 1) gives me an opportunity to use the Venetian masks I got in Venice! 2) After many years of Halloween I'm getting tired of Sexy outfits, I just want to wear something really glamorous.

So Victorian or Venetian-ish Ball gown I pick :) Picked up a pattern so I can't screw it up too much.  Based off my mask I picked a pinkish (purple) fabric with a darker purple fabric (because my boyfriend wanted purple).

The pattern is for a normal size person (and i'm short) so i had to cut A LOT off.  The pattern of the train also drags onto the floor which I had to trim down because I can't run around in public crowded drunken place with my skirt mopping up everyone's alcohol and foot prints. 

So even though I followed the pattern of course the slightest shifts make a huge different.  With the picture on the right you can see that the where the lengths and curves were slightly different making the symmetry really off and odd.  Using a thick trim you can muddle those lines a lot  hiding the inconsistency.

With it being a floral trim I couldn't sew right over with a machine without it looking crappy, so I had to hand stitch the trim on.  Because it was straight it went fairly

Yay, now to show off the final product. Um excuse the lack of photo shopping the lighting and cropping out the silly door. I was in a rush to blog about this.

~giggle~ also time to show off me and my sweety ready for the ball.

Riven Costume complete!

Time: 2 weeks from start to finish
Cost: $0.00 for supplies (I used leftover scraps from other projects), $20 for the wig

Progress Photos:
http://craftersindisguise.blogspot.com/2011/10/starting-new-costume-project-riven.html
http://craftersindisguise.blogspot.com/2011/10/costume-progress-riven.html
http://craftersindisguise.blogspot.com/2011/10/costume-progress-rivens-armor.html
http://craftersindisguise.blogspot.com/2011/10/riven-costume-finishing-touches.html

Details:
armor and sword = blue styrofoam insulation, painted with acryllics; the spikes are made of Model Magic (by Crayola).
leather pauldron = leather draped over shaped buckram and plastic.
shirt & skirt = white cotton gauze fabric from JoAnn's Fabrics.
bodice & tabard = purple velveteen fabric, wooden buttons handpainted silver, white trim.
arm guard = plastic cranberry juice jug (from Costco), black plastic snow sled (from Target), fun foam, acryllic paint, Mod Podge
sandals: added flashing tape and paint to hide the sequins.
glove: from my closet, originally from Army surplus (borrowed from my Cobra Trooper costume).
arm wrap: a bandage from the medicine cabinet
wig: Anime wig from Party Supply store.
belt: from my closet, previously used with a pirate costume

French Food - Meat Stuffed Veggies

I came across an old cook book Tante Marie's French Kitchen.  Two dishes under the Vegetable section looked rather interesting.  Stuffed Cabbage and Stuffed Onion.  Both were stuffed with ground meat (ground beef and sausage meat). 

The Onion was easier to hallow out than I expected, once I got in, I was able to use a spoon to scrap the inards out.  Using the onion scraps to make a sauce, the onion was baked.  My the sauce was my favorite finding out of the whole book.

The stuffed cabbage had funny (but clever) directions to basically make sure you also stuff the meat between the leaves inside the cabbage.  In this case it the cabbage is braised for house in a flavored water.  The water turns into the popular Hong Kong cafe Luo Song Tong 羅宋湯.  I ended up enjoying the soup more than the main dish.

Riven Costume Finishing Touches

First I needed to make the bracer thing that Riven wears on her arm.

I started with an empty cranberry juice bottle, cutting off the top and bottom.

Next I took some plastic which was originally a snow sled and wrapped it around the juice jug, hot-gluing it in place.

I added some "fun foam" strips for dimension.

Then I painted it to look like metal. It is hard to hold a paintbrush and take a picture of yourself at the same time!

I finished this piece off by trimming the end and painting the brown part with the green rune.

I made a quick bodice from a corset pattern. I traced the pattern onto iron-on interfacing, cut out the interfacing, then placed them on the back of the fabric. This is a cheater way to make something fast but I wouldn't recommend it for "real" clothes.

I went on a road trip for a weekend retreat and wanted to make progress while we were gone so I hand-sewed all of the bodice pieces together. Don't worry, I wasn't the driver!

I finished the bodice at home on the sewing machine, adding the trim and a zipper.

It needed some buttons. I hand-painted some oval-shaped wooden buttons silver for the front details.

Remember my sword needed a handle? I finished that too! Since I was using scraps of foam I ended up having to make the whole sword in three pieces.

The pieces are held together with glue and CHOPSTICKS!

Okay so I won't be swinging this baby around, but it works for a prop I plan to handle carefully.

Time to paint it. What a disaster area on the craft room floor!

Looking pretty good. I continue to layer on paint until I'm satisfied with it.

I detailed the handle to look like wood and the hilt to look like metal.