And the award for most ingenious use of shoulder pads goes to...

I've mentioned my friend Mindy here before; she's the one that made the super-fantastic-star costume for last year's Christmas party. Well, she's been at it again - making awesome fancy dress costumes that is.

Last weekend we were invited to a Birthday party with the theme "80's Cartoon Characters" so Mindy decided to go as Jessica Rabbit. She bought some red sequined fabric and got creating... she used a corset/bustier she owned as a 'base' for the dress but wanted to increase coverage in the breast area, so got creative... and used shoulder pads for a nice supportive addition to the top edge of the dress (which also succeeded in making the costume even more Jessica Rabbit volumptious). Very ingenious!

Mindy spent most of last Saturday afternoon using my sewing machine while I worked on the stats for my thesis - sadly that's what my sewing life has come to, living vicariously through others.

My costume (deliberately) didn't require any sewing - only a little bit of cutting and sticking to fashion some ears. However, I wanted to show you as I LOVE the dress - Mindy lent it to me, and before returning it I sketched out the design and made some measurements so that I can replicate it, as it was super comfy, it even had in seam pockets in the skirt!

Super-Star!

You saw the beginnings of Mindy's Star costume for our Christmas party the other day, here is the rest.

After cutting out the star shape it was sewn together:

Then tried on:

And a face hole promptly added to allow for breathing (sadly essential):

After adding a cardboard cone to keep the top point of the star up, and some fantastic silver make-up the costume was complete:

Mindy even took the tram down to the party with us:

*three cheers for Mindy's star*

She didn't win the costume contest, but was in the top 5. In my mind she should have won!!

Sailor Scout Costume Details

As promised, some more details of the sailor scout costumes.

(images are clickable to see bigger versions)

The base pattern that I used was simplicity 7808 (which appears to have been removed from the simplicity site, and replaced with this one). I used the bodice and skirt from pattern C - the Glenda the Good Witch costume, but shortened the skirt quite substantially. Thankfully the princess seams allowed us to cut the same size for all of us and alter the pattern on each person rather than work out exact sizes for each of us. I then drafted/draped my own sailor collar and sleeves with a little fold in.

White ribbon was added to the edges of the sailor collars and bows were added to the front and back - the back being bigger than the front and being attached on one side of the zip with a little snap. Finally I added a covered button to the centre front:

Of course, all superheroes have their various accessories. We had gloves that coordinated with our outfits (we bought the gloves but I added the colour to the top, along with a strip of elastic to keep them up):

Chokers:

And tiara type thingys for our foreheads:

And Sally even had a little red bow for her hair:

Lastly, we each had different shoes, with me and Becky needing coordinated knee high boots:

The boots were made by wrapping the fabric around our legs and attaching velcro up the centre back seams. We then wrapped the fabric around our chosen shoes (excluding the heel) and hand stitched it to shape. Lastly the top of the boot was hemmed into the pointed shape and white ribbon added along the top edge.

All of these items together yielded some very fun costumes:

The Sailor Scouts

Last night was our big work Christmas party, which is always fancy dress. This year the theme was "Out of this world and into the future: a space adventure".

Me and four other girls from work went as Sailor Moon and the sailor scouts:

As none of the other girls in the group sew I made all 5 costumes (with help cutting and pinning from them). It took quite a long time, but I'm very happy with the result and think it was worth the effort.

I will post proper pictures of all the details in the near future.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star...

This evening I had another sewing date, this time with my friend Mindy, who I have assisted (mostly by the use of my sewing machine) to make her costume for the Christmas Party. On the weekend we went on a field trip to spotlight and bought this fantastic holographic silver fabric:

We drew around Mindy and fashioned a Star shape on of the fabric, which was cut out and sewn together. Not much more to do to finish it!!

I've been instructed not to post photos of the actual costume until after the party ;)

Christmas Party Costumes...

I had another sewing date on the weekend and my rainbow of fabric started to be made into some costumes for the work Christmas party.

So far we have Sailors Collars:


And big fabric bows:



And, in my best Ralph Harris impersonation - "Have you guessed what it is yet?"

PS: Please don't tell people at work, as we're not telling everyone, and yes, that means you too Amelia ;)