Halloween Costume 2025

My neighbors had a Halloween Party and since I actually could go, I decided to make myself a costume.  I went as a witch, but more a spring witch. (I wear so much black and I'm trying to embrace color)  

I used the Metamorphic Dress pattern from Sew Liberated. The bodice was short on me, so I redrafted it to be longer.  I also took in the center front and back and added that to the sides to correct the neckline for me.

The fabric is from my stash.  I had bought the bird fabric to make a spring coat years ago, but never got around to it.   The pocket is from a vintage linen. 

Then, I did a lot of research and made a hat.  I bought white felt to build the base and covered it with fabric I had from the dress and some satin.  The edge was bound in bias tape that I bought ages ago.  Full Disclosure:  my first attempt was too small, so I tried to make it bigger and it became too big, so I scrapped it. I was at the end of my fabric, so I decided to make patchwork, and honestly, this was a very happy accident!

And this is me in the costume!  I also painted some Dr Scholl Vans to match the blue/lavender in the costume.

Here is a close up of me in the hat with my partner

Would I make this again?  Well, I have since made another version of this dress in brown and lavender for Thanksgiving.  I've worn the brown one more, but I have worn this a few times.  I do have plans on making a few more.

Surgical Bonnets 2020

 Here is a selection of surgical bonnets I made between April and June of 2020

Bucket of bonnets

Hat From Recycled T-shirts.

During this time, I have been making sewing/crafting videos for Youtube. This is a tutorial for making a hat from old t-shirts. I had a lot of fun making it and my video editing skills are improving. Something that I enjoy doing is teaching people how to make things.

 
This is a prototype that I made before the video.  It was a little tight, so I knew what to fix for the video.  I'm very pleased with the final product.

 This is the view of the top.

This is a hat that I made with Jersey knit that I had purchased years ago for another project.

This is the inside:  The edges are cleaned up with a serger.

Here I am with my cat, in my hat.

Edit:  9-6-2020

I have made a few more with bows

The fabric was a little girl's dress that I bought at the thrift store.

 

These T-shirts were also purchased at the thrift store.  The lavender t-shirt was also used to make a bag for Una Vida, a group helping Californians during the wildfires.

Fisherman Hats

When I bought this spray paint, I made the joke "I'm gonna tag all the things.  And by all the things, I mean fisherman hats." 







I wasn't kidding. The yellow spray was in case I oversprayed a spot.  These hats needed a bit of aging.  A (very old) canvas headblock helped to give the hats some shape.

Easter Bonnet 2019

It all started with a email from our associate choreographer, Richard J Hinds, asking if I could make the Come from Away Easter Bonnet for Broadway Cares, "What if we did something like the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign but have it say “Welcome to Gander?” Thoughts?"

"I'm into it"  And I started doing some preliminary notes.

Ricky suggested a Canadian Maple Leaf instead of a star, which was great, because I wanted to change the atomic star.  He then sent me a picture, asking if we could have this dress.



.

I said "OHHHHH!!! I see your Canadian Flag dress and raise you..."

And, so it began.  I ordered a showgirl helmet.  And some mailing tubes, remembering that I wanted to keep it light.  I made the frame at home.

Hmmm, not tall enough!

That's better.

Let's paint it!

I brought it into work the next day,  because Allie Dillard was going to help, by working on the sign part, as I worked on the leaf and the dress.

 Freehanding the leaf was harder than I thought, so I made a pattern.

That works.

I cut it out and painted it.

I then poured glitter on the wet paint.

I added glitter paint to the frame.

Allie came up with using paper cups to do the "Welcome" of the sign.

She also worked on graphing out the sign, first with paper.
I drew in the graph for her to work on the letters.

Here is Allie painting the letters, while I made the dress. 
We both wound up painting out the grid.

Then, we painted on the glitter.  We used Elmer's and poured each letter separately. 
Yes, we tried to stop the spread of glitter by using a tarp!

We added glitter duct tape.  It isn't very sticky, so it had to be hot glued down.

I glued down the "welcome", while Allie strung the lights.

We hot glued everything together.

Look at it twinkle!

Our Model, Natalya Czosnyka came in to try on the bonnet and dress.

 I figured out where the stripes went.

I fought with the printer to make the center and finally decided that I was going to do it myself.
I traced the bird on  my computer screen.

I painted it and scanned it into the computer.
I then flipped the image , so I could use iron-on transfer paper.

Time was running out.
So I used Elmer's glue to add the emblem
and added a glitter border and then more glitter.

______________________________________________

We then went to the dry tech for the show.  The balance was off again.  Allie ran to our theatre to get weights, but we were finished by the time she came back.

So it was on! 

Strips of washers were made, but we wound up making it too heavy.  So, we pulled out some of the weights. 
We added a washer to the front.  Success!  It was balanced again!

 _______________________________________________

Go to 34 seconds in to watch the bonnet in action.

What is in Natalya's hand?