iMade this: Indian Brave

Kickball as afore mentioned has called for some pretty wacky things & cowboys& indians night was no exception. I decided to be an indian so rummaging through my bathroom produced 2 red headbands 2 white headbands & some hair extentions. I braided two pigtails and put the red headbands around my forehead (which left a nasty mark by the end of the night). White headbands around the pigtails, reminescent of Tiger Lily. Then I decided to pick up some feathers from Party City & stuck them in the side of the headbands & voila, ready for my game that evening.

Halloween 2010: Year of the Ringleader

This Halloween I decided to be a ringleader.

Let me throw out there that I have no plans for Halloween

I wanted it to be my own so I decided to do my costume from scratch.

Hat & Whip

Purchased from a Halloween costume shop in Orlando. Could not find these items down here in Miami so I figured that I needed to look while I was visiting and voila I found the perfect accessories. Without them, this outfit would be nothing. The hat has a birdcage on it. 

Shorts.

Forever XXI. I found these babies in Plato's Closet. 

They were my size and everything. They're a pair of pinstriped minishorts :) My other option was to wear black tights but I ideally wanted to wear fishnets & shorts for this costume.

Fishnets.

WalMart. They're coming up on their Halloween game with accessories, shoes, and the like. 

Don't sleep on WalMart!

Boots.

Alloy. Actually purchased from a friend to be a winter option but the main objective was to have them for burlesque purposes. Since they're knee-high, I thought they'd be perfect for a ringleader and will also try another option with heels as well.

You say DYI? How is this DYI? The vest was where most of the work really came in.

Vest.

Forever XXI. A lot of work had to be done on the vest since I found it all abandoned & alone in the clearance section. (F21 went through this whole circus phase that benefited me greatly & anyone else trying to be Minnie Mouse this year lol) The vest was a large when I found it so that was great for my bust, by horrible for my shoulders since my shoulders are really small. There was a lot of work to be done & I knew that when I bought the vest but saw great potential & thought I wouldn't find another one like it so I purchased it and got to work.

Here are some process pictures because I spend a lot of time doing work on it so that it would fit me as best as possible.

 This photo is of where I had to cinch the bust a second time to make sure that the vest contours correctly to my figure. I had to do this by eye since I'm not a seamstress or anything, this is just a hobby for me.

When I bought this vest from the store, it only had 3 widely spaced apart, poorly attached hooks fasten it. They looked as if they would pop if they exprienced any slack so I headed to JoAnn's & got a package of hooks to fill the gaps & some thread to reinforce the hooks already present. I added 4 new hooks between the gaps so that the vest looks uniform and closed when fastened.

Will upload an update when I wear it this Halloween.

Halloween 2008: Year of the Black Cat

My First Halloween

This photo is from my first Halloween. October 2008. Yes, given I was 23 years old, and it may sound semi-pathetic, but I'd never felt so liberated in all my life. I made my outfit and have to say that for a first attempt, I did a damn good job. 

I know what you're thinking. Why the hell was your first Halloween at 23? 

I never celebrated Halloween as a child. Since I grew up in a Pentecostal (Assemblies of God)  this was not an acceptable day for my family and we went to church like every other Pentecostal Christian. I was basically brainwashed into thinking that this holiday was not about the glorious mounds of candy that everyone smuggled to school with on November 1st, nor being able to dress as whatever you wished your occupation would become- but a celebration of the Day of the Devil. Having said that, while everyone was outgrowing dressing up, I was just discovering that I would not burn in Hell for donning an outfit and going out to see the rest of the outfits that everyone conjured up.

Building the Outfit

The ears & tail I purchased at a role play shop, because really, they have the best costumes there. I was dead broke and wasn't going to blow 75$ on a sexy nurse outfit, so I figured I may as well look for something that I could put together myself. I came up with the idea of being a black cat when I saw the ears & tail.

I wore a vest & a pair of black shorts that I already had. (Vest from Forever XXI, shorts from Charlotte Russe)

I made the collar from a velvet ribbon, jingle bells, and Velcro strips. (purchased from JoAnn Fabrics) I sewed & secured the bells onto the ribbon and placed them an inch apart on the ribbon. I then sewed on the Velcro strips so that I could get the collar on & off without chocking or messing up my hair. The result ended up quite nicely.

Shoes were a gamble between a pair of Rampage ruffled slingbacks & a pair of simple Traffic flats I already owned. I ended up wearing the flats because cobblestones & heels definitely don't mix and I spent my first Halloween walking around the grove with my boyfriend. 

I'll edit this & photog all the articles of clothing used and see if I can dig up a photo of me from head to toe :)