Suspicious Disguise No. 1: The Gray Ghost

Need to hide your identity while demanding candy from the neighbors? Nothing could be more classic for Halloween than the visage of a tragic ghost bride. Here's a DIY costume idea that looks more elaborate than it is. A simple project with a distinct Victorian Gothic mood.

Costume Tutorial: Eyepatch/Monocle Combo

To begin with, sorry for my recent lack of posts; I've been feeling a bit lazy ill this past week.But anyway, as Halloween approached, I couldn't decide if I wanted a monocle or an eyepatch. So I decided to make both at once! I wore this to a recent Halloween party, and got lots of attention for it...But that might have been because I was the only one to show up in costume...

1. Cut an oblong piece of fabric large enough to cover the area around your eye. I used faux leather scavenged from an ugly purse I found at Goodwill.

2. Find a round piece of slumped glass about an inch in diameter. Cut a hole in the leather that's just a little bit smaller than the glass piece.

3. Cut two more pieces of leather, each about an inch wide and long enough to go about halfway around your head.

4. Punch holes along the outer edge of the leather oval and down the center of the straps, each about a half-inch apart.

5. Take a long hemp cord and whipstitch through the punched holes around the edges of the leather. Use the cord to stitch the straps to the main part of the patch.

6. Glue a piece of fabric over the back to the patch to prevent the stitching and the ends of the straps from poking your eye. The fabric should be just slightly smaller than the main part of the patch, also with the hole in the middle.

7. Attach the glass piece over the hole. There are two ways of doing this. If the glass is wire wrapped, as mine was, you can run several pieces of thread between the wire and the hemp stitching to sew it into place. If not, a bit of hot glue will do.

8. Add a fastener to the backs of the straps. I used an elastic piece from an old laptop charger, but, lacking any of those, you could also sew on buckles, hooks, or even magnets.

9. And it's done! By the way, if you can think of any clever names for this, could you leave a comment letting me know? I can't think of any. Whoever comes up with the best one gets an imaginary cookie. :)

Skirt to Top Tutorial

I've had this skirt sitting around and collecting dust for a couple years, so I finally decided to do something with it. This was pieced together in a rather improvised fashion, with numerous mistakes, so please let me know if this tutorial makes no sense.

1. I started with an ankle-length velvet pencil skirt. It wasn’t exactly ugly, but it certainly wasn’t unique or steampunk. This needed to be fixed.

2. Cut the bottom third off the skirt. Hem the rough edges on the front, but keep the back as is for now.

3. Cut two strips of fabric, each about sixteen inches long, from the cut off bottom portion of the skirt. Hem all rough edges to make straps.

4.Sew the straps onto the waistband of the skirt. Trim the straps and the front of the waistband with lace.

5. Cut two pieces of fabric, each about 2x16 inches, and sew along the edges to make two long tubes. Sew these to the side of the top to make ties.

6. Take the remaining fabric and sew it to the back of the skirt, making pleats as you go. To make pleats, pinch the fabric, fold it over, and sew down the crease. 

Easy Mini Top Hat Tutorial

 Having received a surprise invitation to a convention in less than a month, I found myself in need of something outrageous and awesome to wear, and fast. So of course I went for a mini top hat.
I ended up getting caught up in the creation process and taking fewer pictures than I should have, so please let me know if this makes no sense.

You will need: An empty cereal box
                       A disposable cup
                       A hot glue gun
                       Some fabric (I up-cycled from an old shirt)
                       A ribbon


1. Cut two circles, about 1.5 inches larger in diameter than the disposable cup. Glue the two circles together to make a sturdy base for the top hat.








2. Cut a piece of fabric around the cardboard circle. Place the cardboard in the center and fold in the fabric so it wraps around both sides of the cardboard, with the gathering point in the middle. Glue it into place.

3. Trace the open end of the cup onto the cardboard. Cut out the resulting circle and cover it with fabric using the same method as in the base.













4. Cut a large rectangular piece of fabric and wrap it around the cup so that the sides are covered. Glue the bottom of the fabric-wrapped cup to the top of the base.















5. Glue on the top portion of the hat. Tie a ribbon around the point where the base and cup meet to hide any drippings of glue, and, if desired, adorn it with feathers, pins, or whatever else you'd like.

6. Glue it to a headband, ribbon, hair clip, etc, to keep it securely in place. It also makes a nice decoration for a steampunk-themed room.