Monday Sketchbook 10/21/13

"Sexy" praying mantis Halloween costume.

Halloween 2012

 This year for Halloween I decided to update/revamp my Effie Trinket costume. I managed a pretty good last minute interpretation for when the movie came out, but I really wanted to improve the look and have sometime really fun for medical school.

I started with the wig: I sewed together two different blonde wigs and pinning/curling the random curls to cover up the seam. I found some purple hair spray at Meijers and haphazardly covered the wig - in the movies, Elizabeth Bank's wigs are never fully colored.

I went to Joanne's and bought a bunch of fake flowers, feathers, and the massive butterfly. Most of them already had a pin or clip back, so I just hot glued either safety pins or bobby pins to the few that didn't.

Effie's makeup is always the most fun. To start, I use my palest, heaviest foundation to get a really homogeneous base that juuust borders on weirdly pale. I used this on my eyebrows too - they're naturally black, so they would have looked funny with the blonde wig. I also covered my lips, so I could put the dark lipstick on in a heart shape, rather than my full lips. I broke out all of my pink eyeshadow that I never use and just coated it on, plus some eyeliner.

I was really geeked about the false eyelashes I found at the Icing! They were a little heavier than what I'm used to, but the effect was grand.

For the full costume, I raided goodwill. I found the perfect jacket by chance (look at that crazy floral pattern!), and then found an obnoxiously patterned button down shirt to match. The corset, skirt, and tights I owned. The skirt is actually an old dress that I wore to a wedding once, wasn't too fond of, and hacked off the top to make a rather fun pencil skirt. I added some more fake flowers to the lapel and boom! Effie Trinket.

I had a lot of fun both at school and later handing out candy to trick or treaters. The best part of the day was wearing all this under my lab coat for anatomy - school doesn't stop just for Halloween! While I think medical school would be too squelchy for Effie Trinket, I think she would appreciate how well a fake butterfly looks with a long white lab coat ;)

Pride, Prejudice, & Zombies

Every year around Halloween, the Lansing Schuler's Bookstore puts on a fabulous Zombie Party. This year, I decided to go as the cover from Pride, Prejudice,and Zombies. 

Close up of makeup - not too shabby for a $3 kit at Meijer. I was featured in the State News and won 6th place overall. Photo courtesy of Angeli Wright, State News.

Applying blood to the dress. In hindsight, I would have made my own blood - cheapo costume blood from Joanne's just didn't give the darkness I wanted. 

I made the base dress from a couple of old t-shirts - I cut out a square neckline in one, and sewed together the "body" of a few others to make a skirt. I draped chiffon over these and sewed on some lace. It's actually a two part dress - the skirt portion ties on like a very large apron.

Posing with the cover of the book. Whee dorm room!

Considering I made this in about a day and a half, I'm pretty happy with the results. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have done better makeup, used better blood, and oh, maybe used a pattern to make the dress instead of fudging it, but as you can see, I made a pretty good attempt at the cover. People knew who I was, and that's all that mattered. :)