Or: “Making wacky party costumes – unleashing your creativity”
When a friend on FB asked if I could make elf costumes for a party, for him and his buddy, my first internal reaction was: “Oh! That could be fun!” And fun it was, despite some stressful moments related to getting the wrong pattern and the wrong fabric!
I made some sketchy sketches of what their costume could look like, I searched for patterns and tutorials on the Web, we exchanged fabric ideas and finally, we met for a quick chat so I could make my proposition. There wasn’t a lot of time to make the costumes, so I had to get off to a good solid start!
I ordered a pattern of a body suit and ordered some lamé fabric in red and green, along with some notions. When I got ready to start cutting my fabric, I examined my pattern more closely and realised that it was meant only for fabrics with a huge amount of stretch along the grain line… which is something my lamé definitely wasn’t! ARGH! That was the first setback. I quickly ordered a pyjama pattern that I purchased as downloadable via Sewingpatterns.com. It took me HOURS to stick all 200 A4 sheets together, but I finally got there!
(I felt bad for the trees…. but at least, I had my cat Tijger for moral support!)
However, this led to the second setback: the change of pattern meant I needed more fabric. So I placed another order, that I received promptly the day after (Thursday)… but the shop sent the wrong color of green (and I had ordered the correct one, so I wasn’t at fault here). ARGH! I sent them a very firm e-mail immediately, explaining that I need the correct shade of green no later than Saturday, or else I wasn’t going to be able to finish the work for my client, and I would like to hear how they are going to solve this problem. Friday morning, I received an e-mail from the shop owner, apologizing profusely for the error, and a promise I would receive my fabric the following day – a promise that was fulfilled!
Then there was just one thing to do: cut my fabric, and sew!
Below is a picture of one of the final costumes, with hat and pointy collar (that I drafted myself):
Of course, a costume is never complete without accessories!
Browsing the Web I found a few interesting tutorials, such as this one for a Robin Hood-esque hat on Crafty Staci’s blog, and this one for elf shoes. Here there are, in all their glory:
I also made some bling to go with it!
I used some old x-mas decorations and decorative bands to glitter ‘n glamour the costumes. Long live my glue gun! As I’ve said before: if the contestants on Project Runway use their glue gun more than their sewing machines and get praised for it, why shouldn’t I?
I’ll elaborate a bit more on the shoes in separate blog post, as I modified the pattern to fit the needs (and feet!) of my elves, and I believe they are totally worth a post of their own!
All in all, this party costumes project was a big creativity boost: I was more or less given ‘carte blanche’ on the construction and the final touches, so I got to make my vision a reality. It had to be fun, glitsy and totally crazy. And I think I totally achieved it!
[...] and all, and it turned out quite okay, methinks! And last but not least, I cannot forget my two elves, who went partying in style this [...]