Sailor Soldier of Love and Justice

I got a lot done on my halloween costume today. I finished the embroidery on the top piece and attached the lining. Now I'm attaching the trim. Then I need to add the zipper. After that, I need to put the tail together.

While I was embroidering and sewing trim, I watched the tmbg concert online. That was pretty neat. They played most of their big hits, plus a few new things and some of their kids songs. There were also puppets. Unfortunately it was all too short! They were only on stage for slightly more than an hour. Then they escaped in a cloud of confetti like extremely bombastic ninjas.

Today I forced myself to go shopping. I needed a dress to wear for next month's wedding. Most of my dresses no longer fit, and the ones that still do are a bit too loud for a wedding. Normally I'd make a new dress, but I want to devote my sewing time to whatever halloween costume I decide on.

First I tried kohls because I had a gift card from there that I really needed to get rid of. Kohls clothes are kinda awful, which is how I got the card to begin with. I was returning something really horrific that my mother bought me.

I did not find any dresses I liked there though. There was one I thought might be tolerable, but the chest was extremely small so it wasn't going to work. Calling it a b-cup would be generous. I'd have to buy an extra large to fit in the top part, and I was swimming in the bottom part.

But I did find a plain black skirt while searching that was on sale. I picked that up since I can use it at work and it used up almost the exact amount on my gift card. Now I don't ever have to go there ever again.

From there I tried jcpenny's at the mall. They were having a 50% off sale on prom and homecoming dresses. The selection wasn't great, but I did find something that could work. Only problem was that the medium was too small for my top and the large was too big for my body. So I got the large and will make the small adjustments needed. It's easier to make something lightly smaller than slightly bigger.

After that, I picked up a pair of shoes that I think goes reasonably well with the dress. And I think the heels are chunky enough to not go straight into the dirt. (It's an outdoors wedding.) I tried to pick out something I could also wear to work. I hate buying shoes that I can only wear with a specific outfit. I think this pair will be far more useful.

However, I had given myself a rule a while back that if I buy a pair of shoes, I need to get rid of a pair. I cannot amass a mountain of shoes. I will probably dig to the bottom of my closet and get rid of whatever is down there. If it's that far back, I clearly don't wear that pair anyway.

When I was finally done shopping, I stopped at the fabric store to attempt to find some halloween costume inspiration. Nothing all that original came to me, but I bought 3 costumes with potential. I bought a generic mermaid, Snow White, and generic superheros. I'm going to sleep on it before I officially decide, but I'm leaning towards the mermaid. It is the prettiest.

I also bought some cute fabric. I was annoyed that my coupon was 40% off excluding sale items and EVERYTHING in the store was on sale. At least my fabric was 30% off so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but still. Why bother with the coupon if it's just a scam? Grrr.

Now I am finally free of the terrible shopping. Well, actually, I probably need some sort of coat or shawl to wear with the dress. :( Anyone have advice? If I can figure out a shawl style that would go well with the dress, I could probably order it online. In a perfect world, clothing sizes would be consistent and I could order everything online. It would be glorious.

Renfaire next weekend. I have spare garb if anyone needs to borrow something.

- 1 costume pirate hat (tricorn, fabric, brown with brown patches, better for small-medium heads)
- 1 wreath (purple flowers)
- 1 black skirt (one size fits all, light cotton)
- 1 blue skirt (one size fits all, heavy linen)
- 1 purple skirt (one size fits all, cotton)
- 1 off-white chemise (one size fits all, short sleeves)
- 1 blue bodice (small, won't fit anyone larger than a large b or small c-cup)
- 1 green T-tunic with white/light gray tunic to wear underneath (size small/medium)

Let's see. So the day before halloween we carved our pumpkin at work. I was unimpressed by it but the others were happy so that's good. It wasn't much of a challenge for me though.

When I got home I got to play with SCIENCE! by baking window cookies. I needed to experiment in order to find the correct baking time to ensure tasty cookies and clear candy windows. the correct formula was the full baking time minus 3 minutes for the cookies alone, and then add the crushed candy for the final 3 minutes. Yay science!

Halloween day, I wore my grim reaper costume. I think I looked fantastic. However, while on my way to work, I thought I had the wrong day. I didn't see anyone else with a costume! People are so boring. I got lots of compliments on my costume though.

Despite looking great, I only got 2nd place in the costume contest. (And we only got honorable mention in the pumpkin carving contest, but that was to be expected.) Marge Simpson won, which I guess makes sense because people will be more inclined to vote for the funny and familiar over um, death. I'm going to enter the costume in a few online contests, so maybe I'll win something there. (Which reminds me, I need to upload those pictures so I can enter before the deadline.)

( A cut was needed )

I'm making a mini-scythe for my halloween costume. Something small enough to carry on the train, but big enough that it looks something like a scythe.

I've done some research and found a few ways I can go about making it. But now I can't decide what would be the best way!

I figure I can use some sort of foam board or something for the blade and paper mache it smooth. Is that the right thing to do?

As for the staff, using a pipe seems to be the lightest, but I worry that the pipe would be too big around. Plus, do I paper mache the whole thing? Cause plastic is not going to take paint all that well and pipes tend to be very white. The other best option seems to be using a wooden dowel. They come in all sorts of sizes. But how do I attach the blade? Will tape and paper mache do it or should I screw it on?

As you can see, I am pathetic and clueless. So crafty/costume/cosplay people, how would YOU go about making a mini-scythe?