Hello folks! I just wanted to showcase some Halloween related treats and of course, the DIY Rey costume I mentioned earlier! However, it will not be much of a tutorial. Although I had so much free time to work on the outfit and take photos of the process, I really lagged right until the week of Halloween. Basically, I procrastinated & rushed the heck out of it! I only made the belt, tabard & headwrap -_- Anyway, I bought most of the material at the discount fabric store, while the belt and other accessories were made by recycling old bags and buckles.

This Halloween, I actually had two costumes lined up because our plans entailed a night of dancing & inebriation at a "block party" (reality: club event) within the House of Blues in downtown--Rey's drapey tabard simply wouldn't hold up well! After attending a family-friendly costume party, I changed into yet another super-last-minute DIY Star Wars costume: Padme, "battle" attire. It's an unbelievably easy outfit so I literally bought everything--aside from my shoes--at a thrift store two days before Halloween.

My boyfriend, Jeffrey, had initially planned to dress up as Zero from The Grand Budapest Hotel & we even found the perfect material for his bell boy jacket! However, just a week before Halloween he opted to dress up as Han Solo since Zero was not as recognizable (+ I may have urged him a bit). Boy, his costume & DIY skills seriously surpassed mine!! You'll see in the photos. Anyhow, our friends' costumes were also really awesome! Nearly everyone had made their own costume and had a hint of nerdy flare, too. It was also the first time in ages where plans made in our grouptext thread actually pulled through. Everyone showed up! Anyway, I honestly didn't take as many photos as I wanted, but alas, we were too exhausted from crafting and all we wanted to do was party with friends. Photos should always be secondary.

On that note:



Jeffrey & I made some matcha green tea sugar cookies & I brought them to the OT clinic where I volunteer at! I didn't take photos of the cookies, but I should have because they were so hilariously ugly. We tried decorating them with Frankenstein's Monster, Ghosts & Pumpkins but we have no skill in that department... On a good note, everyone thought they were delicious.







I bought "Gauze" cotton fabric to emulate the kind of flow-y and wrinkled look of Rey's tabard, but it was only recently that I found the materials/fabric list of the original costume. In the movie, it was actually made of viscose! Doi, Ashley. Oh well, this worked just as well.



He made the holster, belt, gun, pants' detail and shirt all on his own! Legit cosplayer or what!? hahahaha.



Geeks. I mean, Han Solo and Rey... Solo?!






These nerds dressed up as Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z and a Titan from Attach on Titan! (the Titan's girlfriend dressed up as Mikasa! D'aww, so cute, they'll always try to annihilate each other)





Star Wars, Dragonball Z, Mario Kart, historical/fictional characters, Attack on Titan, and even a modern hip hop star, the Weeknd--I'd say we all did pretty well this year!

Anyway, now that it's over, I had all this left over fabric & other materials taking up space... I am thinking of actually finishing up Rey's costume and possibly make the props so that I may wear it to the premiere of The Force Awakens. Hahah! Don't judge me. It's a little embarrassing, but I want to dress up! Of all the years of going to Comic Con and being into fandoms, I have never actually dressed in costume--as in "cosplay." It's not much of my thing, but hey, we'll see how that goes come December 17th! :)

Happy (belated) Halloween :)

My costume, sans the mask:





Welp, that is all the photos I want to publish on here. I didn't really follow the original Batgirl costume, obviously, but I'm still rather proud of it. Shooot, I thought it'd look too much like the, um, risqué, Halloween knock offs, but I tried my best to avoid that. I was initially going for the classic Barbara Gordon getup, but no yellow boots nor gloves in sight. Anyway, thanks to Katrina (the one dressed as Padme--her DIY costume is amaaaazing! No sewing, no nothing! Just the right pieces) I didn't have to go on a hunt for black boots to finish the deal! #win

Hope yall liked it!

So all that talk about being Cleopatra is all nil because at the last minute I decided to be Batgirl. I bought the material yesterday and just finished it an hour ago. Not bad, I'd say! It isn't traditional Batgirl and actually leans towards the usual skimpy Halloween get up.

I wanted to kick myself because I didn't buy material that was stretchy/elastic, which made everything 100x harder. I didn't even know how to make a body suit or pants so I went with a "simple dress." Unfortunately, it wasn't "simple" and I had to adjust the one piece (dress) dozens of times! In the end, this is all I can muster up!

from this:


to this:


I haven't really got tutorial photos for you (because it was just a jumbled mess in the making), but here are random pictures that should give you some sense of how I went about it:











The experience? Let's just say I don't ever want to work with this material again for a very, very long time.

I mean, I think it turned out decent, but it was very troublesome. My seamripper is both my best friend and worst enemy.

Materials:

• Costume pleather (I used 2 yards)
• Yellow foam and felt
• Simple, black masquerade mask (luckily, this one had a kind of pointed shape, somewhat resembling "bat wings") 
• Sewing machine or needle and thread + pins + scissors
• Tacky glue :) 

I bought the kit from Target... but the saw, the most important tool, broke immediately, which made everything so much more difficult. In the end, they were recognizable designs & still managed to look awesome [in the dark].

I've been seriously considering dressing up as Cleopatra this year. I mean, I've always wanted to, but in recent years I've always backed out of wearing a legitimate costume at the last minute.

I started sketching some "designs" after Googling Cleopatra images. In the end, the designs were pretty basic, but it's the coloring I care about mainly!



I wanted to stray away from the boring linen white Cleopatra costumes, and try to make them look more "traditional." Well, I added a 'linen white & turquoise' one in the mix anyway.



Don't mind the skimpy coloring. What do you think about the colors? (I personally like the first one)