Wednesday, October 24, 2012

ZombiCon 2012~ Success!

taken out by a rogue green shell, such senseless violence...
itsa him! zombie mario!
  
No, we didn't win the costume contest (we actually missed it ;_; ), but based on the amount of random drunken shout-outs we got we were a crowd favorite!_!  My bf cracked me up each time he responded in a high Mario voice, "Itsa me!  Maario!"  Too bad Peach doesn't have any cute catch-phrases.  The street festival was from 6 to midnight, but lots of people linger around at clubs, etc.  We didn't get there till 9:30 because we were still sewing/ making ourselves up till 9...

why so blurry???  :(












The Making of Zombie Peach and Mario:

I already had my concept drawing and had picked out a pattern at Jo-Ann's $0.99 pattern sale: Simplicity 2813, an adult Snow White/ Cinderella costume pattern.  I bought my fabric at the same sale, however the costume satin wasn't as wide as most fabrics are so I ended having to drive to the store again for more fabric-- and that's considering that half my skirt is eaten up! 

I decided to make a muslin of the bodice- my first time ever actually making a non-wearable muslin, and thank God I did.  After making the muslin I saw that I would need extra inches at the waist (and I've been so good about hitting up the gym too!  it's the pattern, it has to be!) and was able to add those to the pattern pieces at the side seams.  I also raised the neckline and added a scalloped contrast neckline edging.  First I made a pattern piece similar to the way you would make one for a facing, except with scallops and making it so it would peek out beyond the finished neckline.  I followed directions for making the Cinderella neckline (albeit, much higher because of my altered pattern pieces) and then added my scalloped edge underneath it.  For the skirt I added a contrast bottom band to the half that was going to stay intact. 

When it was all sewn up and done I did the most difficult thing ever... attack a beautiful dress I had just spent 2 weeks sewing up.  Scissors in hand I cut slashes in the right sleeve, removed part of the bottom of the right side of the skirt.  To give it a more natural ragged look I twisted the fabric and snipped haphazardly, then tugged and ripped and rubbed raw edges against the carpet to help it fray. 

For the petticoat, I made this in a hurry the day of and just sewed all layers together by making a casing and thread the elastic up top, then I cut through all layers in strips and scrunched them up, randomly tying some of them together to make it look like a proper fluffy mess.  Something to give body to the skirt and peep through the ripped mess. 

Detail of poor Ripped up Dress
Frantic Shopping the Day Of 

So.... about 1 pm after I've finished most of my sewing my boyfriend decided it was time to START work on his costume...  >.<  So we started visiting every thrift store in the area looking for overalls.  Let me tell you- apparently overalls are in HIGH DEMAND.  At the 5th store we even heard the guy behind us asking about overalls right after we had!  Finally, bf found a pair of large ladies ones in the dress section, LOL.  It had a huge Tigger embroidery on it, but I told him in the words of Tim Gunn, "make it work."  We went by Wal-mart and picked up some red fabric and felt for the hat and a red Tshirt.  I wasn't able to find the princess crown or jeweled brooch I needed in Wal-Mart, thankfully, the Dollar Store didn't disappoint!  They even had an extra pair of while gloves so I could rip one up (and still keep both the nice long white gloves I already had both intact)  For the blue brooch I was able to find a wand at the dollar store that came with removable jewels, the blue one was perfect and I glued it to a yellow felt circle backing and pinned it to the front of the dress.
Mario Cap with Peach Petticoat on dress form

The Final Stretch

I had wanted to make a mushroom purse to go along with my dress, but sadly my bf was behind in his progress and feverishly using a seam ripper to remove the offending Tigger applique.   I was obliged to make his red hat from scratch since he forgot to buy a hat to cover with red fabric.  It ended up looking more legit that way anyway, since Mario's hat is fluffier and has a shorter brim than your average baseball cap.  This was the first hat I had made with a brim and I was pretty proud of my work- especially considering that I finished it under duress in like 20 minutes. 

After all this I mixed up acrylic paint with water to a wonderful dried blood hue and splattered and smeared my dress liberally.  I ripped up my tights and applied creepy makeup, blonde wig and crown.  And then we were ready for the night!  
rraaarrr
Costume Contest

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