Melbourne Cup 2008

Last week was the Melbourne cup event (Gosh, has it been that long?) and I organised a luncheon for work. It was a huge lot of work and I was exhausted by the end of that day, but I had a great time.

And best of all I had an outfit. I was dressed as a Lolita version of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. Complete with miniature top hat. My outfit is made up of blouse, vest, jacket, breeches and stockings. And truly it was a surprise that the colours worked well together, as I was more aiming for the clashing colour effect. But I am very happy with it all and even considering that I might wear it to our ACG Fairy Tale Picnic Next Year.

Dad's Mad Hatter

As I mentioned, the central theme of my fairytale party was a mad hatter tea party. This was my dad. Lets get into the making of the costume. I was actually surprised that it did not take me a lot longer to make the costume. The pants were simple, just an elastic waist pants. And the shirt underneath was just a regular long sleeve workshirt. The tie I bought from a discount
outlet (I wanted something that would clash rather well) and the vest was simple.

The hat was another matter all together. After tracking down the foam I needed to make the hat, I thought it would be smooth sailing from here. Unfortunatly not, I had chosed a soft charmeuse satin to make the exterior of the hat with. I did want to use a heavier satin, but could not get it in the right colour. The biggest thing that posed a problem was that the satin kept slipping. I stitched it to the foam, but still found that it would slip out of alignment and thus out of the seams. I'm actually rather happy with the way it turned out, I ended up getting the seams in (with much unpicking and frustration). It looks great but next time I make that hat, I will think twice about the fabric I use.

Fairytale Party

Well, I had my fairytale dinner party. It was a lot of exhausting work, but so much fun. I had a total of 14 people at my party, quite a lot of hungry mouths to feed. But I was so glad that everyone took the initiative and dressed up. All my costumes came out well. I made the Fairy, The Mad Hatter, The Fairy Godmother from Cinderella and of course my puss in boots outfit. Which you will see in another of my entries.

My decorations were inspired by fairy tales. I had a yellow brick road running up the driveway lit with tea light candles in brown paper bags. The trick is to fill the bottom of the bags with rocks or sand to hold them out. Although, as is the case with paper and fire, a few bags got a bit burnt. My yellow brick road was made of bright yellow wrapping paper cut into rectangles and stuck down onto the ground. And once you arrived at the end of the road I had a mad hatter tea party set up (hence the Mad Hatter costume). I spruced up the area with some black and red crepe paper chains, and some large playing cards stuck to the wall. I also had 3 paper Chinese lanterns set up above the table. Leftover from a birthday party, I painted them with red and black acrylic paint with hearts, spades and clubs. And a light bulb running into them added light to the space. I then had 3 tables joined together to run down the length of the area, seats surrounding. Each place was set with knife, fork and spoon, and an individual tea cup as a place setting. I painted the teacups to have a heart, spade, diamond and club and with a small tea light candle, to light up the table space.

To spice up the evening a bit, I also had games for everyone to play. I tired to keep with the fairytale theme, but I could not resist having a pass the parcel. My centre prize was a my little pony. And on most of the layers I add a forfeit (something embarrassing that the unwrapper must do). I also arranged a malteasers game, with straws (kind of a suck and blow type
thing). We played a team fairytale questions game and then fairytale celebrity heads. I know games seem kind of childish, but the whole evening was designed to be fun and reminiscent of your childhood.

Overall, I had a fantastic time. Mind you, I was exhausted the next day...

Fairytale Party Mad Hatter

Well, the previously mentioned fairytale costume party has progressed further in the sewing department. I am still working on my Puss In Boots outfit but am pretty much finnished with a Mad Hatter Costume for my dad. (I only need him to try on the pants so I can hem them).

Basically the costume is a tailed coat, with a vest and tie. And check pants. I tried to pick some colours that would hopefully clash really well together, but still be workable for future use. (I don't make these things for nothing.)

I used a peacock corduroy with a fine pill for the jacket. The tails were not supposed to have an inside lining, but I thought that it would look unfinished if I didn't add a lining. So I just bought more of the cord and lined it fully with that.

Another thing that I changed from the original pattern is that I didn't do the sleeve hem as specified. My dad has long arms (A trait that runs in the family) so I didn't want to make the sleeves any shorter. Instead, I used purple bias binding and stitched it to the inside. On the exterior the hem just looks like a single fold 1cm hem, but then you get flashes of the contrast purple binding when you move. Very cool.

I made the purple vest out of a cheap satin. It's an acetate fabric, so it's cheap and a lot stiffer than other satin fabrics, meaning that it will hold shape a bit better and not stretch and fall like most satins. The only thing I changed about the vest, is that it was supposed to have a dickey attached. But I wanted to use a contrast tie (bought), so I didn't put it in, but instead just attached a piece of black elastic to sit behind the neck.

I intend for him to wear a button through shirt underneath, so the collar and the tie will cover the elastic. I went with elastic so that it would be a little more comfortable and allow for movement. So far it looks pretty good and I am happy with it. All that is left to do hem the pants and make the hat. Which is a whole other issue as I am having trouble buying the foam to make it out of.