In my last post I mentioned that my new job was taking up all my time. That was definitely a factor, however I couldn’t really do any practical sewing because I was making this
I think I look a little too happy to be an evil sea-witch.
Yup, that’s me dressed as Ursula from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
I should point out that I didn’t just do this for fun, although it was fun. Mark’s Aunt turned (shhhh, 50) and so had a very grown-up Disney fancy dress party. It was freaking awesome.
She planned it a year in advance but, in true Makesphere style, I didn’t start working on my costume until about a month before the event. It took me about 10 months to figure out who I wanted to be. Have you any idea how many Disney characters there are? So many! And I wanted to be someone cool, I didn’t want to go as Cinderella or something. (For you Cinderella fans- she definitely has her place, she’s just not me!)
Then it finally hit me. As a child, ‘The Little Mermaid’ was one of my favourite films- my Mum and I would always say ‘You’ve got it sweetcakes’ to each other and going as an evil sea-witch is pretty bad-ass and much cooler than Cinderella (again, sorry! I just want to be bad-ass for once!)
I ordered my wig from eBay but everything else was home made. I didn’t wear any shoes so that’s 100% true!
I kind of wish I took pictures as I went along but I was seriously pressed for time. I was even sewing eel teeth on 3 hours before the party started!
You guys know how I’m not accurate with stuff so I just eyeballed everything. I did use a combination of Simplicty 1803 and Cambie to create the bodice. I did two of these, stitched them at the top, flipped it over and then stitched either side of the princess seams to create a channel for my boning. Yes! I used boning for the first time and I reckon it turned out alright. I did two down my boobs and two at the sides and it stayed up all night! Even through some rigorous dancing.
The skirt was easy- it was just two rectangles that I gathered and stitched together at the sides. As soon as I’d cut my remaining fabric in half I wondered why on Earth I’d bothered- I could have just left it as one rectangle!
The tentacles were a little bit trickier. Again, I eyeballed them. I didn’t even create a pattern so that they all looked the same, such is my disregard for any sewing Gods. I just cut a purple and a black piece rectangle of fabric, placed them right sides together and sort of stitched towards creating a point. Then I stuffed them and put in some garden wire for bendability. I did this so I could curl the tentacles upwards and tack them back on themselves so you could see the nice sucker-y purple ness underneath, except I totally forgot so all of my battle with the garden wire was kind of a waste of time!
Mark and I then had great fun cutting out hundreds of circles for the suckers which I hot glue gunned onto the tentacles before stitching them, the skirt and the bodice altogether. FYI- this thing required nearly 2 kilos of stuffing so you can imagine how heavy it was!
I decided pretty early on that I absolutely must have a Flotsam and Jetsam. They were pretty simple- again just eyeballed. I concertina-d some fabric for the fins to give that nice frilly, fin-like effect and then embroidered through all the layers to create the mouth. They, again, had wire to hold their shape around me. The eyes, teeth and eyebrows are felt. AND I even stuck true to the film and gave them odd eyes 😀
Finally, I made the shell necklace from salt dough and black yarn. We painted it yellow but it turned purple within about 20 minutes as all my face paint sweated off onto it (ewwwwwww!)
Speaking of which, that face paint soaked into my skin! For days after people kept telling me I’d caught the sun 😳
That was a bit of bonding with the Sister-in-law too as she painted my armpit. Never, ever thought my sister-in-law would paint my armpit purple.
Incase you’re wondering, Mark went as Lampwick from Pinocchio. You know, the guy that turned into a donkey? The guy that looks like this?
(That’s me, trying my very best to do an evil face but on the very verge of peeing myself laughing)
And finally, who ever though Ursula was originally from the West?
(Nearly) everyone’s costumes were fantastic. Everyone put in a ton of effort (except for the one family that didn’t dress up at all. WTF?!) and there were characters from all kinds of Disney films. My sister-in-law looked fantastic as Russell from UP!, we had Peter Pan, Robin Hood (the fox version!), Winnie the Pooh, Aladdin, Anna from Frozen, Buzz Lightyear, Quasimodo….. the list could go on.
Next up, we have a 70s fancy dress to go to. Silver glitter and afros here we come!
Makesphere 