Halloween Costume's for Historical Costumers

With Halloween only a few days away, it's time to pull out the costumes. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because it's an excuse to dress up, and eat way too much candy (but don't tell anyone I said that).

Each year I usually try to make a special costume for Halloween, but this year I didn't have the time to start on anything early enough and I wasn't sure what I really wanted to do. I started thinking up costume idea's that would fit with some of my historical clothing that I hadn't worn yet or very often, because I love wearing period clothing and will come up with any excuse to wear it.

I came up with a few idea's that aren't too specific and can work with a variety of period clothing, which I thought I'd share in case someone out there needs some inspiration.


18th century:

• Marie Antoinette, 1770's-90's
• Eliza Schuyler (Historical or not), 1770's-1810's
• Clair Fraser (Outlander), 1740's
• Elizabeth Swan (Pirates of the Caribbean), 1720-50's
• Lizzie Bennet (Pride and Prejudice), 1790's-1810's

19th Century:

• Cosette (Les Miserables), 1830's
• Jane Eyre, 1830's or 40's
• Margaret Hale (North & South), 1850's
• Christine Daae (The Phantom of the Opera), early 1870's

My Halloween Costume in 2016 - Jane Eyre

20th Century:

• Dolly (Hello, Dolly!), early 1890's-1900's
• Elizabeth Thatcher (When Calls the Heart), 1910's
• Anne (Anne of Green Gables), 1900's
• Nancy Drew, 1920's-60's
• Amelia Earhart, 1920's-30's aviator

Then of course, there's always Victorian "Fancy Dress" costumes, if you have the time to put into it. I love seeing Victorian costumes because they're so unique and usually quite silly.

Victorian bat costume illustration from the 1892 book "Masquerade and Carnival Their Customs and Costumes" by E. Butterick

I'll be sharing my own historical Halloween costume in my Monday post, but for now I have to keep it a secret until after I wear it at a party on Sunday.

What are you dressing up as for Halloween? Do you like to wear historical costumes for Halloween? Let me know in the comments!

When You Loose Inspiration

I've been in a bit a of a sewing rut lately. The last few months I haven't been all that active with my sewing for a variety of reasons. My summer was pretty crazy with my internship and I was doing so much sewing there that I really didn't have the time, energy, or motivation to be working on my own projects and so I stepped back for a bit.

I thought once the internship was over I would get back into my own sewing, but I really needed a break, so I didn't force myself. The last two months I also spent a bit of time out of town, and I think we all know that that always takes time away from our precious hobbies.

This weekend I spent a couple hours sewing for the first time in a really long time. And it felt so good to get back to it.

I think with everything we do, creative or not so creative, it's good to take breaks, even if they aren't intentional. Taking a break allows it to germinate, for lack of a better term, in your mind and refresh the activity. It's all part of the process.

Sometimes taking a break can be a little scary. I know for myself, I put a lot of pressure on myself to be constantly learning and improving, and not doing anything seems like the opposite of those. But you know what's worse? Burning yourself out and not having the passion anymore.

After taking a break I always have more motivation and inspiration than before, because all that time I wasn't sewing I keep thinking about it. And when you don't have the pressure of needing to do something, you usually start thinking about it differently and more creatively.

So take a breath, sit back, and know it's okay to take a break. You'll be inspired and back at it again in no time.

5 Things I Learned from My First Trip to Comic Con

This weekend I went to my first ever Comic Con! Being a costumer and fan girl, naturally this is something I've wanted to go to for several years, but it wasn't until this year that I was able to make it happen.

Seattle is home to Emerald City Comic Con, which luckily for me is one of the bigger/better con's from what I've heard, so I was interested to see just what it would all be like. I live close to Seattle, so it was no big deal to go just for a day. I wish I had been able to go for another day, but I was only able to get my hands on a ticket for Friday, but it was one crazy fun day!

Seeing as this was my first time going to a convention like this and I wasn't sure what to expect, I opted not to dress up, but I wish I had. While it seemed like the larger majority of people were in regular street clothes, there were plenty of cosplayers and it would have been a fun experience to be among them in costume.

There was actually a lot of things I learned from my first trip that I thought other's may enjoy hearing, which is where this post came from. Today I would like to present to you, 5 things I learned from my first trip to Comic Con.

1. There will be a lot of people (but that's okay). It's not often that I'm in a place with as many people as there were in the Seattle Convention Center and I was worried that it would be claustrophobic/crammed/hard to navigate. The convention center was definitely packed (and it got more packed as the day went on) but the event coordinators did a good job of helping the flow of traffic and there were plenty of empty area's throughout the building where you could sit down away from the hustle for a while if you needed a break.

2. Autographs are expensive, but there are free ops too. Celebrity autographs cost a lot (Between $50-$100) but there are plenty of people (mostly authors) doing free autographs. I got to meet one of my favorite authors Timothy Zahn, who also happens to be a huge name in Star Wars literature, and it was completely free. I even got a poster, which he signed in addition to my book, and he was the nicest guy ever. As a girl on a budget, I thought this was pretty awesome that I could get that opportunity without spending anything extra.

3. Getting in line 45 minutes early is better than waiting for 2 hours. When I went to meet Timothy Zahn I decided to get there a bit early because I figured it would be quicker than coming after the signing had started. And boy was I right. I got in line about 45 minutes before the signing started and was somewhere around 12th in line. By the time the signing started there was at least 100 people waiting and there were still more people getting in line.

4. If you want a good seat at a panel you'd better get there at least one panel before. The interesting thing about panels at Comic Con is that once you're in, you're in. You don't have to leave after each panel. Once you have a seat you can sit there all day if you wanted, so if you want a good seat for a panel it's best to get there at least one panel before and then in between you can try and hop seats for a better one. But it's madness in between; half the auditorium is trying to leave while twice that many are coming in trying to get the best seats.

5. Bring a tote bag (or find a free one ASAP). There are tons of freebies, ranging from book marks, to posters and you're gonna need somewhere to carry it all. I brought a backpack thinking I would just shove stuff in there through the day, but I quickly realized it wasn't practical to be pulling it off every few minutes to put something in, especially when you're in the middle of an ocean of bustling people. I found a free bag at one of the booths which quickly became the most useful thing with me.


Over the years I've seen tons of pictures from Comic Con's from around the world but it's one of those things that's so very different to actually experience yourself. I'm looking forward to going again next year, and now I have the urge to go to some of the bigger cons and see what they're like.

Have you ever been to Comic Con before? If not, do you want to? 

Things I learned from making my first Victorian dress...

Over the course of the last *cough* year and a half *cough* I ventured into a new area of costuming for me, the Victorian era. More precisely the early bustle era: the 1870's. Before this I had read a bit about the era (though more about the 1860's) and had seen countless other costumers works on the era. But this was my first time trying to do something this big. And I learned a lot from it.

This post is going to be a compilation of a bunch of things I learned from this journey/things I would do differently next time.

• The Victorian era, particularly the 1870's, is great for beginners because they can easily cover up their mistakes with lots of trim. I made so many mistakes with this dress. Like a lot. Some of which were not able to be recovered and had to be scrapped completely, such as my first bodice. But due to the fact that the Victorian's loved their trims, I was able to hide a few of my bigger, armature mistakes such as my un-even dress hem. Yep. That black ruffle along the bottom of my skirt was a backup plan because I accidentally cut some of the panels to short.
• Start with printed patterns. Don't try to scale up patterns from a book if this is your first time venturing to this era. That ended up giving me a ton of trouble on the skirt and bodice, which is why I ultimately had to re-make the bodice.
• Do not underestimate the power of having a lot of trim on your dress. The biggest thing I see looking at this dress now is the severe lack of trims. I put what I thought was a lot at the time, but it seriously needs a lot more.

• You can hem your skirt up higher than you think. I hemmed this dress so it was barely off the ground at the front (maybe an inch off the ground). After talking with my friend Michaela, who has a bit more experience with historical costuming that I do, I learned that I would have been good with 2-3 inches off the ground. It ended up working out okay for me this time, but in the future I'll be hemming just a little bit higher.
• Don't stress about being perfectly historically accurate. When I set out to make this dress I wanted it to be as accurate as possible, which ended up putting a lot of pressure on myself and I ended up procrastinating a lot. I lost motivation for the dress about half way through because of this. At that point I decided that I wasn't going to stress about it being perfect (at that point I knew it wouldn't be) and I told myself that I just needed to finish it. I had period appropriate material, the right underpinnings, and to the best of my ability the right silhouette for it (although not perfect). It's okay to not be perfect as long as you finish and learn from it. Costuming to me is about learning and having fun either while making and/or (though hopefully both) wearing the costume, and once I remembered that I was more motivated and actually finished the thing!
• Having cute shoes that match the era (even if they aren't entirely historically accurate due to budget limitations) will make you feel like your outfit is complete. I purchased a pair of Funtasma lace up boots to go with this since I couldn't afford the American Duchess shoes (and because I wanted lace up boots), and putting them on made the whole thing feel so much more real. It's amazing what a pair of shoes can do!

Michaela and I at Costume College

And I have to add, wearing a bustle with a train is one of the funnest things I've ever worn.

Costuming on a Budget

Money has always been tight for me and it's a well known fact that costuming (or any type of sewing for that matter) isn't cheap. Over my years of sewing I've figured out how to make costumes while still being able to afford it. So here are my tips for costuming on a budget.

1). The #1 rule of sewing any type of clothing - make a mock up. Not only will you refine the pattern you're making so it will fit and look just right, if you make a mistake it's on a piece of cheap material and not the material you paid $12 a yard for.

2). Take advantage of thrift stores. I regularly keep any eye out for costuming supply's at thrift stores like Goodwill. I've bought sheets to use for mock ups for cheap, found curtains that end up being perfect for accessories, and not to mention the shoes! I always check the thrift stores when I'm looking for shoes, because you never know what you might find and they're usually a great price.

3). Coupons. This one is probably obvious, but never go to a craft store without a coupon! Craft stores like Jo-Ann's are expensive and I once read an article that said never to buy fabric unless it's at least 30% off, otherwise you're getting ripped off. And it's true. Don't pay $12 a yard for cotton. Please.

The trick with coupons at craft stores is when they give you a good one the entire store is on sale for 20% off. There's not much you can do in that situation, but some stores like Hobby Lobby will take the sale price off and use your coupon instead. I've also heard that Jo-Ann's will price match, but I've never tried it.

4). Pattern sales. Never pay full price for a commercial pattern! Stores like Jo-Ann's put their patterns on sale all the time and it's normal for Simplicity Patterns to be $1 a piece and other brands between $2-5 a piece.

5). Do your research. Lets say you're making a corset, which in case you don't know anything about corsets they have to be made out of a material that doesn't stretch. There's a particular fabric called coutil made specifically for corsets, but it costs around $50 a yard. You probably don't want to pay that much unless you're an expert corset maker.

When I made my first corset I did some research and found that a lot of historical costumers use duck canvas instead. It costs around $10 a yard at Jo-Ann's, so with a coupon that's around $5. Much better than $50 plus shipping!

There isn't always going to be a cheaper option and someone who is more skilled at corset making would probably want to use coutil. But for my first corset? No way!


While there's lot's of good ways to save one money, I've found that sometimes cheap isn't always the best way to go. Here's a few things I've learned over the years that it's just best to spend the extra money on.

1). Patterns. They're expensive and sometimes a pain to work with, so pretty much since I started sewing I've avoided patterns whenever possible. I would opt to draft my own (which is great and I wouldn't change that even if I could go back in time) instead of spending $15 on a pattern. For certain things this really isn't a bad thing to do because sometimes there just isn't a pattern for what you want to make.

But I've had plenty of times when I knew there was a pattern that would work perfectly but I would try and draft it myself just to save the $20, and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get it to fit right and would end up spending unnecessary time and fabric to try and make it work.

Sometimes it's just worth it to pay up and get the pattern.

2). Muslin. As I stated before, I've purchased old sheets to use for mock ups. As I've become more experienced at sewing, the more I liked working with muslin. I usually buy a bolt of 20 yards every couple of months when it goes on sale for $.99 a yard, and to me it's worth the money.

And that's all I've got for now! I'll probably end up thinking of more things I wished I'd added, in which case I'll write another post about.

Do YOU have any advise for costuming on a budget?