Yes You Can Costumes

Making the Extraordinary from the Ordinary

Archives for April 2018

Family Wizard of Oz Costumes – DIY Wicked Witch of the West

“I’ll get you, my pretty! And your little dog, too!”

I’ll be the first to say that my makeup skills need work. I almost didn’t even put on any of the green stuff, since it was almost time to trick-or-treat. I knew that once I started applying it, there would be no turning back. I took a deep breath and just started slapping it on! Can you see the finger marks?

 

Maybe the Wicked Witch of the West (W.W.W.) woke up grumpy because she read that Rachel Zoe (stylist to the stars) says that the color black “…doesn’t photograph well”.  I mean, everything in the W.W.W.’s closet is black. What is a girl to do? The Ruby Slippers would have provided some excitement to her wardrobe (and additional magic powers) but Dorothy got there, first!

So, back to black! I decided to try to make this Wicked Witch’s costume as interesting as I could by incorporating lots of texture in the clothing pieces I used.

First, check out this amazing blouse! I’ve had it in my stash for years. I just love all the rich, Victorian details, from its high neck, to the lavish lace, to the garnish of sequins and dangling “jet” beads.

 

The skirt I wore is, fittingly, a “broomstick” style. It is made of light, rayon fabric with pretty, lace gores inserted between the panels for extra “swirl”. The crinkle effect is achieved by washing the skirt and then twisting it into a coil and rubber banding it in place while it is hung up to air dry. (This process is usually detailed in the care directions on the garment tag.) I love the surface interest that this technique produces!

As usual, my mother-in-law came to my rescue with accessories. She provided the witch hat, the broomstick, and the luxurious velvet cape.

I wore additional black layers under my costume for extra warmth. Basic, black, Mary Jane shoes completed my outfit.

The Wicked Witch took a gelato break while nursing her Flying Monkey. Oof. My makeup makes me cringe! I need to develop my skillzzz.

I applied some of this green face makeup at the last possible minute to my face and added some streaks to the backs of my hands. It stayed pretty well, despite my hasty application. It mainly wore off around my neck, where the high collar of my blouse rubbed against my skin. I was very relieved to discover that the makeup washed off quite easily at the end of the night!

I found this amazing, beaded belt for $2.99 at the Salvation Army thrift store, last month. If only I’d had it in time for Halloween! It would have made an awesome addition to my witch costume. Oh well! There’s always next time. My kids are always assigning me the evil witch role in whatever story we’re recreating, so I’m sure I’ll have another opportunity…

Family Wizard of Oz Costumes – DIY Tin Man Costume

It made perfect sense that Elliott would be the Tin Man in our Wizard of Oz crew. He is our most passionate and compassionate child. He always wears his heart on his sleeve.

The foundation of this Tin Man costume was a thrifted knight costume provided by…you guessed it! My mother-in-law.

She also gave Elliott the funnel hat and the ax. I’m telling you, it helps to have a team when you’re costuming!

The hat is made of extremely thin plastic, but it got the job done!

The joints and shoulder details of the armor gave me the idea that this knight costume could be do double-duty as a Tin Man suit.

I found this silver puffer vest on eBay to pop over the top.

I chose this specific vest because it didn’t have visible zippers or lots of rows of quilting stitches, as I thought these elements might detract from a Tin-Man-esque appearance!

All I needed to do was to make a hood and shoe covers using Simplicity pattern 4133.

However, I discovered that the pattern is no longer available at JoAnn, so I couldn’t snap it up on one of their 5 for $5 sales. So, I went looking for Simplicity pattern 4133 on eBay and got it for a good price. You can also find the pattern on Etsy.

Then, I purchased some silver lamé fabric at JoAnn. If I could go back in time I would have made the hood and shoe covers out of a sturdier material. It turns out that this lamé was basically glorified tissue paper.

The material wore through in several places on the shoe covers after a single wearing, which I thought was lame. Lame lamé. Get it? Sorry! That was really bad.

This also may have been avoided if I hadn’t made the shoe covers as large as I did. I *really* wanted them to entirely cover Elliott’s shoes, but this caused the edges of the shoe covers to rub against the ground and fray.

If I could do things again, I would have also left part of the back seam of the hood unstitched and then sewn on snaps to fasten it.

Why, do you ask? Because we could barely get it over Elliott’s head! He has a huge noggin, like Jeff. In fact, all of our kids do! It’s actually a problem, because we’ve had to give away some of their brand new, adorable clothing items that we couldn’t pull over their colossal craniums. However, the hood *just* barely went on and off, and left Elliott’s ears intact, so I let it be.

It was really fun and satisfying to put this costume together! I liked how the process combined using existing costumes and clothing pieces that could be used for other purposes/characters. I also got to enjoy making a couple, easy pieces from scratch. This is a win-win, in my book!

 

 

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