Halloween fun, anyone?

   Its October, my favorite month. For the most part, I love fall. Living in Carson City, NV when I was in elementary school, Halloween was always the best holiday for me. Dressing up, class parties, and trick or treating. I went to Bordewich Bray Elementary School for first through third grade, on the west side of Carson City, which is almost right at the base of C hill and the mountains. The area is lush with trees, and just a few blocks from Governor’s Mansion. Halloween holds a significant place in a Nevadan’s heart, as it is the day the state was established in 1864. Every year Governor’s Mansion and the surrounding area are decked out in their Halloween finest, the trees showing off their fall colors, and many of the homes in this area have historical significance. This is where the historic Ghost Walk Tour usually takes place. Now if you haven’t been on the Ghost Walk, I highly recommend it. It’s a guided by people in period costume, acting as historical figures. You travel from place to place where the actors tell you of the people they portray, the date of their birth, death, place of burial, their significance in Carson and Nevada history, and the history of the building you find them in. It really isn’t scary, but rather light hearted.

    Halloween in Indiana is a bit different. Usually outside activities aren’t possible due to cold or rain. It rains a lot here in the fall. But that doesn’t stop the trees from changing their colors, nor prevent people from having Halloween fun. There are a good half dozen professional haunted houses in the Indianapolis area. I’ve lived here two years, and the past two years I’ve gone to a different haunted house with a large group of friends. Necropolis was where we went the first year, and it was pretty good. Thanks to my friend Lou Lou’s brother, and an actor who couldn’t have had better timing we ended up laughing so hard our sides hurt. The second year, we traveled outside Indianapolis to Anderson, IN to a place called Indy Scream Park. It was late when we got there, around 11pm on Halloween night, and the cost for all five attractions was $25 if I remember right. All I can say is, totally worth it.

   This year the fates are cruel. It’s my last Halloween here, and it falls on Monday. I have to work. But I’m ok with it. I love seeing the little ones in their costumes. Last year and this year, our store had a promotion. Bring your child in costume during the designated time, we’ll put them in front of our Halloween backdrop, take their picture, and you receive a free 5x7 photo of your child. I’m really grateful to my boss for letting me design the backdrops the past two years. He also allows us to dress up, not just for one day, but two. The day before, to remind our customers that the next day is Halloween, and we dress up the day of. I try to wear two costumes to double the fun. I usually make them or come out with something from my closet. The first year I worked at CVS, I was a Geisha with the kimono I had worn to my high school graduation (and will wear to my graduation in May) and a gypsy with a black dress and corset from my closet. Last year, I had been a WWII factory worker, jeans rolled at the cuff, flats, and a cut up button down, and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, a dress I had gotten from the thrift store with different t shirts sewn in patches to it. This year, I’m dressing as a skeleton in tradition of Dias de los Meurtos (day of the Dead), and taking a new approach on the Sally costume.

   That’s what brings me to what I want to show you today. I began planning my Sally costume ahead of time. Right around the first of the month, I started looking for a pattern.  I had taken the t shirt scraps sewn to the dress for last year’s costume off and worn the dress underneath. I find it cute, and kinda makes me feel….well girly. Something I don’t often feel. Anywhoble… I found a pattern during Jo Ann’s Columbus Day sale, and bought three yards of unbleached muslin to make it.

Pattern

   Now you’ll see that the dress is a bias cut dress. Bias cut meaning the material is cut on the diagonal of the grain, sometimes giving the fabric an illusion of length if done properly. When I got home, I did a tracing of the dress, and drew the tracing to look as close to Sally’s dress as possible.

Tracing

   There were several ways I could make the fabric look like Sally’s dress, which is meant to look like several fabrics haphazardly sewn into a dress. I could assemble the dress then dissect it into sections, dye the sections into appropriate colors, and reassemble the dress. I wasn’t sure I could to that right. I also thought I could use fabric markers, but if you’ve ever colored with markers of any type on a large surface, you discover you run out of ink before you’ve finished, and unless you go slowly, your lines are showing and uneven. So my next plan was to paint the dye in the appropriate places. The thing is I noticed while watching the movie that yes the dress is many colors, but they all have the same brownish hue to them. I thought “Why not tea dye over it? Or under it? How will the dye react with the tea?” Has anyone ever tea dyed before? It’s very simple. I’ll explain in the moment.

   So what I did was I created three different swatches. One swatch will just the dye painted on muslin. One will be dye painted on muslin and tea dyed after it dried, and the last will be dye painted on muslin after its been tea dyed.

To tea dye, brew some hot tea. Enough to immerse your fabric, or whatever you wish to dye. I’ve dyed paper before. Let the tea steep and the fabric dye at the same time.  After the tea cools, remove the fabric and let it dry. Very simple.

Tea Dying

 Here are my results. Not bad. Although it’s a little early to tell, I think I’m going to go with the muslin tea dyed before painting.

fabric swatches. Top: Tea dyed after painting. Bottom: Tea dyed before painting. Right: No tea dye

  I’m not quite finished sewing my dress yet. I still have to finish the sleeves.

   So, anyone have any Halloween traditions of their own? What’s been your favorite costume?

Until later then,

Love, Music and Feathers people!

So what do I do?

Hey everyone, if you're new, I know I haven't shared much, but my life is crazy, especially right now with midterms. This entry is a look into my daily life.

 Here are the basics. I'm a student, a full time Fine Arts major at Ivy Tech Community College. This is my last semester. (I hope.) In December, I"ll have finished my associates degree (hopefully), and walk in May.

  I'm a cashier at CVS/Pharmacy. I work anywhere between 18 and 35 hours a week, depending on what my boss needs. My boss, Brent Bell, is pretty awesome.


  I dont drive. I've been in three car accidents in my life. Two as a passanger, and once as the driver. My best guy friend died in a car accident three years ago. Until recently, I would get very anxious when driving. Shallow breathing, flashbacks, and white knuckles. Thanks to my brother, over the summer I was able to gain confidence in my driving. Indianapolis has a good public tranportation system, so if I need to go anywhere, I take the bus.

   I'm engaged, to Mark Dimpfl, and yes we live together. We met three years ago, when his band was advertising for a singer on myspace, and I was bored. The wedding is tenatively planned for August 10, 2013.

  So what do you do in your daily life to make things interesting? I've never really stuck to a schedual, although now I'm trying, as to add more structure to my life.


 I'm sure I'm not the only person who has a crazy family, but I have an unusual one. I have mom, dad, Lance, and whoever he's married to at the time. Dad has four kids older than me, mom and dad have two kids together, and Lance has seven children younger than me. Altogether that's thirteen siblings. Want one? Lets just say, the wedding is going to be interesting.

 Do you have a large family? A small one? Or a complicated one like mine? What do you do during the week? Find your life boring? What would make it more interesting? What do you do to get through the most boring of days? Or do you find yourself with too little time in the day?


   Maybe I'll share more of my thoughts later, but I have a midterm tomorrow and Finance class starts tomorrow. Hopefully I can post more often soon.

   Love, music, and feathers people!