Final Rivulette Costume

So when you put the pieces of my super heroine costume – tentatively title The Rivulette – together, here is what you get.

I’m quite happy with how it turned out. I hung the hose from my belt using a hook that my husband bought for securing table clothes to trade-show-booth tables, and the plunger is just yanked from one of our bathrooms. If I was going to wear this outfit out somewhere, I would put black grease paint around my eyes so that the look of the mask is complete. I ended up cinching the belt tight in the back with a pair of office binder clips, which worked just fine for the photo.

The Wedding Dress

For years, I searched the thrift stores for a wedding dress to be used as a base garment for costumes.     Tooth fairy.   Corpse bride.   Bride of Frankenstein.   That sort of thing.

The criteria were that the dress fit me without alternation, that it be less than about $50, and that it clearly be a wedding dress.    This was the first dress that I found that met those criteria – with an interesting coincidence thrown in to boot.

The interesting story goes like this. When I finally found this dress, I was raving about it to one of my girlfriends. I described the dress, and how excited I was about it. “Where did you find it,” she asked. “Salvation Army,” I replied. “Emily, I think I used to own that wedding dress.” Yes indeed. Turns out I had purchased a wedding dress that she had thrifted the week before. To be clear, it was NOT the actual dress she was married in. She had purchased this dress, after not being able to find quite the style and cut of dress that she really wanted. Of course, as fate would have it, she did eventually find the dress she really wanted – but was then stuck with two dresses. So it was a win-win all around.

Here is an image of the back and side as well. It has a bit of a train, which I could not figure out how to pin up – so I stitched it up.

Great pictures of 1960′s outfits

First, let me warn you that this isn’t a real post.   Actually – I just wanted to make sure that I could find these photos later – so I thought that I would save them here.

But it reminds me of a point I made earlier about historical / period / era costumes – look for pictures / TV shows / movies / illustrations that are NOT about the clothes to get a good idea of how people actually dressed.   In this series of photos, people sent in family snap shots from the 1960′s.   The pictures weren’t taken to show of their clothes, really, but rather to commemorate a family gathering or vacation.   So the clothes that you see are what people really wore to Christmas dinner, or to the office, or to church.

Enjoy.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/05/living/irpt-real-60s/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

The Base Rivulette Garments

As I mentioned before, I found these amazing go-go boots in a thrift shop, and always thought that I could turn them into part of a Super Hero outfit. Unfortunately, one of my basic costuming rules is that I want a costume that is recognizable, and that I don’t have to explain every two minutes. And I couldn’t find any popular Super Hero costumes that required powder blue go-go boots.

But I did not lose faith, and still intend to put together a no-name super hero costume, for purposes that I will go into later. Most super heroines seem to have short skirts, and the outfit should be color-coordinated. With those two key guidelines in mind, I went thrifting for the basic garments that could work together as a costume.

First, the skirt. This is not the best photo, I’ll give you that. But it’s basically just a gathered, slightly pleated polyester skirt that seemed to be the right length for the outfit – mid-thigh. It hangs right, and has enough gathers that it doesn’t look like the bottom of a skirt-suit. I should mention that I was prepared to make a short, gathered skirt if necessary. It would really only take a few minutes to put together – but lucked into this one before I had a chance to make one. Another option would have been to find a longer skirt and hem it up dramatically.

Next, the top. I had planned on bringing the boots along on a thrift shopping trip, so that I could match the color. I ended up accidentally thrifting without them, and that’s probably a good thing. They aren’t EXACTLY the right shade of powder blue, but in retrospect, I could have spent a lot of time working on the correct shade of blue, rather than just getting the shape and style right. I feel that these are close enough to work, and either is the right style to support a super heroine costume.

At the moment, I’m undecided about a cape. It seems like a pretty basic garment for a super-heroine, but I’m not convinced that it would hang right. Also, since I don’t intend to actually wear this outfit for more than a photo shoot, I’m not sure that it would show in the picture. Finally, if necessary, I’ll either go to the fabric store, buy a length of appropriately-colored fabric, and mock one up for the photograph, or I’ll thrift for a large garment that is the right color and just us the fabric to construct a rough cape.

So now, with the exception of a possible cape, I have the basic outfit. Next step would be to fill in the accessories.

Totally Unrelated – Mascot Brackets

Several years ago, right before the Stanley Cup tournament, I asked my husband who was playing.  “It’s the Blackhawks versus the Ducks,” he said.   “Well I watch the nature channel – Hawks will definitely win.”    And thus my mascot bracket was born.   Since then, every year, for March Madness, I do a set of mascot brackets.     I figure out what the nickname of the teams are (Hoyas, Hurricanes, Dukes, Owls, Blackbirds, Tigers, Crimson, etc.) and try to reason out which would win in a fair fight.

In addition to just noting who would win, I try to summarize my logic.  “Aggies have opposable thumbs and farm implements, so they should be able to beat Wolverines.”   That sort of thing.

Unfortunately I have no good place to post them where they would be legible, except maybe here.   So while they have NOTHING to do with costuming, here they are.   Enjoy.

Emilys 2013 Bracket

The Rivulette Accessories

Since this super heroine outfit is meant to be wastewater themed, I needed accessories that implied that she was watery and industrial. I knew that I wanted her to be carrying either a toilet plunger or a fishing net as a main accessory – and since this was just for a photograph, I had no concerns about breaking my no-accessories-that-you-carry-but-don’t-wear rule. I also had envisioned a looped up hose attached to her belt as a sort of Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth thing. You’ll see that in the final image.

The other accessories that I wanted were black rubber gloves, and goggles or maybe a mask. I hit the web looking for black rubber gloves. While there is a lot of black rubber fetish gear out there, I definitely wanted to stay away from anything at all provocative with this outfit – and I didn’t want to pay fetish-gear prices, either. I ended up finding these on ebay. They were sold as military surplus, and while they are a bit shorter than I wanted, they have that industrial, grimy look that I was going for.


I also wanted to do SOMETHING with the face. I tried wearing some chemical goggles, but I didn’t like the look of them on my face. At the same time, a super-heroine needs to wear something to obscure her identity, so I grabbed a spare mask that I had and cut it down a bit. A note about the mask. My husband and I go to a costume masquerade each year. The rule is that you must come in costume, or in formal wear with a mask. Last year, I failed to put together a costume (hard to imagine, I know) so I made us a couple of masks for a ball. At JoAnn’s Fabrics I found some excellent, cheap black masks and bought three or four of them. For the masquerade, I used a hot glue gun to put trim on the edge of the masks. Below, you can see the two masks that I trimmed, the trim that I used, and the cut-down super-heroine mask, as well.


Because the goggles were so very appropriate for the costume, though, I wore them hanging around my neck. They give the top of the costume a little more balance, and help to maintain the watery theme.

The Can-can Girl

My husband and I attend a Mardi Gras costume masquerade each year.    There is always a theme, and two years ago the theme was “Moulin Rouge:  Paris 1910.”    So I decided that I would make myself a can-can girl costume.

The first thing that I did was surf the web for images of can-can girl outfits.   Much to my dismay, most of what I found were some pretty sexed-up little costumes.  I wanted something that looked a bit more authentic than that.   I found a photo of a costume by another costumer that was just exactly what I was looking for.  I tried to reach out to the woman who posted the photo, but have been unable to reach her, so I’m hesitant to publish the picture here.    But trust me when I tell you that I pretty much copied her design – from the shoes (which I found at the thrift shop) all the way to the hair.

The basis of the costume was a two-piece burgundy brides maid dress.   I kept the bustier intact, and simply tacked some lace, buttons, eyelets and lacing onto it to make it look like a lace-up bustier.     I cut apart the skirt for the bridesmaid dress  - both the skirt itself and the lining – and used them as the ruffles for the underside of the skirt, which is just a velvet skirt that I found thrift.

Also thrift, I found a black off-the-shoulder shirt to wear underneath the bustier, and then added accessories – the choker necklace and the fishnet hose.   Overall, I’m very pleased with the look.

I also modified the skirt to be a drawstring waist, so that it could be worn by people who aren’t exactly my dress size.

Here are some pictures of the final piece:

Can-can Ruffles

I also took pictures of the front and back so you can see the whole garment / outfit.

Can-can Front

Can-can Back