All posts tagged: costumes

Here there be Pirates, thedreamstress.com

Arrrrr Matey! A Pirate Picnic

Last October Redthreaded hosted ‘Fall for Costume’ on Instagram, with daily themes. One of them was ‘Pirates’, and I realised that I’d never dressed up as a pirate! That was clearly an omission that must be rectified, so I threw a pirate picnic. After all, what the point of being a costumer if you can’t let yourself go and be totally dorky every once in a while? So I invited a bunch of friends willing to be dorky with me, and we all raided our wardrobes for striped shirts and big puffy white blouses, and boots and hats, and cutlasses and blunderbusses, and weighed anchor for the treasure coast. The location I picked is conveniently quite deserted, so that we could be blissfully undisturbed in our dorkiness. Because while I don’t mine being dorky, I like to do it as inconspicuously as possible! Even more conveniently, it was relatively sheltered from the strong, blustery Northerly wind sweeping across Wellington that day. The wind did a lovely job of fluttering our feathers and sweeping our sashes …

Have a Scroop-tacular Halloween!

Published by The Dreamstress

I LOVE Halloween. How could I not? It’s a holiday all about dressing up! I love going all out with Halloween costumes, but I equally love taking ‘everyday’ clothes and sewing patterns and turning them into a costume. There is something really fun and clever about turning a simple thing into something wacky and fabulous with a bit of creativity (remember my circular cardigan Jedi?) In celebration of this concept, we’ve been brainstorming all sorts of fun costumes you could make from Scroop Patterns. The Miramar Dress, Top & Tunic We had to restrain ourself with ideas of costumes that could be made with the Miramar as a base. There are SO many. Make it floor length in black, add a hat and a broom, and you’re a witch! Or, a dangling girdle belt, and you’re a medieval maiden. Many stretch velvets have the right amount of stretch for the Miramar too. Dark red stretch velvet? You’re Mother Gothel! Pale turquoise with a chiffon cape? Elsa! Dark blue? Arwen! But you don’t have to go …

It’s Halloweek!

Published by The Dreamstress

As a costumer, Halloween is usually the highlight of the year – for once, you aren’t the only one dressed up! To celebrate, it’s Halloweek on the blog – everything will be about fancy dress, and costumes, and costume parties, and that sort of delicious fun. I love Halloween. Or at least I used to. It was great as a kid, when your costume was just about being fun, and clever. It’s not so fun when you are an adult and your costume is expected to be sexy, and all the parties have more alcohol than candy. And there isn’t much trick or treating in New Zealand. Trick or treating was fun and safe in the little community I grew up in – you knew all the people you visited, and all the other trick or treaters. Many years we didn’t go trick or treating – we had traditional Halloween parties with bobbing for apples and doughnuts on strings and caramel corn and skits and games. So much fun! Except for the one Halloween where …