Octopus Costume part 1


Why an octopus you ask? It's due to a combination of things really. Seeing a dinosaur toy while shopping, loving all costumes "under the sea," and I also had a bunch of orange sparkly fabric left over from a Halloween costume.


I like creating and learning how to do new things. It stretches my thinking into considering ideas I had never thought possible. Costumes are a safe place to experiment to be weird/ wacky/ flashy and frankly, to be absurd. Costume ideas stem from the world of make believe. They are constructed to help bring life to a story or character. If you think of any play, movie, or Disney animated cartoon; they all have characters that are brought to life through their costume. The audience knows who characters are based on their appearances and that can also help shape the magic of turning the story into a reality.

When I was about five or six years old, one of my mom's friends made me a Cinderella costume from scratch.  I have two sisters close in age, (that I love dearly) and getting anything handmade just for me was really special. It wasn't expertly crafted with all the hem lines sewed up perfectly and the zipper hidden beneath yards of tulle & silk. It didn't have multiple layers or come with 10 additional accessories. The costume was perfect because it was made special just for me. Knowing the whole time the dress was being made I was thought of put a little bit of magic sewn in. The costume gave me that "Oomph" of confidence to step out and be that beautiful fairy tale princess even if it was only for that one night a year.

As I have gotten older, I had forgotten about the dress and it's magic. I had forgotten my mom's friend, who had taken such time and care to make me something beautiful that my parents could never afford. But in my early twenties I was reminded when a few college friends began making costumes for all of our events.

Hand making all costumes has now become a tradition. Bits and pieces I have pulled from other things over the years, but it means more to have a costume hand made. To me, the magic is in the very threads and right around the next corner is adventure. 

So in order for me to continue I'll have to take a quick trip up to my mother's and borrow/ steal one of her sewing machines so I can begin construction on the construction and attachment of the tentacles.......TO BE CONTINUED.









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