outfit: old hollywood glamour

Last night was my works End of Financial Year party, which was an "Old Hollywood Glamour" theme. 

Initially I was going to go with a red sparkly number but it didn't fit too well and I couldn't find the fabric I needed to make the alterations I wanted to do.

I almost decided not to go, but then a week before I decided to sew up something from scratch instead!

Nothing like an epic last minute sewing project!!

I already had some scalloped blue lace, so I decided to use that up and started looking on etsy at dresses and dress patterns for inspiration.

Deciding what colour to go with the lace was hard, I couldn't decide on a cream or dark blue, but ended up going with the blue as I had decided that I wanted something I could potentially wear again to less formal events - the blue just looked a bit less flashy.

After I had purchased the fabric I came across this pattern on the Vintage Pattern Wiki which was pretty much exactly what I had in mind, so I used it as my guide and came up with this dress. Once again I used my trusty New Look 6132 pattern for the bodice, however I altered it a bit to make the front seams into an "S-curve" shape - which is used to make the bodice lay flat and tight about the ribs, and then curve up into the bust line, giving it more of a 50's silhouette.

For the skirts I used 3 metres of each fabric, and gathered them using this method which was a million times easier and I don't think I'll be doing it the ordinary way anymore!

I also wore my petticoat underneath to give it extra pouff.. I definitely had the biggest skirt of the night!

The over-skirt does up with hook-and-eyes rather than a bow as I was going to wear a belt over it.

I ended up wearing different shoes on the night - just plain black pumps because I felt that these ones along with the length of the dress were a bit stump-ifying on me.

There was a best dressed competition, which I was nominated for and came in 3rd to two guys both wearing something more "costumey", but I got a lot of compliments all night about how authentic I looked and how nice the dress was.. It's always extra nice to get a compliment about something you've made yourself!

cleopatra costume

Sorry for the radio silence guys, I've had a crazy week and now I am sick :( 

I've a few catch up posts coming your way, and then hopefully it's back to normal blogging so stay tuned!

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Last Saturday was my best friend Katie's birthday, and for her party she had decided to have a "TV and movie" themed costume party.

I dressed up as a slightly Elizabeth Taylor-inspired Cleopatra, while Eli went for his favourite Marvel character, Ironman.

Unfortunately the lighting wasn't the best so I didn't get a great deal of photos - but here are some (horrid quality) pics from the night via my phone..

The birthday girl and I. 

Katie was a character from a TV show that I keep forgetting the name of because I didn't watch it (Dawson's Creek? One Tree Hill?)

I was wearing a little sparkly gold dress I thrifted when I was in high school, a chiffon dress from one of the Retrostar garage sales worn as a one-shoulder dress, a necklace on my head (from Diva?) and around my neck (Diva for sure) and a thrifted belt. I didn't have any appropriate shoes but luckily the party was held inside so I just didn't wear any.

walk like an egyptiannnnnnnnna!

For my hair I parted it in the center, straightened it and did about 6 teeny tiny plaits on each side at the front (it's hard to see).

My hair and makeup was inspired by this look:

But I used purple eyeshadow rather than blue to match my dress.

Katie and I started decorating and cooking early in the day to get ready.

We had a bit of a cupcake catastrophe:

eeek!

But I used my magic skills to fix it, and then we ended up with these delightful caramel-popcorn cupcakes!

 Candy bar!

Katie made these film reel decorations (BY HAND!!) which I stuck around the room.

Eli's Ironman chest. Those muscles are totes real.

We had some rather potent punch and played beer pong all night! :)

1920's costume party

It's no secret that I adore costume parties -- see this post for a photo of the costumes I made for my boyfriend and I when we attended a 1990's party for proof!

Basically any kind of theme is always going to make a party 100 times more fun for me, especially if I can get super creative and make my own costume out of nothing or things I have lying around.

The other night my sister and I waved our hair, donned pearls and rolled our stockings down (and all that jaaazz!!) for our friends 1920's themed house warming party.

{image}

Now, if I'm going to dress up, I'm going to put some effort in so I did some research on what the ladies were wearing back in the roaring twenties - I wanted to look a little bit more authentic than just a fringed dress and feather boa.

{image from my pinterest}

A lot of the images I came across showed very layered and busy looks, lots of draping fabrics and different lengths in the one outfit.

I found that the colour palette of the 20's tended to be fairly neutral - brown, cream, black and blush tones were standard, but deep, rich colours were also in vogue - think emerald green, dark royal blue and sultry deep reds.

There was also a big influence from 'exotic' Asian cultures in the types of fabrics and prints worn.

{all images from my pinterest}

So here's what we wore!

I went for a slip-like night dress with lace trim and an uneven hem, with a sheer gown over the top for layering. I wore pink fabric-covered pearls, cut off some old nude stockings and rolled them to under the knee (they stayed there with the help of some elastic tied around my leg under the roll) and some vintage shoes.

My sister wore a different slip - very plain but with a ruffled layer, an amazing bat wing batik-print jacket, black pearls and a fringed necklace, a turban (with her long hair stuffed underneath to create a faux-bob), rolled black stockings and simple brogues.

For my hair and makeup I tried to channel the beautiful Clara Bow a little. My hair was already curled somewhat 30's styled from the night before so I simply grabbed the ends and rolled them under a little, pinning them to my head to make sure they stayed.

For the "finger waves" I used my triple barrel curler and just clamped down for a few seconds, then clipped the waves in place to cool and hairsprayed the crap out of them!

I extended my eyebrows as per the 1920's style and filled them in to look rather thin and straight-ish, the eye makeup is kind of easy once you get the right shape happening because you can be a bit messy with it!

I also had some extra makeup help from watching this video I found on Youtube:

The party was so fun, and I was amazed at how many people really got into the theme - the costumes were fantastic! Even most of the gents dressed up in suits and suspenders and hats which I just love to see.
What do you think? Did we do the look justice?
I have another costume party coming up this month so I can't wait to share my outfit for that one with you!