Cosplay – Halloween 2013 – Poison Ivy

I love Halloween and Cosplay so it was a very hard decision of which character I should pick. I narrowed it down to 4 different ones: Skarlet (Mortal Kombat), Mad Moxxi (Borderlands), Poison Ivy (Batman), or Black Widow (Marvel).

It was a REALLY difficult choice. I love Mortal Kombat and have always wanted to dress up as a character, but I also didn’t want to be freezing and have almost no clothing on. I liked Mad Moxxi because her outfit is just amazing and so intricate but I decided against her since I’ve never even played Borderlands. I was very tempted with Black Widow, she’s just bad ass and I have been told a few times that I resemble her. I think it’s just because of the red hair and I’m Ukrainian. I choose Poison Ivy, both cartoon version and Batman & Robin version. I went with her because she’s seductive and a “bad guy”. I also seem to have a weakness for Batman related characters, I went as Harley Quinn last year.

I had 2 Halloween parties planned, one for October 26th and one the next weekend on November 2nd. I wasn’t able to get to the leaves by the time the first one came around, so I went as the cartoon version. You can tell with some of the seam details that I wasn’t exactly planning on this, I assumed leaves would cover those parts up – but either way it worked out well and people knew who I was. (No Robert, I wasn’t The Jolly Green Giant’s girlfriend!!!)

To construct the garment I pieced together 2 different BurdaStyle patterns: Bustier Dress with Draped Detail bodice and Panties (This should be called Granny Panties LOL).

I used the bodice of the Bustier Dress and added the panties to the bottom. It worked out great considering the panties are very high waisted. I made sure to pick 2 sizes too big on the panties since I knew the fabric wasn’t as stretchy as typical intimate wear fabrics. I used an army green cotton stretch sateen from JoAnn’s. I decided not to do lining since no one will really see the inside and it’s just a costume, plus I love the look of the construction. I’ve gotten pretty good at making the top part since I’ve done 3 muslins and a dress with lining: Sew Retro: The Perfect Bombshell Dress Review.

I’m really proud of the construction. It fits me so snug but also very comfortable – you know, for having boning! Besides the boning I added bra cups to give a little umpf and also added elastic below the bust line for better support. I didn’t want to wear a bra and I didn’t end up needing to thanks to all that support! Right before we left for the party, I quickly made matching arm cuffs and boot covers.

Here is a picture of me and my husband, he was a character from Breaking Bad. This was my cartoon version:

After that party I had a week to sew on leaves. I bought a ton of them from Hobby Lobby for 50% off. I searched online for tips of how to attach them. Hot gluing would make the whole garment hard and uncomfortable to wear so I decided to hand sew them on. This was hell! I sewed them onto a few parts of the outfit and ran out of time. I did end up hot gluing some of the leaves down on top of each other because they were sticking out crazy.

I measured the shape of my eyebrows and cut out a leaf similar to each one. I then hot glued leaves on top of that one to recreate Uma’s eyebrow leaves. I used eyelash adhesive to attach them right above my eyebrows. Keep in mind, if you do this – YOU DO NOT NEED A LOT OF ADHESIVE!!! I used too much and it caused it to squash out and go into my eyebrows, which meant when I took them off – it ripped out my eyebrows in a weird pattern! SO NOT COOL! I think they are finally starting to grow back.

In addition to the eyebrow leaves, I hot glued leaves to bobby pins for my hair. I also sewed leaves on elastic for my wrists. To finish things off I added leaves onto the boot covers.

Now pictures of me in modeling the “final” version. I want to apologize for the quality of the pictures, I’m not sure what is going on with my camera. I know that I suck at photos and lighting but I think I need to clean the lens because it wasn’t focusing correctly.

And of course, Mr. Guinness had to participate!

I talked my friend Ashley (you may remember her from The Sweetheart Sundress post) into wearing last year’s Harley Quinn outfit. Yay! Two bad girl Batman villains!

Overall I think it turned out great but I wish I had the whole thing covered in leaves. Oh well. I guess I can always go back and do that in the future.

BONUS PICTURE AND TIP!!!