UGH! I feel like it's kind of a slam at handmade. I thought the homemade Iron Man costume was great! (well, until the light fell off, but some hot glue can fix that!) I think it was a brilliant idea to use a touch light for the Iron Man's reactor thingy. If I had been that little boy, I would have thought "Wow, my mom is so awesome for making this for me!" It takes more creativity to lovingly make a costume than to just go buy a plastic one! My mom always made our costumes growing up, and I liked it that way. I never even had a desire to go get any cheap storebought character costumes.
Case in point...
The year was 1999. Star Wars: Episode I had just come out. I was 17 and had gotten some comments from some people that they thought I looked like Natalie Portman, the actress who played Queen Amidala. I think she's prettier than me, but anyway, those compliments got the wheels turning and I decided that I wanted to dress up as Queen Amidala for Halloween...
I told my mom about it, and my wonderfully crafty mother (a woman who insists that she "can't sew") gleefully took on the challenge and MADE me this costume! And it was (and is) so much better than any cheap, overpriced thing we could have bought at the costume store!
I told my mom about it, and my wonderfully crafty mother (a woman who insists that she "can't sew") gleefully took on the challenge and MADE me this costume! And it was (and is) so much better than any cheap, overpriced thing we could have bought at the costume store!One of the biggest challenges of the costume was the elaborate headdress. Mom bought a pool noodle, stuck the ends onto a wooden dowel, and pinned/glued hair extensions onto it. She then built the rest of the headdress out of gold fabric, red lace, cardboard and...lamp parts for the very top.
A cool little "secret" about the costume is the gold filigree design on the front of the costume. Mom used gold fabric paint, and wrote my full name in cursive, then mirrored it, so that to the untrained eye, it just looks like a scrolly design. Oh...and the little balls around the bottom?...clear Christmas ornaments stuffed with colored cellophane. And on the nights I wore it, we would put glowsticks in the balls so they would glow (the little balls light up in the movie if you look closely).
And I ended up winning every costume contest I entered that year. :)So, whatever Target...don't tell me handmade costumes aren't cool. Handmade costumes ROCK!
your work is amazing.i really enjoy your blog.thanks for bringing such a good post.
ReplyDeleteThe light on the chest seems to be similar to the one on this more developed version: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/5065636161_f5b24a48fd_o.jpg
ReplyDeletefarm5.static.flickr.com/4128/5065636161_f5b24a48fd_o.jpg