Haunted Maze '08
Victorian Bride


When I found out that this year for the maze I was once again going to be in the Victorian Ghost Graveyard, I immediately decided I was making a new costume for myself. As successful and as much fun as the Child Ghost was last year, I really would much rather wear a costume that doesn't require knee-length skirts at night in the valley. Layers, my friends, layers!

So I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to take one of my concepts for last year's graveyard and raise it from the dead (pun fully intended.) Voila, the Victorian Bride. (click for a larger view)



The layers to this gown are as follows:
The bustle and corset (yes, I'm wearing a corset. It actually does help you stay warm) will be worn over my 'warmth' layers (see below) Over them goes the base skirt (layer 1), which is a flannel petticoat. Did one last year and it saved my life. LOVE IT.

The first layer of the dress itself is a basic white cotton (like if you were cutting the whole thing as a muslin mock-up). Over this goes the second layer, which is actually bleached muslin. The muslin is lighter than the cotton and will therefore 'fly' in the breeze a little better. Over the top of all of this (and the overskirts/drape will be made out of this) is the third layer, home decoration organza in white. It positively dances in the wind and looks so freaking creepy and I can't wait to see this in action. It's also cool, because it doesn't reflect the blacklight, so the white muslin (which looks neon under the blacklight) kind of glows through the organza. So it looks like I'm glowing from the inside out. Which is FREAKY and amazing :0).

I'm thinking I'm going to make the skirts separate from the bodice, but attach the overskirt/drape to the bodice. Just for ease of wearing and washing.

The wig is the New Look 'Naomi' wig in platinum blonde. It's shipping and should be here next week. I have one of those 'bridal wreath' headpieces from Michael's craft store that I'll attach the veil to. The veil is basic white tulle, and what I'm hoping is that it will reflect the black-light enough to become opaque, so when I flip up the blusher, I can scare everyone with my scary glow-in-the-dark skeleton face. Cross your fingers. I hope it works.

Underneath everything, I'll be wearing a fun assortment of long underwear, Underarmor, sweatpants, first-aid heat packs, ski socks, and my brand new hiking boots. Yay!

And as I learned from Vicki last year, I'm hiding a big pocket somewhere on my person (my mom said I should put it in the bustle), because chap-stick, extra gloves, cough drops, cellphone, extra first-aid heat pads, and a flashlight make working this maze a hell of a lot more fun (and safe) and I can't fit more than the chap-stick, cough drops, and cellphone in my bra at one time.

Yeah, take another gander at the '06 Wench. You'd never know I had all of that stuffed down my shirt, would you? :0P


This costume is fairly closely based on the dress Christine Daae wears in the Final Lair sequence of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'The Phantom of the Opera' (the live show- don't even get me started on those pieces of lingerie they called 'costumes' in the film.) with a few changes.


(Photo from the London cast of Phantom featuring Rachel Barrell as Christine. Thanks, Abby!)

• First change- the train is nixed. Totally. Very nearly completely. There's no freaking way I'm going in mud with a train. To risk sounding like my 16-year-old sister, puh-LEEZE.

• Change two- There will be no lace on the front of the skirt. I'm debating whether I want to or not. Because as cool as it looks, it's tres pricey. So.... as of right now, there's no lace. I may actually just make the front panel of the base skirt solid lace, to get a little dimension in there. Again, not sure what's happening.

• Change three- the bodice is recycled from the Child Ghost dress. So obviously, it looks different.

UPDATE 10/4/08:
Well, once again, the final result didn't quite end up like I planned. But I really like what happened, anyway.

Totally body count:

"Ohmygod, I just peed myself!": 6
"I just shit my pants!": 2
"I have to get out of here NOW! Where's the exit?!": 4 after the graveyard alone.

I consider it a good season :0)

  

The scare this year was awesome. Although it didn't work to have the veil in front of my face (it ended up being so opaque that I couldn't see through it!), the wig totally glowed purple, and the way the glow paint went on, it kind of looked like my face was painted on wood. It was creepy as hell. The pictures totally don't do it justice. We repeated the statue act (standing totally still til some dumbass gets up in your face going 'Naw, they're totally fake!", them move and scare the crap out of them), which worked like a charm. I loved my costume (although the skirts were not so much fun considering it rained for 3/4 of the nights we were out there). Oddly enough, the women were more creeped out of the 'scary bride lady' than the men, although once again, the men were more than willing to sacrifice their women as screaming body shields.

God, I love my job :0)