Masquerade on a Budget

Today I'm going to tell you how to make stunning masks for your next Masquerade ball without the stunning price tag.I'll be using my masks from this year's Burlesque Masquerade Ball as examples of the finished product.

What you will need:
Some basic masks from your local discount store. For us Kiwi's try $2 shop or Coin Save.
Feathers. I used left over feathers from my Burlesque bustle.
Glitter and glittery paint.
Sequin, rhinestones, other such embelishments.
Hot glue gun loaded with hot glue.
Gaffer tape or other strong tape, cellotape will not work for this as it isn't durable enough.
Newspaper to cover the area you are working on. Be warned, if you aren't careful, glitter goes EVERYWHERE!!!

These supplies will cost you around $10-$20 and can be used to make multiple masks, maybe go in with some friends to make a bulk buy.

Obviously you need to think about the colour of your costume. This will affect what colour glitter you buy. The colour of the mask doesn't matter because if any colours don't match your costume you can just cover them with one that does.

First example:

This mask was originally blue and red. My costume was black and red so I took the glittery paint, painted over the the blue. While the paint was still wet I took a handful of black glitter and sprinkled it over the paint.
When it was dry I simply held the masks upside-down over the newspaper and tapped the back to make sure any loose glitter fell away.
Next I lined one eye with sequins.
To do this, take your hot glue gun and place one drop of glue where you want your sequin, place your sequin over top and hold for a moment so the glue dries.

Do not do a line of glue around the eye and try to stick multiple sequins on at once because the glue will dry too fast and your sequins wont stick. Doing it one at a time takes longer but you can be more precise with placement and it ensures your sequins are secure.

Now for the feathers! You may want to play around with placement before you glue anything into place.
Again, you'll need your glue gun. I also recommend doing the feathers individually just to make sure the glue dries properly around each one.
As you can see, the feathers are glued onto the back of the mask. This ensures people don't see the stalks or lumpy glue.
Once you've attached your last feather, take your gaffer tape or whatever equivalent you have and place a strip over the stalks where you glued them into place. This has the double effect of stopping the stalks poking into your head and also providing extra stability for your feathers.
For my leaves I placed hot glue straight onto the feathers then put the leaves over top. These leaves are actually just woven fabric so the glue came through onto my fingers a little bit, I sprinkled more glitter over the top just to hide the glue slightly.

Second Example:

This mask was originally purple and green. You can still see a little bit of the purple under the red glitter.

Again, I painted over the colours I didn't want with the glittery paint then sprinkled a handful of red glitter over the top of the pant while it was still wet. 

For something different I chose to stick the feathers on sideways for this mask. This also hides the ribbon which holds the mask on.

For the leaves I glued the black one onto the red ones first and covered them in glitter then, once the glue was dry, I made a line of glue from the corner of the mask onto the feathers and stuck the leaves on top of that. 

So there you have it, your very on how-to on making a gorgeous masquerade mask with out the massive price tag!

"Burlesque is the Accidental Stripper" -Leda Petit

Today I'm going to tell you how to make your very own feather bustle for around $20 NZ.
This is a really simple project which can easily be done in an afternoon and it makes a very elegant addition to any burlesque/masquerade costume.

This is essentially what the finished product will look like. Yours may of course be a different colour/shape but that's up to you! I went with red because my dress was red, makes sense really.

What you will need:
Some cellotape.
Hot glue gun loaded with glue.
6 Ostrich feathers around 30 cms in length.I bought mine from an ostrich farm.
One jaw style hair clip with some form of decoration, the flower on mine worked well.
A large safety pin or kilt pin (the kind they use to keep the kilt closed)
Apologies for bad quality, took this shot on my cellphone.

The first thing you need to do is separate the hair clip, they come as two pieces connected by a spring but you only need one side.
Hold onto the other side and the spring, you can re-attached them later and make an outrageous head piece.

The first thing you need to do is line your feathers up between the jaws of the clip which looks something like this, I had to draw it as I forgot to take a picture.

Tape the stems in place and hold it against your butt to see if the feathers are in the right place, if not, adjust till you're happy with the placement. You may want to play around with layers of different colours.

Once you are happy with your feather placement, time to glue them in place.You may choose to go with the slimmer look like my finished product or wider as above. 

Don't be stingy with the glue, use plenty and make sure you hold the feathers in place while the glue dries, otherwise they pull away from the clip and wont be very stable.

Once the feathers are secured in place, time to attach your bustle!

For this step you will need your safety/kilt pin. You're going to slide it through the holes in the clip which were originally used for the spring. The pin needs to be quite large in order to reach all the way through.

Again, I forgot to take a picture so here is a rough drawing of what I mean:

When you actually put it on your dress/costume you will need to slide the pin through the first hole, then through your clothing, then through the second hole.

As for where to place you bustle, I find about an inch above where your butt crack (pardon the terminology) ends. Basically, where the curve of your bottom ends and the curve of your back begins, this makes the feathers stick out slightly instead of curling into your body, it also makes them sway and bounce as you walk.

Again, the finished product should look something like this:

Here is the lovely Leda Petit displaying her $300 feather bustle made by Wellington corsetier, Flo Foxworthy

Enjoy your new Burlesque feather bustle! Don't be afraid to get a little cheeky with it, shake your tailfeathers!

Getting under my skin.

I could spend forever trying to think of a clever way to introduce my blog then segue into actual content, but I am lazy and decided to just type whatever came to mind, so there you go.

I created this blog as a sort of creative outlet for myself.

Since leaving high school I discovered my love of cosplay and my ability to pull costumes together out of what other people would see as scraps and trash.

I chose the name "In Your Skin" because that is what really draws me to cosplay, the ability to step out of myself and become comfortable in someone else's skin for awhile. I've always felt more at ease in another person's skin so I used that idea to name the blog.

I should probably point out right now that while I love making costumes, I have very little actual skill. I hand sew almost everything because I'm terrified I'll screw it up beyond belief if I machine sew. I also very rarely make a costume from scratch. All of my costumes have come from re-using old clothes/material/items I had lying around.

With this in mind, my blog will still offer a form of "How to" guide on making your own costumes. The upside of this is that all of my costumes cost me less than $40 ($15ish US).

So if you are looking for tips and tricks and how-to's on costume making, I most certainly hope I can help you. Not so much in a start to finish guide but more of a here's how you can make something amazing out of what you have lying around.

I love a challenge, so if you have any costume ideas that you would like to see done then let me know. I'll see what I can come up with.

So  take my hand, if you dare, come with me on this journey In Your Skin.