Thrift store costumes are fun!

[auntiemeesh]

Miss Marple is really starting to come together. This is a good thing, since Jabe has stalled out at the 'wait for mask making supplies to arrive' and 'afraid to start cutting fabric' stages. I was supposed to do the skirt tonight, but I stopped at Avalon to browse blouses, then had to make supper, then wanted to find an audio to play while working which meant I had to update iTunes, and then the cat boxes needed to be scooped (seriously - one of the cats pooped on my bed yesterday evening, which poop I found just as I was getting ready to crawl into bed at 11:20 pm - this was a total protest poop and I wasn't even late on the scooping), and one of the boxes was so gross it needed to be completely emptied and scrubbed out. And then I wanted to find the right shoes for the skirt so I'd know the length, and that meant emptying out my closet to find my box o' shoes. And then it was almost nine o'clock. I still need to sweep my bedroom floor (I have no craft table) of all the cat hair before doing anything with the fabric, and it is now officially too late to start thinking about measuring and cutting fabric. If I tried now, tired, I would be almost guaranteed to mess up and ruin my fabric.

I did at least pull out the pattern and look it over. It's a fairly simple skirt, so I think once I do get started, it shouldn't take more than a day or two to get it all put together. I just have to get my sewing brain back and remember what various terms like slip stitch mean. This is the problem with only sewing once every couple of years. All relevant knowledge gets lost in the shuffle between times.

Let me show you how she's coming along. The suit:

The jacket and skirt should, in theory, be the same color, but I couldn't find an actual suit set and none of the skirts quite matched any of the jackets at Goodwill. I'm okay with that, though, because this is a quickie costume being put together on a shoestring budget. And in this picture, the lower button is just sitting on the jacket. It's a one-button jacket but it came with a replacement button, which I will affix. Again, in theory, it should be a three button jacket, but if I can't find a third matching button I will not stress about it.

I found the shirt at Avalon this evening. It is unfortunately rather sheer, but is one of the colors I was looking for, has a nice ruffle, and I have a plan for making it a little more opaque. I also found a nice brooch that works well.


Avalon didn't have any hats or handbags that would work, but the woman who rang me up suggested a couple of places in Shadyside, and one in Lawrenceville, if I can remember the name of it, that might have '30s style hats. I'm going to have to pick up a pair of shoes somewhere as well, but the outfit itself is done.

Comments

[wbkbb.livejournal.com]

Congrats on Miss Marple! Seems like that one came together very quickly. The first picture didn't work for me, but the jacket and blouse look great.

[eve11]

Ooh, Looking good!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Well, the easy parts came together pretty quickly. It's good to have some easy parts to a costume. The hat and handbag are going to take a bit more effort. And I should also find gloves, but may take a pass on that.

[grey-wonderer.livejournal.com]

Love, Love, Love Miss Marple! Great looking costume!

As to the cat poo, I got up the other morning, eyes half open and in my bare feet and nearly stepped in cat poo. One of mine left a deposit right in front of my toilet! Fortunately, I did not step in it but it's no way to start the day out, cleaning poo up before you are entirely awake.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

These cats. They do have their ways of sending us little messages, at the most inconvenient times. Good thing they're so darn adorable. :)

[antbee362.livejournal.com]

Well, you may have motivated me to pay more attention to the litter boxes because I sure don't want cat poop anywhere but the boxes! I hope my girls didn't hear about this protest.
I like the Miss Marple costume. If you tell me the size of the buttons I can look in our bin of old buttons at the shop and see if there are 3 of a kind that might work. I also might have some gloves but am not sure that I have both of the pair.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, it's been a crazy week at work.

The buttons are 7/8 of an inch.

I will make sure that my cats say nothing to your cats about their protest. :)

[ani-no-mouse.livejournal.com]

It all sounds wonderful - except for the litter box issues, of course!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping the litter box issue was an aberration and not the start of a trend!

[penwiper337.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think having the skirt and jacket be two different colors adds to the little old lady-ness of it. You know that if Miss Marple lost the jacket of one suit and the skirt of another, and they were that close of a match, that she would consider it criminally wasteful not to wear them together, especially since you can't get good material any more since the war, etc, etc. ;)

That blouse is PERFECTLY old-ladyish!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

The blouse was a lucky find. I thought that Goodwill would have more of that kind of thing, but they really didn't.