a much cooler Cinderella

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, it is all about eating sweet, dressing silly and hanging out with friends. Over the 20 years I have been here, I have always celebrated at least once, every year (up to 4 times in graduate school!). I have quite a few costume that I made over the years, I reused and repurposed most of them.

This year, I am revisiting my Cinderella costume. I sewed it about 7 years ago when Miss C. was still in preschool, and was dressing up as a princess most days. It was a very traditional Cinderella dress, all blue.

I wore it with a big petticoat (actually the one from my wedding!), gold shoes, white gloves and a blue headband.
(wasn't she the cutest?!) Well this year, I am going with a steampunk version! I find steampunk so interesting and fun, it can be quite dark, but I like my Halloween campy and not scary!

So I literally pulled up my skirt and petticoat (thanks to some useful sewing clamps), put on some boots and heavy socks with a little lace details, and that took care of the bottom half of the dress.

Then I added big black belts, one at the waist, the other across my upper body. I attached a few accessories to these belts: my grandpa's pocket watch, an ostrich feather purse and a fan.

(if you have read "Waistcoats and weaponry " by Gail Carriger,  you know a fan is a weapon! Miss C. is reading the series and truly enjoys it) No steampunk is complete without gloves, so I put on my Vivienne Westwood leather gloves,  there is even a cute embroidery on them  (I purchased them about 25 years ago)

I added my original black neck ribbon and glitzy earrings.

All dressed up and nowhere to go? So I hosted the party..... Come back tomorrow to check it out! "update: it is here"
Happy Halloween