Pokemon for Halloween 2016

This Halloween I have had so much going on that I fully intended to re-use an old costume, maybe make some edits to the Bloody Mary or something.  My plans to take it easy were foiled when I became addicted to playing Pokemon Go with Isaac.  The more drawing of human adaptations of Pokemon I saw, the more I wanted to accept the challenge of making a fun Pokemon costume.

The rules were to use fabric I already had.  So I poured through my stash to see what I had, then started looking at ideas.  I had nearly everything for Victreebel.

The green crushed velvet left over from my Poison Ivy costume (2006?), I have no clue where the yellow even came from (someone else's stash?) but I had plenty. I had a sliver of pink for the top leftover from a dress I made in 2005, and white stiff poly for the eyes and teeth.  The only items I had to purchase was a yellow zipper, a bullwhip and pipe insulation.

Stitching the leaves was the easiest and most fun part to make.  Since I wanted the top to loop open, I hand stitched the pipe insulation into the pink fabric first, which made any more sewing on the machine difficult later.  I managed some sloppy darts, but they pressed out somewhat.  I have to remind myself that I'm the only person who notices the issues anyway.  I always feel that Victreelbel has a red mouth so I pinned this to a red bra and wore a neckscarf that I already owned.

I put off stitching the snap at the base of the pink pipe insulation last as I cut the actual foam insulation back a few times for a better fit.  

The eyes and teeth were added last and I attached a leaf to the end of the whip (which pretty quickly was snapped off....thanks Ryan).

When I really think about it, I need to just accept that I'm making a costume every year.  Although under stress of getting jewelry shuffled to galleries, getting into the office more, demands of my house....this was the perfect short-project-with-a-deadline to make me feel better and get back into my artist groove.  I'm about ready to take on holiday once my house is clean(ish).

I did make a Pokeball for Crush this year.  He stayed in his aquarium though.

Added a new decoration idea with a bike that I'm never going to get back to and a posed skeleton, which I have been wanting to start posing skeletons for quite a while, this was a good start...

My friend Kathy sends me a Halloween gift box...this year's had these lovely black martini glasses that say "be wicked" in gold on them.  I think they'll be staying out year 'round.

I'm terrible at remembering to get photos at a party....ah well.