Faet'd Threads: The Goblin King

So now we needed to plan another set of costumes, actually five in total. Mel, Shanon, Gretchen, as well as Justina and Gavin who are high energy/younger versions of ourselves. With about 8 weeks to pull this off we needed to get to work, but given that this event required a paid ticket, it was not going to work to have costumes that blended with everyone else. Nope, we were going to stand out - we just didn’t realize how much. Of the five of us, Mel was the natural ring leader as she had the experience and the insane imagination. Our project started innocently enough with Mel purchasing a beautiful red and gold 3-D fabric lace. It was absolutely stunning and something that you just don’t see on the racks anywhere. Of course by this point Mel had already developed a concept of a fire fairy in her mind for her costume which was a vision of flames from head to toe. As for Gretchen and Shanon, they were clueless. All costumes up to this point had been driven by themes or movie characters, and we had never stepped outside of a conventional box before and created something from nothing. But after seeing the different fabrics Mel was going to be working with, Gretchen and Shanon learned that they had to get with the program really quick as the competitive nature in them would not allow them to fade into the background of the fire fairy.

Fire skirt in creation

In order to create something just as spectacular, Shanon and Gretchen needed to become acquainted with Etsy and Pinterest. We quickly became demons scrolling through pages and pages of fabrics on Etsy. It became such an obsession that Gretchen would end up dreaming about images on Etsy. Granted great pleasure can be found in planning and imagining what a costume will become; however, those images can become very annoying when trying to soak up what little REM sleep a mother gets on a daily basis. At any rate, Gretchen had settled on the color purple and Shanon was drawn to her favorite color of royal blue. Those color choices set up the contrast, now it was time to establish the mirroring themes so that continuity would flow between us. As for Justina and Gavin being a couple, we wanted to make sure that they paired well with each other so we began throwing ideas around for them as well.

Over the next several weeks, we worked on selecting laces and fabrics that were going to bring the entire look together. Each costume had an electric vibe that came with the color and fabric choices, and when placed side by side, it was truly a spectacle. All three of us had settled on corset tops paired with skirts that each had different shapes, but similar sewing techniques that created the flow. For Justina and Gavin we had settled on a dark fairy theme that centered on dark reds and blacks. It was such an exciting time because so many different elements of materials were being shipped that it felt like Christmas every time we opened a package. The beauty in this time period is that it was the middle of winter which is typically very cold and depressing for us, so the fact that there was something to open or talk about nearly every day made the dread of winter pass with barely a notice.

Once all of the materials had arrived, it was time to start sewing. The challenge for these costumes was that apart from patterns for the corsets, the skirts had to be modified from patterns that didn’t really live up to the visions in our head. Therefore, a lot of time went into planning to make sure we had the correct volume and lay of fabrics so that we could create the desired effects. It was a saving grace that Mel possessed the needed expertise, because if had been up to Shanon and Gretchen to create these on their own - it would have been SCARY! To prove that point, we had decided it would be nice to have little hand bags to hold a phone and a tube of lipstick. Given that the colors were so unique, it only made sense to create bags from the remnants of the fabrics we used. The idea was to make sacks that had a round bottom and the sides could be cinched at the top. Simple enough, cut a circle for the bottom and a piece of fabric to create the sides. Given that Mel had poured so much of herself into creating these masterpieces, Shanon and Gretchen took the lead on the bags. Circles of organza, satin and interfacing were cut for the bottoms and rectangles of the same fabrics were cut for the sides. To an experienced seamstress, this should have been the easiest of all elements to make. To the two novices wielding the cutting shears, it was anything but simple. It turns out that both satin and organza are not easy to cut accurately given how easily the fabrics shift. Therefore, once all of the pieces were cut, they looked more like they had been cut by ladies who had first downed a bottle of wine in a chugging contest, as opposed to individuals who were giving their best effort at trying something new. Rather than admit that this probably wasn’t going to end well, Shanon and Gretchen left the pieces to be dealt with the next time as the day was almost over.

So the next day comes and Gretchen was late to the sewing party due to a prior commitment. When she arrives she is regaled with the story of the hand bags, and yes, it was dismally pathetic. It turns out when cutting the sides for the hand bag we were trying to create, there is supposed to be a curve cut into the fabric so that it can create the proper shape of the bag, therefore, the giant rectangles that we cut, were definitely not going to work. In addition, the size of the circles we cut would have been better if they were used as hotplates for your largest saute pan as opposed to the bottom of a small hand bag. So, after an insane amount of face-hurting, tear soaked laughter, Gretchen ended up with a bag that looked like a giant deflated balloon. Mel ended up with an orange and red version of a Dora the Explorer backpack, and Shanon was lucky enough to scrape by with a somewhat normal looking bag. It was crystal clear after this debacle, that there was MUCH that Shanon and Gretchen had to learn and therefore, they could not be left to their own devices just yet.

As the final weeks wore down, Mel’s basement looked more like a sweatshop than a beautiful, calm sitting room. There were pieces of fabric and fibers everywhere. Shanon was busily sewing appliques to her corset, Gretchen was getting high gluing crystals on her corset and Mel was drowning in layers of satin, tulle and organza at the sewing machine. All three of us were in a constant state of motion and our kids thought we had lost our minds. Here were three adult women who are raising their families, holding down jobs and yet they were getting completely lost in a moment of chaos covered in fibers and surrounded by color. What was even more baffling for the kids was that their mothers would squeal when packages containing wigs and wings would arrive at the house. This time was most difficult for Mel’s son as he had to walk through our sewing space to get to his room. As all of the elements of our costumes started coming together he would be startled every time he entered that room as he would see shadows of the sewing forms, wig heads and wings in different places in the room. Little did he know, his three mothers would intentionally move things around in such a way that it would make him jump every time…

Throughout this whole process all three of us would fantasize at how cool it would be if we could do this as a business. Of course there were times during those six weeks when we were faced with challenges, stressed that we wouldn’t have enough time, but in the end we loved it. We were together doing something we absolutely loved as it allowed us to be creative and more true to who we are as individuals as opposed to the corporate jobs that we hate. Sometimes it would come up in conversation and sometimes it would be a wistful thought on our own, but it begged the question “What if?”. As the finishing touches were being placed on each costume we could feel the pulse of the question bubbling up more often. Looking at what we had created we were proud and amazed at what we had accomplished. But feeling great about what we had done doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone outside of our little group would give our costumes a second thought. Each of us at that point were hoping that all of our efforts would not go unnoticed at the ball but we really had no idea what to expect. So, we wrapped everything up, packed it in the car and headed to Worcester.

Getting Ready:

When we arrived at the hotel we were a sight for sure as we each had had our make up professionally done and without the costumes, we truly looked like drag queens with outrageous eye makeup. Checking in was quite the experience for the hotel staff as they tried to be polite but we could tell they thought they were checking in women who should probably be “checked in”. The guests in lobby were equally perplexed looking at us and wondering what was going on with this trio with a cart full of items that look foreign in the real world. Nevertheless, inside all three of us could barely contain our excitement as the moment we had worked for was finally here! Over the next few hours we primped, drank wine and primped some more. Justina and Gavin arrived already dressed in their costumes and we realized that this was going to be an amazing night. As we donned head stockings for wigs and pulled corsets tight we really were right out of a scene of The Birdcage and we were loving every minute of it. It turns out our next trip through the lobby was very different. When we stepped off of the elevator, sitting in the lobby was a dance troupe of girls who were probably about 7 or 8 years old. Imagine the look on their faces when a red, blue and purple fairy step off of the elevator? For a moment in time we and the girls felt like we were living in a real fantasy. They swarmed us immediately and moms ran over to take their pictures with “the fairies”. We all felt like it was one of the most special moments we would have that night. If nothing else spectacular happened that night - it didn’t matter. As we waited for the bus to take us to the venue we sat with our thoughts and decided that whatever happens, this was all worth it.