Halloween 2023: Medusa & Poseidon go to a Ventian Carnivale-style Party

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Several years ago, I asked for a sewing mannequin for Christmas and got one. It lives in the attic most of the time, but comes down when I need to work on something. I know how to do basic sewing, but I don’t find it relaxing- with the exception of the joy I get from making a Halloween costume. It comes in varying degrees of satisfaction: the creative process of the idea, the execution of the idea and then the very satisfying finale of the party! Could my ego be a bit stroked by this? YUP! But Halloween ultimately celebrates the creative type more than any other holiday. Halloween asks you to think outside the box and make even the most grand concept a reality. It’s a holiday about play. And those who are willing to play, tend to enjoy Halloween.

So, once a year, creativity converges into a month for people who enjoy it to flex their artistic talent and celebrate it together.

A friend decided to have a costume party at the beautiful Ewing Cultural Arts Center with a Venetian Carnival theme. There was one primary rule: the costumes must have a mask. He provided lots of points of inspiration, was excellent at building hype around the festivities and getting people excited to attend.

Levi and I usually know more than a month out what we’re going to be. I need some lead time to figure out the costumes in my head and do some research (IE: excessive Pinteresting) on how I want them to look or function. I’ve made mistakes in the past, for example: you cant see anything out of the Waldorf and Statler masks I made. I should have tested them in dim lighting, but darn it, they look good! Also, we’re in Illinois, the odds of being too hot or cold in a costume is a real gamble. More often, it’s cold-so the costume needs more insulation or even just sleeves.

For Poseidon and Medusa, I wanted to use some of the classic Venetian looks, but tie in a central theme. Green was an obvious choice for her and blues for Poseidon, but I wanted to bring some brocade in. We went to the fabric store and even though their brocade section was small, it had a prettypastel green and a bronze/blue that I thought I could make work. I got complementing chiffon for my costume and some gold trim.

We went to the Halloween store to find mask bases for me to do up. I found nothing for myself that day. I knew I could put a mask together quickly, so I opted to wait. For Levi, its been my experience to make his as comfortable as possible. So I usually let him pick something that he finds comfortable and go from there. He jokingly picked up a Batman mask and put it on, but was surprised at how well it fit. I knew, if he liked the way it felt, to go with it. Also, it was flat black-and easy base to start from. The real trick was a see if I can get it to NOT look like Batman.

For Medusa, I wanted to hint at the Greek draping and cording, but also keep the fullness of the Venetian skirts and the structure of the bodice. She needed to have power, but also a little whimsy.

For Poseidon, I wanted more of a military look. He needed to have some grandness. I also wanted Levi to be able to wear regular pants and shoes.

I don’t use patterns much, if at all. If I need a pattern, I usually just find something in my closet to make a ‘close enough’ copy of. When it’s a costume, you have more forgiveness if there is a mistake. The lights are often dim and the energy of Halloween doesn’t really require things to be overly tailored. If I were to submit my costumes to the 4H fair, I don’t think I would do very well. But the illusion for a 4 hour party…that takes some of the pressure off to get it exact.

I drape and pin my material to the mannequin and Levi understands he needs to be available to me at certain times to take on and off the piece I’m working on.

His costume came together fairly quickly. I started by pinning the fabric to his clothing and moving it around until I got the collar just right. Sew it, and then back and forth for the other side. This year I only poked him with a pin once, which might be a new record! His white shirt, I ordered off Amazon. The ruffle on the chest would give him a little more drama and I liked the idea of a puffy pirate-style shirt for this concept. It compliments both the Poseidon and Venetian parts of the costume.

The trident was originally red at the top. I bought spray primer in a can at the hardware store and painted over it with acrylic paint. The shells were in a pack at Joann’s. It was just a hot glue gun and a goal for the trident to look full. The shells originally had some pretty blues and oranges, but once they were on the trident and held up to the jacket, I knew I needed to paint them. So paint them I did.

Same for the mask: spray with primer, paint and then go over with a light brush of bronze. I decided to cut the ears off and that was the right call. It created a nice line at the top for me to glue the shells on for Poseidon’s crown and paint to match the shells on the trident.

The weight of the trident was making me a bit nervous. A prop can really complete the outfit, but it can also become a chore to carry around. I knew if Levi needed both hands, he was going to lean it against the edge of the table, it would fall and break immediately. So I decided to create a way for him to carry it without it being in the way. Like a sheath for a sword or a quiver for arrows, Levi needed something across his back. I took 2 space pieces of  leftover brocade and made a martingale and then added another strap at his right shoulder blade so the trident would still peek over his shoulder, participating in the costume’s feel, without him having to fuss with it. Levi went along with it, but didn’t really understand why I wanted that for him until party-time. He thanked me at least 3 times during the party for adding that! Lol!

For Medusa, I already had this black strapless bridesmaid dress with a full skirt that I have used for many things because of its classic shape. My goal was to make a piece to go over the dress and use the dress to fill it out (and keep me warm). As I was pinning pieces to the mannequin, my thoughts immediately went to the idea of a kitchen apron. And that was how I started to build out my dress. I like to give myself some time to walk away from a costume (more than once) as I come up onto areas where I get stuck. I definitely needed to walk away from this one a few times. I go the front together quickly, but getting the back together was a bit trickier. Do I do a zipper? A corseted close?

I put a snap closure at the waist in the back and then to close the bodice, I made a mock-corset close with black ribbon.

But I didn’t test it out. Whoops. [I’ll return to this]

My mask I found on the 2^nd trip to the Halloween store. I had picked up a large snake headband on the 1^st trip and couldn’t figure out how to get it to stay, it was popping off my head, too heavy and too wide. I’m 5’2”, everyone will be brushing by me and hitting this thing all night if I wear something that wide.

The week before the party, in the middle of the night, I had a dream to make it into a fascinator. And during the 2^nd trip to the Halloween store, I saw a cute little black top hat attached to a headband.

I got both the top hat and a pretty gold mask, one last trip to Joann’s (not really, I still had one more to go) and went home. There I pulled out the glue gun and went to work. I took a sharp knife and cut up with snake head piece, figured out how I wanted it to look and started gluing. I had some gold flowery stuff for wreaths that I added, some flowers and jewels, but at Joann’s they had a string of battery operated fairy lights. I thought that could be a cool thing to add to my hat! And I could put the battery pack in the hat to hide it. The hat came together pretty quickly. I added flowers, feathers, snakes and jewels to the mask and then went into the drawer to find an old pair of sunglasses. With something on my head, I was going to need a different way to navigate the mask, so I cut off the elastic band and glued a pair of frames to the inside. Comfortable, easy to take off and functional.

So lets see…for my costume, I wanted it to be pretty, warm, functional, dramatic, with lights and I needed a pocket of some kind.

Using some of the leftover brocade, I made a simple envelope bag with a Velcro close. I was going to pin it to the dress, but got in a hurry and was worried it was going to come off, so I glued it to the skirt under the draping sleeve to camouflage it a bit.

The weather report was saying between 45-55 degrees Fahrenheit and possible rain. My dress is sleeveless. Hmm…this seems like a job for a shrug.

I found this excellent tutorial for a dancers shrug and back to Joann’s I go for the fabric. I look in almost every isle, but come back to this pretty mauve stretchy velvet. It was perfect. You could still see the goldsnake arm band and it went with the dress without looking heavy. I was a comfortable temp all night!

The night of the party, Levi and I get ready, we played with the idea of doing makeup on him, but scrapped it quickly. I added some drama around the eyes and mouth and that was really it. The hair was sprayed and pinned to withstand any wind gusts (we’re in Illinois, they can be pretty strong) and then it was time to get me in the dress.

As soon as we get the dress over me, the corset back was scrunching together…crap. The party starts in 30mins. We play with it in front of the mirror a bit, Levi helps me take it off, I go to my sewing table, cut off the ribbon and sew the two panels together. Hopefully I didn’t just make my dress to small to get into. After a tiny bit of maneuvering my bits, the dress is on and it fits! 

I get the hat on and it’s time to party!

We got there right at dusk, so the lights on my hat were impactful, the purse was easy to get into and my mask wasn’t too hard on my face. We were able to have a great night, people ‘got’ our costumes right away (whew). The whole evening was fun to talk and move about such a beautiful place with fun people. 

The event itself was full of activity, tarot reader, tin-type photography, poetry, pumpkin carving contest, food trucks and more! Even the rain and cooler weather added to the ambiance.

Yay for Halloween!