not a girl. not a robot.

Jason: And to Janet, the best robot. 

Janet: Not a robot. 

Jason: Girl. 

Janet: Not a girl. 

Jason: And straight-up hottie. 

Janet: I am attractive, yes.

2020 is SUPER WEIRD guys!
i didn't even think about making a costume this year, but who really has anyways?

though i did realize that i never did the post i promised from last year's halloween costume.  so, 365 days later... here we are!

disclaimer: if you have not watched the good place, please note that i'm not a flight attendant.  also, if you haven't watched the good place... go do so now.  4 seasons of delightful mike schur feel good fun.

watching the series, janet was pretty much my favorite character.

seeing her evolve and grow from being not a robot and not a girl to a straight up awesome individual was so much fun to watch.  when the series was ending, i knew i needed to be janet for halloween, while she was still "relevant" as a tv character.  
granted, she'll always be relevant to me... but that's neither here nor there.
so since we're a year behind, here's some photos i made my dad take this past weekend so that i'd have something beyond dark phone photos for y'all

i was so determined to find the actual fabric for janet's shirt somehow, some way... and after searching for a good long while... i did!

and of all places, it was project runway's favorite fabric shop, mood (thank you, mood!)  now finding a pattern for all the pieces though... THAT was an adventure.  the vest pattern was sized down from something else we already had (because apparently finding vest patterns are quite difficult these days, and the skirt came from a few rounds of buying patterns that i thought were the right style but then i'd compare and go "nope"

since i'm a quilter by nature, i absolutely did a test run on this shirt pattern before cutting up my fancy mood fabrics.  so somewhere around this apartment is a very harry belafonte blue and yellow ruffle front shirt, because i ran out of fabric to do a practice one in a solid color.  it's SUPER attractive, really.  the worst part of this was the zipper, because i just couldn't quite do it right.  i know i pulled it apart at least twice, and left it for my mom to do.  two thumbs up for having a costumer mom who is WAY more familiar with stretchy fabrics and such than i am.  i also sized down the vest a little too much, so i'm quite surprised i didn't hulk out of that thing at any point. i am still super stoked with how this all came together, even if people thought i was a flippin' retro flight attendant.  maybe at some point we'll still get to throw together the good janet/bad janet/michael combo with my sister and my dad like we had planned for our dance recital... unless we come up with some other crazy idea to go with instead!
and for good times sake, here's some halloween throwbacks from 2019 in the costume.

cheers to a weekend that i actually did stuff

friday
saturday
sunday
trying to not be a liar about blogging more.
trying really hard.
sorta...

halloween costume - 2011

i can't really title this one a flashback, since today is halloween and i wore this two days ago! so here it is, the long awaited "secret" costume! i originally had NO CLUE what to be this year for our now 2nd annual bowling night, and when ariana threw out the suggestions of "jessie or mrs. buzz lightyear" the idea wheels started turning. pieces were slowly purchased one by one and the designing began.
lots of blue tape and paint helped get the right shape of the front piece. i painted all the main parts first, and then added on the button and "lights" detailing. the skirt was made from the pirate costume pattern, and i found some awesome rick rac to go along the seam line to create the "belt" part. i wish i was cool enough to say that i made the bow, but i didn't. not yet at least! i'm sure i could crank some of those puppies out easy peasy!
my shoes were fun :) i found a tiny can of spray paint at the craft store and painted the bottom of the shoes. the green is the same that was used on the top to create the "toe" part of the boot look. since we went bowling, i didn't get to wear the shoes TOO long - which may have been a good thing. they were a 10 wide... i wear size 11 normal.
and in true "toy story" fashion, the bottom was painted to mark ownership :)
the gloves were going to be true gloves... but i can't ask too much of gloves on clearance. my fingers were too long, so i cut off the finger tips and seam ripped out the thumb. probably a good idea, since i couldn't imaging trying to bowl with satiny fingers.here was my "model" that hung around the living room as i painted and watched friends. yes, costume making and nick at night do go hand in hand.now for the action photos! i realized most were NOT full length shots, so here is the best i could do.the ladies! what we have is a clown, 80's prom, a devil, mrs. buzz lightyear, and a pink lady from grease.everyone that came! definetly another good turn out with lot's of costume variety. and don't mind me. i'm "shooting my lazer" like chris (the "chimney sweep") told me to.
happy halloween everyone!

halloween flashback - 2010

this costume could easily be noted as my favorite costume to date. it was super easy to make, super fun to wear, and people knew what it was too! the year before i was in k-mart with my mom and sister and found a green striped tennis dress and tried to convince her to be "stevette" for halloween that year. she didn't go for it at the time, so the next year, i swooped in and made it my own!
i asked kasey to draw me a "handy dandy notebook" since everywhere online wanted 20+ dollars for one. i used a plain ringed album i bought from joanns.com and "borrowed" my sister's crayon that she still had for some reason.
blue of course HAD to be part of the costume, and i found this adorable one at goodwill for $1. we went bowling the saturday before halloween, and she went ahead and hung out with everyone there. best purse dog ever!
the shirt was the most time consuming part. lots of blue tape and lots of fabric paint. the polo shirt came from goodwill, and the fabric paint from joanns. lots of measuring to make sure the lines were even and straight. i did all of the front first, and then all of the back. it was a very happy day when it was all complete, that's for sure!
just for kicks, here are some of the "in action" photos from our halloween bowling night! the event will be repeated this year, but just WAIT to see what costumes we have in store for you :) but you'll have to wait another week for that!
and this would be chris. he also made his own costume. the wig was cut and done by his sister, and his cape is made from a tablecloth and rhinestones. he's pretty legit! (and if you don't "get"who he is supposed to be, click here!)

halloween flashback - 2008

apparently i dated all these photos a year off when i saved them to my computer, but they're really 2008 once i did the math. anyways, round 2 of halloween flash back comes from my retail mall working days. we (ariana & i) were schedualed to work on halloween, and needed some pretty much awesome costumes. with the help of t-shirts, fabric, and a little this a that, batwoman and superwoman shirts were created.
to do the fronts, I used fabric pieces and wonder under to get the "logo" look. google images got me an image for each logo, and i traced them on the outer fabric. once ironed down, i zigzagged the raw edges to keep them from fraying. instead of machine stitching them to the shirt, i used a whip stitch, incase for some reason i wanted to take the logo off and use the shirt for something else... but as you can see, three years later they are still intact.
the headband was an oval shape i threw together and made work, with a piece of elastic going from end to end. the cape was another super easy addition. it was made from a yard of fabric folded lengthwise after hemming the edges. a small casing was put in to string a piece of elastic through, and then safety pinned to the collar edge on the shirt. yes, there were "in action" photos taken that day, but my camera didn't have a memory card in it... three years later, they're still stuck on the internal memory because i cannot find the usb cable. these lovely "action" shots were taken for my birthday :)

halloween flashback - 2007

so for the rest of month of october, weekend wips is going to take a little vacation, and instead we're going to have a little blast from the past halloween visit. the next four mondays will be dedicated to costumes that i have made myself over the past few years, whether it be sewn from scratch, or some bits and pieces put together to make something worthwhile. and to kick it off, we're going back to 2007's pirate costume!
i have to start off by apologizing that i cannot find a single photo of me in this actual costume. i know for a fact there are some, because i had my studio photo class ON halloween and as a group we had planned a halloween shoot. between this, that, and the other computer... well... i don't know where they are. anyways, these were quite the experience for me to make, since i had never sewn a corset style top before, or even with that type of fabric.
and check out my mad invisible hidden in the side zipper skills! yeah, i wish i remembered how i did that. love the skirt style. it's a circle skirt bottom with a yolk on top so it is a little bit more "flare-y" out instead of just being a simple skirt. this skirt pattern is making a come back for this year's costume, so be prepared to see that final one!
and here are the patterns used! the skirt was indeed a costume pattern (simplicity 4914) while the top was a basic "fancy" top pattern. (newlook 6671). and yes, i did fall in love with the fabric ON the pattern envelope itself and managed to find it!