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"Halloween leaf girl" - Unorthodox attempts to build a dryad.

4882 Views 13 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  UnOrthodOx
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Talia is always challenging for me.

I got creepy down, no problem. But she wants to be pretty AND creepy.

She also gets something in her head and don't let it go.

Think it was about a year ago, she had chosen her costume for last year, and we saw this on Faceoff.



She said right then, we needed to do that in 2015.

"Only fall colors. And no ears. And just a leaf crown and dress"

I'm going to have to ask her if she still has her sketches back then.

I told her then we'd have to take a cast of her head so I could work on it. She was most hesitant about that, and would talk about other costumes instead.

You can see just how thrilled she was when I told her whether she liked it or not, we were casting her head no matter what the costume...

(partly because now I have all three of my kids' heads at 8 years old. Yes, that's a saran wrap bald cap.)










With that out of the way, she was fully back onto the Halloween Leaf Girl idea. We looked at some dryad pics, and come up with a plan.

The crown was relatively easy, considering I used to help my mom make wedding arrangements. liquid latex to attach the silk (and feather) items to a headband.



Where I'm presently struggling is with the dress.

My sewing prowess consists of hand stiting things specifically to look BAD.

However, I did make some armors back in 2011.



The sewing of the capes and skirt came from a neighbor that has since moved.



So, the INITIAL plan was to create something along those lines with a bark look. "Just glue pieces of the bark on" (Talia's idea).
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Trying the bark armor plan it wasn't TERRIBLE, but I realized it wasn't going to work great.



However, that "skirt" was a real treasure we stumbled on. (it's actually a scarf I've mangled). So, we went back and bought a black version for a new skirt, and I managed to piece together something semi resembling a dress from the first piece.

World's ugliest seam in the back will mostly be hidden by hair. Flowers and leaves will get attached through the dress. Still working out how to do the skirt.




Open to advice from the more beauty oriented among us.

Especially with suggestions for makeup, which is where we want a bit of creepy to come in.

To give you an idea, this is about the peak of my skills in that area (and granted, the first time I've tried, usually leaving this stuff to the boss). It's not terrible but not great either.



However, that was a facepaint kit, which at least I'm familiar with theatrical makeup having made plenty of zombies in my day. I'm wondering if more proper "real" makeup would work better for something like this? Is there any good tricks to using "real" makup? Anyone ever done fall colored makeups?
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There's still a seam up the back of the skirt to sew, but mostly done. Gotta decide what to put underneath..
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start with a green or brown thrift store dress

cut an asymmetrical hem

glue on tons of fall foliage from the dollar store (individual leaves) with a glue gun or fabric glue

for legs and arms use brown tights or leggings with bark lines drawn on in sharpie or fabric paint


just an idea hope it helps!
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My patience for working on this is fairly limited because it makes my hands hurt, so it's going to take time, but you get the idea.

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Not happy with the makeup around the eyes for take 1. Take 2 is tomorrow...

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Good for her for being brave about the casting!

The dress and crown look great.

What if the makeup were light then dark? Or like you have it, dark then light but with a dark outline?

I'm sure you guys will come up with something as terrific as the rest of it.
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Take 2: (note to self, use a towel around her when powdering...)

(also, curse ye iphone camera...looks better, should have taken the time to pull out Vera)



Mixed a touch of green into the gold this time, which was my biggest complaint. Also extended the rose over the eyes and the bronze under. Wondering if a touch of green in the overall foundation wouldn't be a bad idea.



Her "straight face", trying to be creepy. Yes, there's a staff too.

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I was liking her costume so much, I decided to make it a couple's costume...

The boss took over her makeup this time.



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Love this! She looks fabulous - like an autumn dryad (I've seen illustrations from the art art nouveau period that remind me of her costume) and yours reminds me of the green man leaf god faces. Great job!! :cool:

http://www.magickmermaid.com/images/Autumn Greenman Print.jpg
^What Frankie's Girl said. You're like the sequel to "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
What a fun idea! Those are fantastic costumes. You look great together!
Love this! She looks fabulous - like an autumn dryad (I've seen illustrations from the art art nouveau period that remind me of her costume) and yours reminds me of the green man leaf god faces. Great job!! :cool:

http://www.magickmermaid.com/images/Autumn Greenman Print.jpg
PRECISELY what I was going for. Everyone I know locally didn't know what a green man was...

Can't see it in these pics, but there was moss glued all up the outside of my arms as well. (and that's spanish moss glued in my beard, btw)
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Still going through pics...the boss really nailed the makeup.





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