Halloween 2014 : Alice and the Mad Hatter
I know Halloween is over and Thanksgiving is TOMORROW and sadly becoming lost in the race for Christmas.
I don't mean to prolong Halloween, but we've had many people comment on and ask about Craig's costume in particular that I figured I would post about the details!
Let’s go down the rabbit hole, shall we?
The following images were our reference photos :
Before Halloween, Craig surprised me with tickets to see Alice in Wonderland, the ballet, held at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The ballet was absolutely beautiful and I loved the creativity they put into the production! The music was captivating and the dancers' movements were so fluid, making their career choice seem so effortless! The hooka smoking caterpillar was my most favorite! Gosh, she was beautiful, and the music and her dancing were truly hypnotizing. I always walk away from seeing a ballet or musical production thinking I should've made a different career choice and joined a company like that! The world is a stage.
Anyway, I've also seen random parts of Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland and I've seen Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland once. Both are very fun, however, my most FAVORITE version of Alice in Wonderland is this one! It is a made for TV movie musical made in 1985, and it is amAzing! The Jabberwocky is “creepy”, it's the right amount of cheesy, the songs are original and memorable, and come on...Ringo Starr, Scott Baio, Sammy Davis Jr., and John Stamos (Uncle Jesse, anyone?) make up only a small part of the all-star cast! Put the tea on and choose your favorite tea cup because you must sit and enjoy one of my favorite childhood memories!
-2014-
Alice and The Mad Hatter
OUTFIT DETAILS
ALICE
Like I’ve stated before, you can find costumes that look incredibly similar to what a character wore, but more often than not, they can be pricey and take forever to arrive at your doorstep! I found my dress (apron included) for a cheap price on eBay, and I was extremely lucky that the seller was located within the United States—which meant that the dress would arrive well before Halloween. Although the dress emulated the 1950s Alice, I bought a curly wig made by Disney to look like Tim Burton's version of Alice. To complete my outfit, I bought white tights from Target and found the perfect black shoes at a thrift store—complete with a strap across the foot and 2 sizes too small. ;) Oh, and I bleached my eyebrows. ;)
THE MAD HATTER
Craig's costume was an entirely different story! Due to his work and school schedule, it left him with zero time to search for costume items. Luckily for him, I always try to be a wife to the rescue! I had already bought his hat (with wig attached) and his eyebrows from eBay, but the rest of his outfit was pretty much a hodge podge of thrift store, closet, and creativity. I hit the thrift store on my own, all the while referencing the picture of Johnny Depp! I knew I wouldn't find a jacket completely like his, but I still wanted something with a weird pattern that could look Mad Hatter-esque. Unfortunately but fortunately, I found myself in the women’s jacket section with a potential possibility in hand. We're almost the same size so I tried the jacket on myself. It was extremely tight in the arms, but I figured Craig could shove his muscles through and deal with any lack of circulation. ;) The only other items I found to be useful from the thrift store were a polka dotted scarf and some scrap material I could use to make his hand wraps. I didn't want to waste time running to a ton of other thrift stores so I came home and searched through his closet hoping to find the rest of the clothing items he needed! The Mad Hatter is all about being mixing prints and being unmatched—remember what I said in my previous post : use your own flair and creativity! I found a teal colored striped shirt (nixing the pink dress shirt Johnny Depp wore), black wool striped dress pants, a striped black vest, and brown dress shoes. Perfect. The Mad Hatter would not be running around naked.
Unfortunately, it was then that I realized that maybe our idea was too crazy. My costume was simple and easy enough while his costume had too many details—the ribbons, the hat pins, the sash of thread, the lace cuffs, not to mention the makeup! For just staying home and handing out candy, this was getting a bit ridiculous! But, I told myself, it would be ridiculously fun. So I went to Walmart and found some wide, colorful ribbon on clearance, cheap striped socks (2 different pairs), Heat Bond and safety pins (because I don't sew), 5 twelve-packs of cheap spools of thread, and a peacock feather, long needles, and a button to finish off the hat from eBay. My last stop was Hobby Lobby where I bought some lace for the cuffs of the jacket and two more buttons to use as hat pins. I was FINALLY done gathering items for the details of the costume, but it was far from complete.
Be sure to check out all of the pictures and below to see how the rest of his costume came together!
MAD HATTER ACCESSORIES
THE HAT
The Disney hat was very similar to the one Johnny Depp wore, but the attachments it came with were a bit cheesy. I kept the 10/6 card, pinned a more realistic peacock feather on the right side and made hat pins out of random buttons hot glued to long needles.
THE CUFFS
Because I don't sew, I used Heat Bond and an iron to secure two layers of lace together under each cuff and safety pinned the ends in place. I then used the 3 pack of gold buttons (shown above) and hot glued them to the outside of the cuffs. Remember, hot glue is to no-sew crafty people like duct tape is to MacGyver.
THE HANDS
Johnny Depp did not wear fingerless gloves, but instead wrapped his hands below his knuckles with fabric. We secured the scrap material (found at the thrift store) around Craig's hands and pinned it in place with safety pins. We ran out of time to rough his hands up with white paint, but he kept to the details by wearing a couple of rings from my personal collection, a thimble, and bandaging his thumb.
THE THREADS
I know you see the spools of thread! To see how to create your own sash using spools of thread click here! :) I bought three different colors of ribbon and cut them the same length. I then attached them with safety pins under the flaps of the pockets. To create the capri style pants, I let my mom and her hemming skills have the year off, rolled up the hems to face inward, and safety pinned them into place.
MAD HATTER MAKEUP
In order to create this Mad Hatter look, my handsome husband shaved and lightly moisturized his face. I then applied Ben Nye's cream makeup in white all over his face and lightly down his neck (I left his ears alone since his wig would be covering his ears). Referencing a picture of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, I used colorful eyeshadows and applied them accordingly onto the eyelids, down the sides of the nose, and blended it in and around the hollows of the cheeks. For the lashes, a white primer mascara would work perfectly for this look, but unfortunately, the one I had bought looked a little sketchy when I took it out of its box. Sad day! I had to resort to using a Q-Tip dipped in the white cream makeup from Ben Nye and gently applied that to the lashes. We opted not to do contacts since he isn't fond of them, so to finish off his eye area, I applied Spirit Gum (also from Ben Nye) slightly above his natural eyebrows in order to secure the Mad Hatter eyebrows in place (I would've trimmed the eyebrows first, but we ran out of time). For his lips, I outlined his natural shape using a lip pencil from Essence in “Red Blush”, blended that into the lip, and then used a lip stain from NYC in “Champagne Stain” to fill in the entire lip giving it a natural and matte look. Lastly, we used a black wax from the Halloween store called Tooth Out to create his tooth gap. And there you have it!
If you don’t know by now, we love Halloween more and more each year. Putting our costumes together may seem like a lot to go through, but we seriously have so much fun. We love seeing each and every kid come to our door and their reactions crack us up—although these kids STILL need a brush up on their classic characters! Their parents may look at us weird for dressing up with no party to go to and happily handing out candy to their kids, but that's what we love to do. Parties mean nothing when there are cowboys, a vending machine (seriously, best costume), Princess Elsas, and zombies to tend to. :)
As always, we hope we can at least inspire you for next year! It's never too early to think about your costumes—seriously, procrastination is killer. Thank you all for the sweet comments and questions about our 2014 costumes! We're just happy that we could bring so many smiles to your sweet faces! We can't stop now! :)
See you in 2015
And now, you may continue preparing your tables and your hearts for Thanksgiving. :)