From My Little Hole in the Wall: Emily's Dennison's Bogie Book Costume

We finally got our first cold snap of the season two days ago! The past few days have been extraordinarily pretty, with days in the high 60s, bright sunshine, blue skies, and leaves changing color everywhere. The full moon on the pre-night was as glorious as any harvest moon rising I've seen in the best of the past. It's been an incredible October for me. My gratitude is abundant, but I also know that staying as inspired and busy as I've been attributes much to my serenity. And then there's Halloween. My very favorite time of year. The second month of the 'bers. Summer is but a distant memory now. I never dwell on the recent past. There's just too much life to live in this very moment.

I finally named her. My 1470. Funny, but while I tried to make her one outfit, I just wasn't into it. Kitty Hudson's another story. She's my little muse. What I wanted was to buy all of Doug James's costuming for my 1470, but when they started those Zoom meetings, they sold the clothing

immediately concluding the meeting. And they flew. It hurt. I don't Zoom. I'm terribly self-conscious and it seems rude to silhouette yourself on a Zoom meeting. You're either in or out. Maybe someday I'll change my mind in the future, but I'm a serious introvert and hate photos of myself and being on video. All that said, Emily's Dennison's Bogie Book costume would be the perfect share on one of Doug's Zoom meetings. But I'll stick to my blog and Facebook.

After finishing Dolly's scarecrow costume to go with Grace's Halloween hayride (or western) theme, I had to take a few days to do things around the house. Wednesday came along, and I knew it was either do or die. So, I got busy. Real busy.

First, I had to find a costume to make Emily. Her name came to me while I was sewing this costume.

It was easy to remember (that's half of it), and she just looked like an Emily to me. So, Emily she is!

I don't know why I chose this costume out of so many, but here's a guess. Maybe the hat reminded me of the Polichinelle costumes I made for Louise and Lawrence. Seems reasonable. And I'd made dresses with lappets before, so perhaps I thought this would be easy. And I love the pom-poms. It's a sweet costume.

It's funny, but when people were dressing in crepe paper costumes for Halloween back in the 1920s, they were simply Halloween themed. Today we dress as ghosts, witches, vampires, bugs, animals, horror movie characters, and so on. Quite a change! I haven't done research on this, but my guess is that the availability of masks in the 50's and 60's and pre-made boxed costumes had something to do with it. And it just occurred to me that this is a Polichinelle costume! Yes. This is why I chose it. I've done it before.

Emily's costume is once again, completely made from silk. I do love working with silk. I appreciate the crispness and shine and flexibility of the fabric.

The dress boasts five lappets generously appliqued with pumpkin head characters and little bats. Lots of tinsel black pom-poms. And black shoes with black pom-poms on them.

The shoulder bow-sash adds interest to the rather plain bodice of the dress.

Oh! The bodice. Okay. I had to make this three times. I forget how sloped this doll's shoulders are. When designing the pattern, the shoulder seams must slope down at an angle. This isn't so important for sleeved dresses, but with a sleeveless top, it's a must.

I didn't mention this before with Kitty Hudson's costume, but I've added black netting to the inside of the skirt at the waist, like a sewn in slip, to give the skirt an opportunity to puff out. I think it's a nice touch.

I also had to resew the skirt to the bodice three times. This is a lot of extra work when you're in a time crunch. Why? Because I was trying to exact the look of the illustration by making the bodice longer. Well, guess what? That illustration is of a girl with a very long waistline. It is NOT easy translating an illustration to a costume. No matter how often I do this, it never gets easy. I never do the same thing twice, so there's something new to learn each time I start a project.

The appliques took just as long as the body of the costume. Where on earth was I going to find an image that looked like what the illustrator scribbled on the lappets? I must have spent a good six hours or longer looking for the right image.

I studied the little characters over and over again under my magnifying lamp, and finally realized that these were pumpkin head bogies. The bats were easy to figure out. And guess where I found the pumpkin head bogies? On an old scrap of Dennison's crepe paper! see below I was thrilled. But then I had to figure out how to make them.

They weren't simple black silhouettes like Kitty's cats. Nope. These were colorful. Heather suggested that I paint them. Ever put wet paint to silk? Try it sometime. This would have been a mess.

It took a long evening and a "sleep on it" to figure out that they would have to be done in three stages. Itty bitty pumpkin heads. I think they turned out cute, but I need a serious rest from this tiny, fiddly work.

I didn't have to make the shoes like I did with Kitty's costume. I had a pair of 1470 shoes, and I removed the bow, painted them black, Mod Podged them with gloss, then assembled the pom-poms on them. So, they're not the same as the ones in the illustration. Big deal. A girl in the 1920's would use what she had on hand, and that's what Emily did.

Emily's hat took a couple of whacks as well. This was one of the things that kept me busy. All the rework. However, I spent the entire day, Saturday, until 10:30pm working on this costume. The last thing to be made was the shoulder bow-sash, and I did that this morning.

I finished the costume in time to take a breath and enjoy the last two days to Halloween doing nothing but reading my horror books and watching horror movies. And enjoying my dolls.

It was a busy month. Esme got me started with her pumpkin costume. Followed by Kitty Hudson's kitty costume. Then there was the Club Grace Dolly Dingle costume, and finally something for Emily. I wanted to make one of Ann Estelle's costumes drawn by Mary Engelbreit, but that will have to wait.

One thing I never shared with you was Gracie's second crepe paper lantern. Last year I had just enough time to make her the pumpkin one, but after Halloween I forged ahead and made the owl lantern. I've shared a photo of this below. I also love photos of the costume in progress. So, I took one for you. My poor work surface grows smaller and smaller with all the this-n-that I need while making these costumes. Included in these photos is one of a vintage box to start your decorating that Kitty and Emily might have picked up on their way home from work. A fun page from a Bogie Book. And a real crepe paper dress that lasted the ages! Wow. Love this. I also included this photo of someone's vintage inspired Halloween collection. The shelf was beautifully done. And now I'm off to sit back and enjoy the day in a quiet way.

Happy Halloween! Enjoy every minute of every day!

Melissa