Babe the Blue Ox Costume... In the making

Pinterest has struck, yet again! For Halloween! :D Having been inspired by other pinners creativity, I recently tried to replicate a fun costume adding my own personal style and flair. Truth is, it was my husband who picked Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox costumes for us after looking at these photos. Often, he is my muse, he'll throw a project at me and I'll immediately make a comment about how its not possible, would take forever, etc ....then after I get over my fear of failure, I dive into the project, usually head first with little thought of just how long the project will take or any idea just how arduous the task might be. I adapt the Nike slogan and "just do it." I'm not 100% sure why, but I normally grumble a bit while working on these projects that he suggests and in the end, once I'm finished... I am SO glad I did them. Go husband. I ain't mad atcha... got nothin but love for ya ;). Ha :)

Originally my husband thought I was going to buy a blue dress to complete the look of Babe the Blue Ox. Instead, I decided I had to make my own, this was the only option in my mind. I mean, how else will the gauntlets and spats match the main portion? Hmmm? O.o

I found black faux fur at Michael's, along with some opaque glitter for the horns. I knew I had leftover air dry clay from my last decoden project, so I had what I needed for hte head piece. My sister and I went to Party City where she found a cow bell (score!) and I managed to locate some fake piercing jewelry, after all, all oxen have a ring in their nose! ;). We found a fake axe for the mister at Party City too! Yay! Later that same outing, lucky me scored some sateen fabric at Joann Fabrics, full of vivid blue hues and black! Once we got home, I pulled out a dress form I'd been given years ago, along with the sewing machine, ironing board, pins, thread, etc. I was pretty clueless as to how I would put this dress together, knowing I had to start SOMEwhere I googled "pencil dress", "fitted dress" eventually stumbling onto Jezebel's DIY for a custom fitted dress blog post. I didn't have muslin, so I improvised with a large sturdy plastic bag. Though it worked, I don't recommend it, halfway through putting the pinned sack on, I realized I could suffocate and should probably be supervised while putting it on. Ha! ;)

Long, long story short... through lots of pinning, adjusting, thinking, trial and error, more thinking, staying up too late, gnashing of teeth, repinning, sewing, seam ripping, sewing again, brainstorming and googling.. my dress... FITS. (Where is my triumphant music?! Insert some here ;)) Yup... but because I still need to do some blind stitching and add hooks and eyes to the top of the zipper parts on the dress body I will at least share with you the gauntlets, spats, tail, glittered horns ^-^ and  my cowbell.. eh-hem... Babe's cowbell ;).

I hope to take a few photos of the get up once everything is on and I'm with my mister Paul Bunyan  - I am looking forward to the costume party, it's this Saturday!!!! Admittedly, I spent a ridiculous amount of hours on this outfit and the blue fabric has really stole my heart... grays, silver, blues and blacks... how I love to look at you! :)  LOL I hope you enjoy these few teaser photos too! ;) 

***UPDATE: See finished costume HERE!***

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