Poison Ivy Costume

About

You Will Need (7 things)

Steps (6 steps, 480 minutes)

1. 1

   I didn't take pics from the very beginning, but what I did was use an old pair of jeans for the bodice. I figured it would have some good structure.

   I used a dress form to help piece it together. If you don't have a dress form you're going to have to play around with fitting it to yourself or making a pattern. You may want to use a current shirt or dress as your pattern.

   The skirt part of the dress is actually a wrap skirt I bought at a thrift store for about $3. It was beige so I dyed it hunter green. I stitched the skirt to the complete bodice / top portion. I added a zipper to the back too.

   I also dyed some extra material in the hunter green to be used on the boots and gloves.

2. 2

   This is the under layer ... it's a white turtle neck and white stretch pants that I dyed a kelly green. It came out a bit streaky b/c it was my first time dying and I did it by hand in the sink and let them dry hanging in the bathroom on hangers... but I think it worked ... I said it gave it a "vine" look. ;)

3. 3

   The bodice... this is where I spent most of my time. I bought about $10 worth of the plastic ivy branches from the dollar store. I took them apart and started pinning them on the costume... one at a time... then I sewed them to the bodice... one at a time.

4. 4

   Originally I was going to cover more of the skirt, but then as I got the top done I decided that I wanted it to have a little movement in the skirt... and my hands were killing me from sewing each leaf on.. so I just put a few sporadic leaves on the skirt.

   I also used ribbon to make it a halter top tie at the neckline.

5. 5

   Not the best angle but, for the boots I took a pair of black boots, and the extra material that I dyed green in step 1. I draped the material over the boots, cut, stitched, kind of like a puzzle to cover the boots. I stitched the puzzle pieces together and I used masking tape rolled into a loop so it's like double stick tape, to help me keep the covers snug to the boots.

6. 6

   Details...

   Hair - I bought a red wig and using some green florist wire and extra leaves from the bodice, attached some stray leaves.

   Gloves - (look at the main picture) I used some of the leftover extra green material from the boot covers and made fingerless gloves. It was quicker to make them fingerless and I like taking photos so it gave me the full use of my finger tips without having to take the gloves off all night.

   Makeup - I used green lipstick, green eye shadow and orange eyeliner.

   Extra vines - I made a vine or two of the ivy with the green florist wire and a few spare leaves. I wrapped one around my arm and one around my leg, securing them to the costume with safety pins.

   Note on the time - the dress part goes quicker if you have a sewing machine... at the I didn't... but start this costume early because the leaves take time and you'll probably want to do it in multiple short sessions.