As most of you guys know by now, I’m costuming a stage version of the Ed Wood film, Plan 9 From Outer Space. A lot of you guys have asked to see the costumes, and I figure you deserve a couple of spoilers! 🙂
Tonight, I began working on a dress for Vampira!
Much like Ed Wood’s movies, we really don’t have much of a budget…at all. Unlike the Plan 9 movie, we were unable to trick the Baptist Church into funding our production. I guess they learned their lesson the first time! This means I’m trying to refashion, thrift, and borrow as much as I possibly can!
So, when Shane, the director handed me this old Grim Reaper costume, thinking I could probably make something out of it, make something out of it I did!
This is obviously just a big, shapeless robe thing with an attached hood and capelet. I quickly removed said extremities.
I set my dress form to the measurements of the actress who will be playing Vampira, and got to work on shaping a dress out of this mass of black!
I also deepened the neckline to make it more like Vampira’s signature plunging V!
I cut up the ends of the sleeves to make them all tattered, like in the movie…
And now my Vampira dress is complete! And it didn’t cost a thing!
Now all I have to decide on is whether my Vampira will have her waist cinched with a big black belt, like in the movie, or if I want to put her in a corset. Either way, the poor girl is going to have to carry her kidneys in a bag! 😉
Cheers!
