{"id":1023,"date":"2020-12-07T04:05:12","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T04:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/?page_id=1023"},"modified":"2021-11-26T02:31:16","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T02:31:16","slug":"2015-holiday","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/index.php\/about\/cards\/2015-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Holiday Story: Halloween Party Snafu Lends Itself to Ghosts From Xmas Past Narrative<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The fall of 2015 was the year I thought I’d finally use that black and white stripe fabric that had been haunting me to do something delightful with. It leant itself to a small corselet, which I would use over a black net skirt with a top hat a la New Orleans. For a Halloween party that is. (For notes and thoughts on cultural appropriation, see 2014 Holiday post<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, the night before I thought the Halloween party was scheduled, I discovered it was going down that evening. I don’t know about you, but the idea of making myself up fully after an evening’s work was not enticing, especially on a Friday, so I lived that weekend in a state of cancellation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I thought, I need an idea for this year’s Xmas card. And why not? So the ghosts of Xmas past idea was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ghost of Xmas pas<\/a>t is a character from Dickens, and if you haven’t seen or heard of the Scrooge mythology, then you have kind of missed a major part of Christmas culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhoo, it was such a great costume, and one shouldn’t let good inspiration go to waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Build<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Corselet & Skirt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There comes a time in every costumier’s life when they must build a corset. I’ve made more than a few. But this one was for me!! And not a traditional corset (I don’t quite do the traditional, if you haven’t noticed), but rather a corselet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flat patterning pieces for corselet. Typically, you do a corset in a series of pieces that can achieve the ultimate fit, hugging the body and extremely customizable.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I drew up the pattern based off of my measurements. This is called flat patterning (for the uninitiated).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mockup of the corselet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I used a heavy cotton for the mockup (or, in the parlance of french haute couture houses, a toile), also planning to use the same fabric, if possible for the lining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Clockwise from left, bolt cutter, to cut off the steel bones; bones of sizes that I needed, cut and tipped with a rubber type fluid so they don’t scratch you; and the dremel tool you need to sand down and curve the steel boning ends.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then comes the best part! Fun with (mini) power tools! It’s always a good time to purchase a dremel tool at the home improvement store and when the cashier asks what you need it for, you say, to grind the ends of my [corselet] bones. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Grommeting fun. You can see where the bone casing is right on the edge where the two corselet fronts meet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fit looks pretty good!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tulle skirt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I made up a tulle skirt for the bottom half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hat and Makeup<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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At left the makeup, based on skull makeup, but with some definite sugar skull references. At right the hat. I wish I had tried setting my makeup with powder or using a primer underneath. At this date, primer, to go under makeup, did not actually yet exist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My makeup was based on pictures of skull makeup I found online. I did do some lines that were definitely inspired by the sugar skull makeup from Day of the Dead<\/a> celebrations. The hat at right I sewed a feather and ribbon on. Easiest part of the whole process!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Photoshoot<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Set Up<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The set up: a photo background of white paper, my props, and lights all set up and ready to go. Notice the faux ruby embedded crucifix at the top of the tree.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I brought over my light kit that I had been storing elsewhere. I also included my small Christmas tree! Had to lend an air of merry somewhere!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Two untouched photos from the original shoot with Phe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Phe hates modeling. I managed to get, after several rounds of treat bribes, some photos with her. I tried to tie a collar of gathered net around her neck, but that wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped. At least you get to see her white tummy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Untouched photos with the Amp. Lighting needs help!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Alas, the shelves didn’t stretch quite as far as the paper. I also think I’ve really got too many props going on here, even though I love all the ideas. I needed my Tim Gunn editing eye.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photos also achieved after multiple bribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covers 3<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Portrait size covers for two version of the card.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And I couldn’t decide which version I preferred. I bought the background somewhere online. I might have purchased the frame or lifted it from somewhere as well. Who can remember now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cover version #3, cause apparently I thought this photo of Amp and I too cute for school.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Inside Stories<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The stories inside were all the same, just arranged differently.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Back<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Again, all three cards were riffs on this one for the landscape style card.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let this be a lesson to us, that creativity is just ideas remixed and re-imagined and applicable to almost anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Go back to main page<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See 2016<\/a>. See 2014<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holiday Story: Halloween Party Snafu Lends Itself to Ghosts From Xmas Past Narrative The fall of 2015 was the year I thought I’d finally use that black and white stripe fabric that had been haunting me to do something delightful with. It leant itself to a small corselet, which I would use over a black … Continue reading 2015 Holiday<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1024,"parent":858,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1023","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1023"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1262,"href":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1023\/revisions\/1262"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenbrassjenkins.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}