The Van Dyke is real

James’ costume consists of a linen (under)shirt, a slashed doublet, breeches, leather bucket boots, leather gauntlets, linen cuffs and collar with lace, a woolen musketeer tabard (or cassock/casaque or mandilion) with a hand-embroidered cross and pewter buttons and a wool felt hat with 5 ostrich plumes.

And twirled facial hair.

James came to my rescue and offered to help me with the costumes right before Halloween. So I had him sewing buttons for two days. There are 113 buttons just on the tabard.

The musketeer tabard that you have pictured in your mind never really existed. No one knows for sure what they look like, but the tabards you typically see in most movies and illustrations are based on Maurice Leloir’s rendition of a musketeer – he was the main illustrator for Dumas, and while he strove for historical accuracy, the tabard was likely inspired by the theatre, and based on a court pages outfit.

I used patterns from Reconstructing History (with some modifications – mainly to the tabard), and that’s also where I bought the (very fitting) collar lace from. I would say that you do need some sewing experience for these patterns – they are not for beginners – but if you ever get stuck or have questions you can email the pattern makers and she’ll get right back to you. The boots were James’ wedding boots (modified), and his gloves were from Leather Mystics.

Halloween may be over…but the magic is not. Even though it looks as if the magic of winter solstice celebrations are already trying to squish out the lingering Halloween magic, I’ll keep the spirit of jackolanterns, costumes, and the-day-after sugar/party headache alive for a little while longer. I will complete my remaining Halloween Hoopla sketches (for my high school, university and early marriage years) in the next few weeks – the reasons for the spread out delay, and the reasons why the sketches suddenly stopped, are as followed:

• I was frantically trying to get two Halloween costumes together.
• I suddenly became ill (it wasn’t the flu but I shall spare you the details. I am fine fine fine now)
• had to do multiple trips back and forth to the hospital (but again, I’m fine)
• lost about 5 days for costuming, time that was badly needed, and thus spent all of my remaining waking moments working on the costumes. my husband was kind enough to feed me while I worked and remind me to shower.

So it was a very, very busy Halloween season. We went to a party, which was fantastic. We had a truly magnificent time; I was so delighted at the quality and quantity of costumes, it truly was one of my best Halloweens.

Plus, everyone seemed to really, really like our costumes.

d'Artagnan and Milady de Winter

So much hand stitching, embroidery, button (hole) stitching…but they turned out quite nice I think. I’ll post some more photos with more details about the costumes later during the week.

It was one for all. And all for one.

(James was very, very relieved that he could finally shave. I can’t help but miss his Van Dyke)

Bride of Frankenstein, Age 13

Clearly I won a costume prize at the grade 8 dance for my high social status, good looks, natural charm and devotion to Halloween. Never-mind the fact that I was like the only one who wore a costume.

Ukrainian Dancer, Age 11

I told you it would get worse.

Spanish Dancer, Age 10

…so…my sister went as a Spanish Dancer the year before, and I thought she was really pretty, and I decided to have a go at it.

Oh don’t worry. It gets worse. Much much worse.

Phantom of the Opera, Age 9

After seeing The Phantom of the Opera in Toronto (with Colm Wilkinson, eeeeEEEEeeee) I just *had* to go as The Phantom for Halloween. I even wore a bald cap and had makeup on my face under the mask.

Geisha Girl, Age 8

I had this beautiful and heart-warming story about the creation of this costume but eeek I am just too busy with this year’s Halloween costume(s) so it’ll have to wait until later!

Edit: Alrighty – time to type! I was (am) a fan of The Mikado, and badly wanted to go as one of the characters. Initially I wanted to be Katisha, but her hairstyle was just a bit too much to rock. So Yum Yum it was! I remember the extensive planning my mom went through to make this costume; we went to the library and she checked out a bunch of clothing and costume books, she watched, paused and made notes about different sections of The Mikado movie, and somehow she made a geisha hairstyle out of an old witches wig (that had to be greatly altered).

I think I wore blueish-purple gloves when I went out at night. All of our Halloween costumes were made big enough to accompany snowsuits underneath, as most Halloweens in Ontario were cold and/or snowy.

Darth Vader, Age 7

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, before there was Star Wars I-III, digital re-mastery or the idea that you can show the same film in theatres again and again year after year, I loved Star Wars, and loved Darth Vader. I’ll still always love the original movies, where the main special effects were done with models and puppets and you see a final Rebel celebration on a moon of Endor (and not throughout the entire galaxy). When I dressed up as Darth in grade 2, none of the kids knew who I was, but all the grown-ups did. My uncle did a great job making my helmet. This costume was based on Vader from Star Wars IV, so the helmet eyes were slightly tinted red, as was seen in the movie (I think the helmet eyes always had a bit of a red tint, but it’s most noticeable in the lighting conditions in IV).