Something with spiders...

Heeey, Halloween's coming up and guess what: I'm actually making a costume! Well, the making part is over, but I've got to buy some things and put them together to finish it. Here's a sneak peek, though:

Oooh, and did I tell you I got a new mannequin? :D

I first thought I'd make a '20s dress, with a beaded, black net overdress and a green slip (which I could have used as this week's hsf entry, too) but decided it would be too much work. Plus, as Halloween isn't that established in Germany, you usually dress up as something scary if you dress up at all, or people tend to give you funny looks. As I said before, people in the south mostly dress up at carnival, and that's where you get out the funny (or just about any) costumes. (Unless you're in one of the quilds, they can have some pretty scary costumes...)
Another cool thing about the south? Living in a mostly catholic state (I'm talking federal state here, not Germany itself) we get All Saints' Day off - the day after Halloween. (There's also a ban on dancing on All Saints' Day, so the club might be shut down by the police after midnight, but usually the music's just turned back on when they leave after a couple of minutes ;) )
Okay, enough about the culture, back to the costume: so I wanted something scary. And I really don't remember how that idea cam into my head, but sometime last week I found myself thinking: "Hm. Something with spiders..." And went on from there. A couple of considerations that went into planning:

• I am planning to go to a club with my friends, so I need something I can dance and move through crowds in. That means: no big wings, no trains, nothing too warm
• Very little sewing. I'm back to only having the sewing machine on weekends and when I started to plan only had two weekends that I also didn't want to spend entirely at the sewing machine.
• Money! I had just spent a lot of money on fabric for another project and wanted to do this with as little expense as possible. 

Another reason for me not wanting to buy fabric unless I absolutely have to is the appearant lack of acceptable fabric stores close to where I live. There's an Ikea that has bad quality fabric with strange prints, a small mercery store downtown that seriously looks and feels like someone just cleared out their grandmother's attic and is selling everything they found there, and last but not least a gigantic fabric/quilting/crafting/everything that I can easily spend >50€ in without buying any fabric, but that's more than an hour away from me by public transport - the only transport I can use there.

Um, where was I? Ah, yes, the costume. Can you guess what it is? I will have to try some things out before I decide on how to style it eventually, but I can't wait to show you the finished result! :)
Some production pictures:

 I made the pattern from adjusting and tracing one of my tank-tops. Didn't take into account that its jersey and stretches, which inevitably came back to haunt me later.

 Tracing the pattern (the top) and some construction (the bottom) onto my very flimsy fabric. If it hadn't been just for a halloween costume I would have made a proper pattern and actually pinned it onto the fabric, but I was too lazy and didn't want a too clean look anyway.

I folded along the center fold line after tracing one half, and that's when I started pinning. Cut one piece out and...

...used it as a pattern piece for the other side. More pinning!

Pin all the fabric!

Did I mention that I hate pinning?

 The two sides pinned together. Pretty basic shape.

I had this idea that I was gonna flatfell all the seams, but gave up after the two shoulder seams. (note: synthetics don't iron well. Also, quick and dirty Halloween project.)
I simply shortened the seam allowances, finished them with a zig-zag-stitch and ironed them to one side. As this is gonna be a club costume, I hope my legs will distract from my messy sewing.
(We just reached the usual point where I'm so engrossed/frustrated by my sewing that I forget to take pictures.)

 Because I've done so successfully (on a flimsy fabric) before, I used a rolled-hem-foot (successfully!) to make a ... rolled hem. I was literally sitting at my sewing machine going: "yay, something works!" :D

I had some fun with the left-over fabric while taking the "finished" pictures, but that's it so far. Stay tuned :)