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costumes: gothic fantasy LotR characters 16th century 18th century 19th century 20th century science fiction |
 Dark Sprite
About two weeks before Costume College 2005, I discovered that what I'd planned to wear to the fancy-dress Time Traveler's Gala didn't work. So I needed something fun, pretty, and quick.
Around the same time, I'd bought a purple and black burlesque-style costume from a friend, Donna of Original Sin Designs. She'd made it years earlier for a party, and since we're similar sizes, she sold it to me. This became the base for my Dark Sprite costume for the Gala.
The burlesque outfit has a gathered underskirt in purple-black changeable satin, trimmed with a black lace ruffle. The overskirt is of the same satin, has ruched sides, and is trimmed in purple beaded fringe. The matching bodice is a lightly boned bustier with narrow straps and additional straps trimmed in black braid that drape over the shoulders. The bodice laces up the back.
 
A sprite needs wings, so I bought some inexpensive wire and tulle wings from the nearby costume shop. They started out lavender purple, and I spray-painted them black in a random pattern. Then I glued swaths of black lace (also from The Stash) to the top edges of each wing section. I had some purple and black fabric roses in with my Halloween decoration bags, so I ripped those apart and glued petals to the top edges of the wings. Once that was done, I tied black cord around the center back of the wings and used this to lace them into the top two eyelets on the back of my bodice. More of the purple and black flowers got wired and glued to a pin back for a corsage to put at the center front of my bodice.
I also added some flowers to a floral wreath I had laying around. It had topped my outfit for the GBACG's second Faery Tale Masquerade Ball. Back then, it was just purple and blue flowers with leaves. At some point in the intervening years, I'd wired chicken bones into the wreath for a tiara effect. (IIRC, the bone wreath was intended for a costume of the Greek goddess Persephone, which never happened.) The bones added an extra gothy touch and helped make this sprite darker.
Looking around my sewing room, I noticed a pair of Mardi Gras wands that had skulls at the top. I ripped the gold streamers off one of them and replaced that with purple and black ribbons. I also wired more black and purple flowers in there. Now the sprite had an evil wand. Final touches were black sparkly fishnets, pointy black pumps, and purple and black Victorian-esque jewelry. I wore pale foundation, smokey dark eye makeup, purple glittery lipstick, and fairy dust over my skin.
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