Halloween 2011: In the Flesh

No, we did not go as Jesus and Mary for Halloween this year.  However, we felt pretty cool dressing up as two characters from our new favorite show . . .

MAD MEN!




For anyone who actually read last week’s post on the possible people we would be dressing up as, if you guessed we would be going as Don Draper and Joan Holloway, you were correct!

Initially, I was going to cop out and dress up as an old cat lady, since I knew I could find the necessary items at Goodwill.  However, when I was at a store that had old prom dresses for cheap, I looked through and found the perfect Joan dress.  And, it was only $12!  It was a little big but I decided to make do because I absolutely love Joan, I already have the red hair, and I’m obsessed with the 60’s.

Here was the dress before I altered or ironed it:



As you can see, it’s very low cut, so I used some safety pins under the flaps of the collar to make the plunge a little less deep.  Joan definitely has more prominent “assets” than I do, if you know what I mean, and mine cannot pull off a deep neckline, nor can hold up a dress the way hers can.



The dress was extremely well made.  It had an inner lining, an outer lining, and then the outside of the dress, all with boning to keep it streamlined and tight (although not tight initially on me because it wasn’t my size).  I opened both sides completely and brought the dress in about an inch on each side.  I could have spent a lot of time making the dress look as beautiful on the inside as it does on the out by sewing the lining back the way they had it, but I took the easy way out, since it’s a one-time-wear costume and sewed all the layers together with the dress inside out.  Somehow, without pinning (because it’s really hard to pin a dress yourself while you are wearing it), it turned out to fit me perfectly!

Mr. Converse Sneakers used clothes he already owned.  He doesn’t have a suit, nor would I let him wear one for Halloween if he did have one in fear of it getting destroyed, so he wore a jacket and some pants that didn’t match, but went together enough to work for Halloween.

Here we are:



Mr. CS didn’t have shoes on in the photo, which explains why I am taller than him.  Normally we are the same height.



I am definitely far from a stylist, so the hair gave me problems, even though it was fairly simple.  I am no good at teasing my hair since I never do it, and thank goodness for that because I swear I lost half of my hair while brushing it out at the end of the night!  The hair clip is one I had from our senior prom.





He’s my stud!  I’ve always loved him with a side part, which he hates normally, so this was the one day of my life I got to see him for a few hours with his hair combed like that.  He looked incredibly handsome!



What do you think – did we pull it off?  What did you dress up as or are going to dress up as tonight?

Happy Halloween!