Poison Ivy - Part I

I have chosen to be Poison Ivy for my friends Superhero/villain birthday party on August 13th.  After many image searches online, I decided I wanted to cover a corset in fake leaves, don a red wig, green leggings and figure out the rest of the details as I go! Oh - and on a very tight budget! 

[interruption] During this research, I stumbled across a word that was new to me: cosplay. I have to admit I'm a little ashamed that this is so new to me but then again, creating actual costumes is something I've just started exploring. Cosplay is short for costume play and includes people that like to dress up in costume mostly for events like Comic-Con and similar type atmospheres. A lot of these people create their own costumes (and do amazing jobs!). This concept excites me a little but it seems that a love for comics and cartoons in general seems to be a base for most of these people - that is something I don't have. [/interruption]

First issue - the corset. I asked my sister (two years older than me) if she had any corsets she was willing to 'get rid of'. When she asked what I meant, I told her that I wanted to hot-glue leaves to a corset for this costume. Amazingly, she said I could have one of her old corsets for this project! What an awesome sister =) Of course, the corset is a 32 and the last time I could fit into a 32 was at least 5 years ago. I'll have to be creative with that.

Second issue - the wig. Being on a tight budget, I wasn't sure how I was going to accomplish this. Ebay returned some decent results, but everything in my budget was going to take too long to ship to the states. I researched how to dye wigs, because I have an old red and black wig from a previous Halloween. I quickly found out there is no easy way to dye a wig - and no way to turn a black wig into anything other than black. The best  way to 'dye' a wig is with sharpies! That's right, permanent ink - one strand at a time! That's when I started thinking about finding a blond wig that I could dye. hmmmmm

I started looking at local stores. A friend suggested "Kings Beauty Supply" here in San Antonio. I took a trip down there and boy- this is not a place where I'd like to spend a lot of time. It's technically "Kings Beauty Supply 99 cent store" and they keep a security guard on staff! That should tell you a little about the place. They had a good amount of wigs for you try on. First you have to purchase a 50cent wig cap and they have a 3 wig limit for try-ons. Really? Sigh.

I tried on the limit: 3 wigs. I found one that I liked but the back was messed up. You could see the wig lining like it had been stretched out. I asked about other wigs in that style and was told they had new ones but were not allowed to open the packages of the new wigs. This upset me and I left wigless. I ended up at another hair supply shop across town and this place was slightly more upscale - nice! However, so were the prices and there was nothing I really liked. I decided that perhaps the wig I liked at Kings was messed up due to multiple people trying it on and thought that the new, unopened wig was surely better. I went back the next day and purchased it. (I am somewhat of an impulse buyer!) When I got home and tried it on, the back of the wig was - yep,  you guessed it - still messed up. ugh! Oh well.. I'll figure some way to fix it (of course they have a no return/exchange policy). 

As much as I didn't like being in that store, I got a wig, green leggings,  fishnet 'gloves' and glittery green eyeliner for $38. Score! I got the perfect sized leaves from Joann's (fabric and craft store) and found a GREAT deal on red sharpies at Wal-Mart (3 for $1.47). I'm glad it's back-to-school time and they were on sale! [update] Found red chisel tip sharpies at Office Depot - they're amazing! Highly recommend them for wig dying.

More updates to come as I go.

As a side note, my boyfriend has decided to go as Green Arrow so the majority of that costume will probably be made by me as well. We'll see how that goes :)