27 October 2012

It's Tinkerbell

Warning: very long post!

Sometimes it's fun to have young children pointing at you and smiling when you're in a dress, high heels and makeup. When the dress is a Tinkerbell costume and the children are pointing and calling you Tinkerbell, it's very easy to smile and enjoy what you're doing!

In spite of my earlier ideas of doing a pregnant version of a Disney princess or Tinkerbell, I got busy with work and didn't complete the pregnant bulge let alone trying to sort out a costume that could accommodate that bulge.

All of a sudden I realised that it was only a few weeks away, and I didn't have a costume. I looked around several costume shops and found nothing even close to what I was looking for. I looked at photos on google images, and ended up deciding to get 2 different costumes, both California Costumes brand, through an eBay seller who combined postage.

I tried both costumes on the night that I got them. It turned out that I'm a little too fat for the top of the Little Red Riding Hood dress, so Tinkerbell became the only option. To get ideas on accessorising the costume, I looked at images of the original Tinkerbell character. She had her hair up in a large bun, fairly subtle makeup, bare legs and shoes that would be best described as green ballet flats with white pom poms on the front. No earrings, and no noticeable nail polish.

I looked at how to do a bun and realised that I needed to buy a hair bun donut. I looked at the size of Tinkerbell's bun and decided that what I needed were 2 of the largest size donut I could find, to stack one on top of the other. Unfortunately, there were none even close to my hair colour, so I got two in a yellowish blonde. While buying those, I also spotted a green Orly nail polish called Here comes Trouble on special for $5. It was darker than the costume but a similar enough shade.

I tried putting my hair up in a bun, but found that the if the hair wasn't perfectly spread around the donut, the yellow colour showed through prominently. I mentioned this on facebook and a friend suggested using a stocking leg to cover them and help hold them together. Since I had a pair of pantyhose with runs in them that were going to get thrown out, I cut the toe and brief off one leg to get a long straight tube, which I fed around the pair of donuts twice, starting at the inside, through, over the outside, up through inside the original start, back over the outside again, then up inside, leaving only one end loose inside. While the colour is not a match to my hair, it's a lot closer than the colour of the donuts, and makes them into one piece.

With today (Saturday) being the day for the Halloween event, I got the green nail polish put on at my regular nail appointment on Wednesday. It's a lot different to any colour I've worn before. It's bright and very, very obvious, and I find myself smiling just looking at it. :)

When I tried the costume on the first time, I realised that the skirt, which had ties on both sides to allow the length to be adjusted, was shorter than my body shaper. To hide that, I did as I've done before and wore lace patterned tights over 2 pairs of pink ballet tights. The ballet tights almost hide the colour difference between the body shaper and my legs, and the lace pattern breaks up the edge enough to make it invisible unless you know to look for it.

Since I don't have any shoes even vaguely like the original Tinkerbell ones, I had to choose a combination of tights and shoes that would look right with the costume and be comfortable to wear. The first 2 options that occurred to me were the nude Tony Bianco Popstar 6" stilettos (that I wore at IMATS) with cream tights, or my mustard ballet flats with mustard tights. I was concerned that the TBs would be too high for the uneven and sloping footpaths, but didn't think that the mustard was going to look right. I considered the alternative of a pair of nude Bloch dance shoes that I bought back when I was belly dancing, but after looking at the shoes side by side, chose the TBs, which of course meant wearing the flats to drive and changing when I got there.

When I first tried on the dress, I also noted that the neckline didn't show as much cleavage as I wanted, so on Friday night, I tried the dress on again and used 2 small safety pins to gather the vertical elastic between the breasts more tightly than it did before. It improved things, but didn't fix it entirely.

In a common (judging by google images) departure from the original Tinkerbell look, I chose to wear green eyeshadow to match the costume, rather than neutral browns. I used 3 shades from one of the palettes that I bought at IMATS in 2011, which is the first time I've used those palettes!

The costume came with a small pixie dust pouch, which meant packing very light! I put my license, credit card, money, house and car keys and camera in that bag, and took powder, lipstick, brush etc in another small bag that I left in car.

Before I even left the house, I had my first wardrobe malfunction. I went to pull the skirt down, as it tended to ride up on my hips a bit, and in the process tore out the gathering ribbons on one side of the skirt. Oops! I fixed that by yanking on the other side ribbons, which came out too. No more adjustable length skirt. On the way to the car, I hit the next hurdle. My bun was so high that it hit the garage door while wearing flats, and didn't fit in the car. I had to duck to get my hair into the car, and had to recline the seat more than usual and drive leaning back hard against the seat just so that it cleared the hood lining.

I didn't get to the building society to deposit some money on Friday, so that was my first job for the outing. One of the staff giving out lollies at a table outside the front door recognised me and greeted me, but the other only saw me from the side or back and was surprised when I turned around, then greeted me by my male name while trying to pick her jaw up off the ground. Two of the other 4 working in the branch also greeted me by name. Now that I've broken the ice of actually turning up there en femme, I might do it again some time. :)

My next wardrobe malfunction was that the left wings kept wanting to fold over onto right wings, which led the woman behind me in the line in the Building Society to say to me "Let me fix your wings for you", which she then did. I later tightened the wing straps, which reduced the problem but didn't fix it entirely. It really needed something across the hinge to hold them in place, and something to keep them level, as the wings were wonky in the photos.

I walked around the area a bit, and while doing so, I had several young girls point to me, calling out Tinkerbell. I also had one girl who felt the need to tell me that I was very tall, in a way that reminded me of the blog The Junoesque. I think that that was an unintentional compliment, in as much as I think that she, and many of the girls pointing at me and commenting, saw me as a woman dressed as Tinkerbell, not as a crossdresser dressed as Tinkerbell.

After a while, I made my way to the Lifeline op shop, where I was photographed a few times both with my camera and with Bev's phone. That's where the photo at the top of this post was taken. I also went across the road to the other op shop before heading back towards my car. On the way to my car, I greeted one of my neighbours who lives a few doors away around a corner.

My final wardrobe malfunction for the day happened just after I got home, when the middle of the adhesive bra that I use to create cleavage went pop, which I assumed meant that the clip had broken. When I took it off, I discovered that it had not broken, but that the plastic tab that attached the clip to one cup had come unstuck from the cup, so if I can find a suitable glue, I can fix it. Yay. :)

In spite of very few adults being in costume, I enjoyed the outing and wearing this particular costume so much that I'm already considering next year. Tinkerbell's original costume has a much shorter skirt, like a dance leotard with the zig-zag edge of the skirt over it. This one has a net piece around the waist that's a bit like that zig-zag, but over a longer straight skirt. I'm thinking that I'd love to get a matching small diameter tutu with integral undies and a full circle skirt sewn on in place of the straight skirt, make a weighted tail for the wings that keeps them at a nice V angle to each other and keeps them level (like a pendulum weight), and wear it again next year. :)

2 comments:

  1. Alice, you look great! Love the tinkerbell costume and how much thought/effort you put into it! It looks like it was great fun and good on you for doing it. I don't think enough people get into the fun of dressing up for costumes, which is a shame.

    xx

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  2. I think you look lovely in the photo taken at the Lifeline op shop. Kudos to you, Alice.

    And I have little doubt Tinkerbell will look even more lovely next year!

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