This is Part 3 in a series on the building of this year’s Halloween costume; read part 1 here and read part 2 here.
This is a little late, but my excuse is valid: last week, I was too busy being Taco Belle to write about Taco Belle.
Construction Details for the Sewers…er…People Who Sew.
I’m on the fence whether this is the most complicated costume I’ve done. I think certainly there was a lot more to it than just building the costume. But did it take longer than hand-dyeing and hand-painting Winifred’s jacket? Or building Marie Antoinette’s dress with all of its hand-sewn trim? Possibly.
One thing’s for certain: a lot of work went into this costume. And the most time-consuming portion of all of it was cutting out the fabric. It took me—literally—hours and hours. I spent 45 minutes just on getting the lace for the overskirt stretched out and even so I could lay the pattern pieces on it. 45 minutes. For something that normally takes about 90 seconds. And that was just the first…er…lay.
If you’re someone thinking about making this costume, especially if you’re following the same pattern I used, take this into consideration.
I’ll also mention now before I get to the fun stuff how much extra fabric I have left over. I bought exactly what the pattern told me to buy (plus one extra yard, of coutil, to line my bodice.) How much do I have left over? A good three yards or more of lace (I didn’t precisely measure). Two full yards of the gold bodice/underskirt fabric. And one yard of lining (I didn’t compensate for the coutil, which in this case is on me.) The result? I probably wasted a good $40 on extra fabric that I didn’t need.
So if you’re making this costume, keep that in mind. The pattern used an organza with a one-way pattern on it, so that’s part of the issue—they needed extra fabric to match the pieces together. But generally, that’s stated on the pattern and left to the consumer to decide…not included in total yardage. Mine was not a one-way, so I didn’t have to worry. Would have been nice if they’d mentioned that.
Okay, enough bitching and onto the construction.
When you’re changing a pattern, or need something to fit really well (like this bodice, which is essentially strapless), it’s important to do a test run first before you cut your fabric. It’s an extra step, sure, but worth it in the long run if you want your pattern to fit!
First, I cut out the pattern in the size I thought I needed and then cut out a toile in cardstock, since I was turning it into a corset and needed something stiffer than regular muslin. Much to my surprise, the bodice was huge! Partially because this was done in cardstock and delicate, so I couldn’t pull as hard as I needed, but also I think because this is a Simplicity pattern and I’ve always had issues with their measurements.
I picked up some super cheap remnant flannel at the store and, after dropping a size in the pattern, made a second toile. This one fit much better, though it wasn’t stiff enough to really mimic a boned corset.
Constructing the dress was easy enough, once everything was cut out.
The skirt went together like a dream, although man, there was a lot of gathering! And then there was the endless lace hem, which I tackled only slightly hap-hazardly with my evil rolled hem foot. For once, it was not so evil. Thank god, because this skirt is humongous!
I did run into a snag with the yoke and waistband; I opted to use leftover coutil as the lining on these portions for stability (and because the lining I bought was cheap and plasticky–not great against my skin, especially since in Texas in October one gets rather sweaty.) The coutil, which is a tightly-woven, thick, sturdy, 100% cotton fabric made specifically for corsets, breathes much better than polyester. But it created a problem. Between the coutil, the interfacing, the outside fabric, and the fact that I serged the edges so they wouldn’t fray, the poor invisible zipper was struggling to close over the seam of the waistband. It didn’t help that it was hot in my apartment (see? SWEATY.) I ended up sewing two hooks on the waistband to close it (although once the weather cooled down and the zipper got some exercise, it ended up being fine.)
The bodice had some changes.
Firstly, I used steel boning instead of the featherlight the pattern called for. To ensure that the bodice would hold up to the strain, I made sure to serge the edges of all the pieces before assembling. As I mentioned before, I purchased some coutil to line the bodice with, which helps stabilize the corset and prevents the boning from poking. I first dyed it, since coutil generally comes undyed. All I had was a bright yellow, but wasn’t about to spend more money on dye just for a lining nobody would see.
I also built a floating modesty panel for the back, because nobody wants to see back cleavage. Gross.
There was much kerfluffle over the grommets. Waaaay too much.
I chose a 5/8” gold sparkly grosgrain ribbon for the lacing, thinking I would use the larger size 0 grommets; bought the setter, and the grommets, and got home and realized exactly how loud and annoying hammering 20 grommets was going to be to my downstairs neighbors.
I agonized over this for ages, boring the fuck out of my friends as I debated whether I should change grommet sizing.
Eventually, I stopped complaining and decided to switch to the smaller 00 size grommets. I bought a bunch of ¼” gold ribbon, and in the long run I’m really happy with my decision. Because the bodice has so few seams (and therefore so few bones), I think the extra lacing was helpful in adding support.
Here’s the finished dress, before the taco accouterments went on, and looking slightly frumpy on poor non-busty Gertrude the Dress Form:
I decided to make the taco accouterments semi-permanent, so that I could take them off and be normal Belle if ever the occasion came up…though where’s the fun in that?
Becoming Taco Belle
Once the dress construction was finished, I got to do the fun stuff: turning a Belle costume into a TACO Belle costume!
First I made the tacos; I cut the shapes out of cardboard, then painted them, and finally covered in glitter. I’m sad to say I met one of my neighbors in the process of doing this, covered in glitter head to toe, and didn’t have time to offer an explanation. She probably thinks I’m nuts.
Well…more nuts than I actually am.
When they were dry, I took pins and glued them to the back, then attached one between each of the dress swoopies.
The taco sauce garland went on next; I punched holes in the taco sauce packets, which I then cleaned out completely. Taco Belle should glide…not ooze.
Then I took some of the leftover ribbon from the lacing and tied them into a garland, which I then tacked to the arm swoopy. I was going to add snarky comments to the “I Like” mild packets in the front, but decided snide remarks about Stockholm Syndrome might not go over too well.
Next, I made the sour cream dollops using an online tutorial for felt whipped cream. Originally, I’d tried using white tulle, but that didn’t turn out so well. They looked like blobs of tulle. Yawn.
But I sucked it up and spent more money on felt, and I’m really happy with the way they came out. Additionally, they were much easier to do than the tulle ones.
Then, the meat ruffle. Oh, the meat ruffle. Something which should have taken a half hour took…well, much longer. This was the worst part of the whole costume–including the huge amount of time I spent cutting out on the lace. On top of that, I don’t think it really looks that great, but I spent all that time making it that it’s gonna stay on the damn skirt anyway. To “save time” I gathered each layer of the ruffle–the brown (meat), the white (sour cream), the green (lettuce), and the red (taco sauce)–and then pinned them to the edge of the skirt, and basted them on.
I didn’t account for the fact that my apartment is too small to stretch the skirt out wide enough to evenly spread the ruffle around. It was a huge hassle and I was discouraged, but Tim Gunned it eventually.
Taco Belle’s Accessories
The rose burrito came together pretty fast; using cleaned out taco sauce packets, wire, hot glue, and more skin off my fingers than appropriate, I made the rose. Then I rolled up scrap fabric into cream colored felt to make the burrito. It was nice to use scraps that would otherwise get thrown away. I’m notorious for NOT throwing away scraps. “YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN THEY’RE GOING TO COME IN HANDY!” Except they usually don’t.
Finally, I made the “crowning” touch: the Mexican Pizza hat! I’d really wanted to make this, so I used it as motivation to finish everything else. I started like I did with the tacos, using cardboard to cut out the circles and then painted them. Then I covered them in gold tulle I picked up in the remnant section of the fabric store, and added felt “sauce,” “meat,” and “cheese” to the top. Finally I topped it off with sequins as “tomatoes” and added some clips to the back to keep it on my head. Took maybe two hours to do and the result, if I do say so myself, is awesome!
Mostly people thought it was a tostada, but I did get SOME people who realized what it really was, and had one interesting existential conversation with a slightly inebriated woman about how only people with money can afford a Mexican Pizza because it’s so expensive (is it???)
Anyway, here we go. The finished look!
It was a lot of work, but I’m very happy with the way it came out. It even won one of the costume competitions I went to!
Next year, though, I think I’m sticking to something simpler.
