It is finally here… my annual tutorial of my Halloween Costume Creation. Behold…

She Devil!

Before the tutorial of how I did it, first let me show off a few crazy fun photographs of my finished and latest Halloween Costume Creation, She Devil!  Can’t you just hear insidious Vincent Price type laughter going on in the background?! Think of that laughter every time I say She Devil! Click on the photo to see it larger. Feel free to pin with abandonment!

On with the show… more fun photos later. Now for the meat of She Devil! (ahh ha hah ha….) The face painting tutorial.

Step 1 – Throw away any vanity worries, we’re going for scary not pretty. Then pose in front of a camera that shows every pore, wrinkle, sag and droopiness that gravity has bestowed on your face. Oh and before you do that paint your face, neck, ears, chest and arms red with face paint, leaving out the eye sockets.

Step 2 – Paint the hollows of your eye black. It helps if you’re not sweating like a swine from trying to hurry because you’re late.

Step 3 – Add black paint to hairline above forehead and up into hair to hide that white scalp. Sponge black face paint carefully under your cheek bones for contouring (hey that hides those jowls!) This has the added benefit of making you look almost skull-ish later too. Then drag that sponge with black paint down your neck and arms to look like muscle or veins or whatever. I think it looks spooky and adds to the hellish look.

Step 4 – Next you’ll want a paint brush for this. I used a #6. Just grab a craft brush or go steal one from your kid’s watercolor set. Draw on some really high and expressive eyebrows, don’t worry if they’re not the same they look better anyway if one is slightly up for a clever devilish look. Add black lips and I went with a crazy smile line too add to the lunacy look. Don’t forget frown wrinkle lines in between your eyes along your nose and up your forehead slightly. I also added streak like flames to my eyes to make my natural eyebrows disappear. Plus it looks cool. Do this with a flick at the end to get a nice fading line.

Here’s a tip: I always use Ivory soap to wash my face painting brushes.

Step 5 – Now take a step back and just see if your face looks finished or if it needs a little sumptn’ sumptn’. Mine did, so I added more forehead scowl marks and the finishing touch, I thought, was a bull nose ring. I am a Taurus after all.

Step 6 – Admire your handwork up close and take a selfie to post on Instagram or Facebook! You are going to rock that Halloween party! Or at least scare the bejeezus out of some kids and chicken shit adults. Heh heh.. That’s the whole point, right?!

Step 7 – Get back to work, you’re running late remember? Fluff up that hair if you’ve got it or do what you can with what ya got to look crazy and then paint it red red red! Believe it or not, I only used one can. I would’ve used more if I had it. Oh well, buy up what you can in the after Halloween sales cause you all know I have many totes of Halloween garb I keep and it helps to be well stocked. Especially if you are a fly by the set of your pants kinda planner. Oh a word on the hair paint… it will land on your cream colored throw rugs and everywhere else, luckily it washes out with no problem. Also, this stuff will gag a maggot, get a fan going or open a window.

There you have it, the quick and easy She Devil (ahh ha hah ha….) face paint part of the costume that can be accomplished easily by amateurs and well seasoned Halloween enthusiasts in no time flat and it looks pretty darn good.

Next up the sewing part of the tutorial… The She Devil costume. (ahh ha hah ha….)

I’m calling this the Down and Dirty Extremely Simple & Fast Costume Top Construction. You won’t find any awards here for sewing techniques, but sometimes you just gotta crank something out whether you know how to do it or not, am I right? Improvise people. Think MacGyver.

I needed a shirt to match this skirt I had previously made (click here to see that post). Luckily, I still had enough of that fabric left over. It’s just that cheap Halloween satiny fabric that is easy to find. Start with your fabric folded over, with the right sides together. I’ve got about 1 ½ yards here I’d guess.

Then grab a shirt that you already can wear, I didn’t get a photo, so I drew in an example below. Use your shirt as a template to copy the size from, roughly. Use pinking shears and cut off the extra fabric to the right. I then just carefully cut around the shirt leaving about 5/8th seam allowance and made sure I didn’t cut my store bought shirt.

The plan is to have just a shell with maybe a cap sleeve. I know that I’m planning on wearing my cape, so I’m not real picky since it won’t show much. You end up with basically a rectangle (see below). Pin the sides together leaving out arm holes. Once you cut off your rectangle and have it pinned measure along the fold (the top) to find the center so you’ll know where you can make the opening for yer big head. Start with just a slit, cut out a hole just big enough to slip over your head. Be careful to not cut the back unless you want your back cut out, too.

Slip it over yourself trying not to stick yourself with the pins. If you’ve got a nice small waist, (a memory for me) you’ll need to cinch it in. Pin it or mark it with chalk – remember this is down and dirty work do the best you can. Once you slide it off you can start to sew up the side seams.

After you’ve got your sides sewn up, go in with your pinking shears again and clean up the neck since this part will likely show. Cut out your choice of necks. I picked a sweetheart neck.

As I mentioned before I was running late while I was making this so I was probably more sloppy than I would’ve been if I had managed my time better and made this a few days beforehand. I’ll be late to my own funeral, I think.

I stuck a white cardboard piece under the neckline to show the cuts better.
 Add top stitching to help the fabric from unraveling like this satiny fabric is notorious for. I did this on all my cut edges at lightning speed. It would be better to use matching thread for the bobbin and top thread but I was in a hurry and used what was in the bobbin. This will only show on the wrong side anyway.Below is pretty much all the directions shown. I didn’t show the darts because I’m not sure if I did them right. They looked okay, but it was dark and I had my cape on. Oh and the bottom of the shirt… I just didn’t have enough time to worry with it. No one even noticed. But you could finish it with pinking shears and top stitching like the rest of it or a more finished look with a hem or bias tape or hell, just tuck it in to your skirt or pants and no one is the wiser! Told ya this was down and dirty!

Here is the She Devil (ahh ha hah ha….) costume in my tiny sewing room with bad lighting and junk around me. Not too bad for a quickie. You’d just never find separates in a store bought costume and last I checked “one size fits all” was a horrible lie.

Okay that’s it for the tutorial, are you ready for some more freaky pictures? Cause I’m all about the freak flag flying at Halloween… enjoy (I did!)

 

Before you leave… I’m not always so red, but I do play with paint most of the time.

Check out some of my paintings. I sell originals, prints and notecards. Click on the strip below to see more. If you liked this She Devil tutorial, I’ve got 5 more costume tutorials on my Costume Creations page, just click here. Thanks for visiting! Leave me a comment 🙂