The Sweet is a monster of a costume. Bulky, hot, and heavy. Like, a lot more than you'd think. I haven't had a chance to actually weigh it, but I'm sure it'd be ridiculous. This costume is stupidly hard to wear.

It was pretty hard to make, too. I started with the top, making it from an altered dress pattern. The fabric is a soft and fuzzy but heavy shag fabric. Lots of it. The top is pretty basic, with hidden darts (there's one reason to love this shag) and lined with a yellow broadcloth. The sleeves were drafted from a sleeve for the top, but dramatically altered in size, and lined with fleece and broadcloth in a much smaller size. I then sewed some netting into balls to keep it from collapsing in on themselves and stuffed them into the empty spaces in the sleeves. I kept a small portion open in the stitching so I can take the netting in and out for easier storage. The top is closed in the back with a zipper and hook and eye.

The skirt is the real monster of the outfit. It's actually based on a pattern for an adult's pumpkin costume. I altered the pieces to round it out more, and used many more than the pumpkin called for. The skirt is made up of ten ovals with flattened ends, each one lined with broadcloth with fleece in the middle. Because it was so large and bulky, I had to make the gathering stitches by hand and then pull it close and prepare it for the elastic. The top was pulled for my waist size and the bottom was pulled to the same size, then attached to the shirt. All of the seams on the inside are finished, mostly though hand-sewing since the skirt hated the sewing machine. It is sewed up a good deal the back, and held together at the very top with three hooks and eyes.

I then sewed some netting into a tube and stitched it into the top of the skirt, to make sure it kept a ballooning shape at the top. The tubing was then stuffed with more netting. After closing the tubing, I proceeded to cut three-yard pieces of netting and stuff it into the rest of the skirt. Though I take the netting in and out, there's a total of fifty yards of mesh in the costume when it's properly stuffed to be worn.

The puffballs seen all over the costume were made from blue material just like the yellow material. I made several different sized ball patterns, then stitched along the edge and made a running stitch to pull them into balls. I then stuffed them with cotton and closed them off without cutting off the extra string to stitch them onto where they needed to be later.

The shoes and tights were both originally white. It took a bit of Rit dye to turn them into the color they are now. I attached a blue puffball to each shoe. And, well, that was really it. The easiest part of the whole costume. Too bad the whole thing didn't have such simple steps. The wand is a painted dowel rod with the largest of my puffballs attached to it. The cuffs were made of the yellow material attached to elastic and stuffed slightly with cotton. I also made a bag to carry with me, made of the same blue shag with a yellow shag puffball, to hold the massive amounts of candy and sugar I wanted to carry around and give to others (and eat).

The wig was a brand new adventure for me. I'd never extensively styled a wig before. I bought a pink giant afro wig and was pleasantly surprised with how nice its curls were. I had to comb up just some of the hair to put into the ponytail puffballs, because all of it would make the puffballs too bulky. After selecting enough, I twisted the middle part of each ponytail and held it taunt while someone helped by wrapping clear packing tape around the middle. I added more after the initial taping until it was the size I wanted. I then trimmed down each puffball so they were rounder, cut in some bangs, and then trimmed down the back. It was a little like hedging, which is kind of weird. I was very pleased with how it came out. I then sewed in the three small puffballs and then added some glue to ensure it would stay put.

After all this was done, it was time to put on. With massive amounts of body paint. It was my first time with copious amounts of body paint and doubly so with liquid-based body paint. I put it it on too thickly and needed to be rescued, though it remained too thick and too dark. Next time, I'll be able to mix it myself and put it on right, and have the right setting powder, so it'll look better and rub off less. The yellow sugar crystal was the last thing to be put on, but eventually blended in with the rest of my makeup. I plan to make it out of something to make it more noticeable next time. I also hope to get some pink contacts for the next wearing.

I must now go wash the pink off the dress.