Poison Ivy Costume From Batman

Knowing that you'll be attending a Hallowe'en party at the end of the week hosted by your rather talented costumer friends can be just the motivation you need to whip up a decent costume of your own. This was my situation last week. Knowing the theme of the party was "Heroes and Villains", I decided to delve into my darker self and dress up as Poison Ivy from the Batman comics (Lego Batman may or may not have had anything to do with it...). With this thought in mind, I whipped up a passable version of the costume (using the internet and lots of creative license) in 4 days.

Here's how I did it, top to bottom.

- The wig I found at the pharmacy, and although it wasn't quite the length I was looking for, it was $5, so I snapped it up. There were two shiny red horns coming out the top which I figured I'd snip, but since the wig was of cheap quality, the spots underneath were bald, so I instead opted to sew the horn tips down into a ball, which I figured mimicked the crazy hair-do Uma Thurman sports in the movies.

- I wanted to keep the makeup simple, so I did classic foundation, high cheekbones, long green lashes (I had bought fakes, but they were too gaudy, so I just did up my own) and bright red lipstick. I debated drawing a vine pattern along the sides of my face to my neck, but I figured they'd just get lost in the wig.

- The nails are fake, and were bought at the dollar store, and then painted red. It just seemed natural that Ivy would have deliciously long red nails to go with those lips.

- I couldn't find gloves that I liked, so I bought some mosquito netting, thinking I could just use my arms as a pattern and sew them up. .... Not happening. No matter how I cut, stitched or sewed those suckers, they weren't gonna work for me. I finally ended up cutting off the fingers and hot gluing up the sides. It wasn't pretty, but it worked for my purpose.

- I fully intended to buy a strapless green bodysuit at my local value clothing store, but instead I managed to pick up a long stretchy black shirt with sparkly green straps. Whoo. So, I sewed the bottom middles of the shirt together to make boyshorts (more coverage!). At the same store, I found a large bag of plastic vines, which I snipped the leaves off of, and then one by one, hot glued them onto my suit. Which was on me. (Hot glue is hot.) I kept two vines intact: one to glue up the side of my suit and twist over my shoulder, the other to wind down my leg to my boot.

- Now I know that Ivy doesn't traditionally wear a cape, but since I didn't have enough leaves to do my back and my suit was black, I figured it might be a good way to cover some stuff up. And what better to use than a sheer gold table runner with vine pattern and stuck on flowers! All I had to do was attach a small chain with two lobster clasps and done!

- Luckily, I had a pair of green fishnets at home, because you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find green tights when you really want them!

- Finally, my boot covers are actually the sleeves of a green stretchy shirt. I bought both the shirt and boots at the value store, with my suit and vines. I cut off the sleeves from the shirt and stretched them all the way up over the tops of my boots (they were very tight, so I didn't have to alter them at all to make them stay up). I cut a hole for my heels, and then trimmed the bottoms so that they would only overlap a bit under the sole. I folded them over, stuck on a bit of green tape, and they were done. I was able to make green boots without ruining my nice black ones!

There you have it! In all (excluding the boots and cape, since they were technically superfluous purchases), the costume cost me around $20, a dozen glue sticks and 4 nights of work. None too shabby.

~.~ Now come here and give us a kiss ~.~