Ursula The Sea Witch Costume

Myself is wearing the costume and for the most part it is home made. I came across a few inspirations online. One of which was entered in one of your previous contests. The eel shawl has been done before but I think I amped it up a bit. The eyes and fins light up (along with my shell necklace). There is a zipper access in the back with a pocket to hold my ID and money (for outings at local bar contest. This is also how I access the lighting. Now a days you can find incredibly small battery operated lights at local craft stores, in the wedding sections (fairy light strings and individual lights that are twisted on).For the eyes I cut a ping pong ball in half and put a black dot in the center. I then folded the fabric around it for lids. Then I hot glued it to the face of the eels. I came across the perfect black fabric, in May this year. It was basic black but had an iridescent rainbow pattern on it. I looked like bubbles had landed on it and then they were popped and the soap residue was left. It was last years Halloween fabric so I had to request/ship what was left from surrounding stores. I cut the shape I was trying to achieve out of thin cardboard (you reverse the shape on the second cut). This way I could get roughly the same shape for all 8. I ran into a stability factor and had to sew plain black to the back of each shape along with batting. Instead of One strip of black and one strip of purple making a pillow shape, I cut 2 shapes of black and a strip of purple, making a some what of a triangle shape. This is what makes my tentacles more unique then anything I have seen so far on line that is home made. There is a little bit of wire in them but for the most part they stand up themselves (string stops them from listing to the side). They are very heavy! I thought I could since a belt tight enough, but they would start to fall down. I used pex pipe (flexible pvc pipe) to help hold the weight. I curved the pipe as best as I could and strung the belt through the pipe. Each tentacle has 2 loops and they loop over the pipe. For additional support I had to create straps coming down from my bra that click into clasps, creating a harness. I haven't weighed them but I think they are 30 to 40 pounds. Then I cut pool noodles and foam pipe insulation into little doughnut shapes, painted and glittered them, and carefully hot glued them on. There are 152 suction cups! The water skirt is a tule skirt you put under a wedding dress to make it "poofy". I found this at a local thrift store, its not my size but I just cut along the back seam until I could pull it up. I sprayed it blues, purples and greens. I also added yarns and tubular mesh ribbon for seaweed. And Fuzzy pipe cleaners folded into star fish. I glued and sewed in more tule in various places. The gloves, leotard, and corset were bought online. I did ad a fringe of the black fabric to the end of the corset to cover the belt/pipe. I Ratted and sprayed my hair. I used the schwartzkopf hair products, Got2glued, to keep my hair up. For my make up I used various Ursula makeup tutorials on youtube.I spent many hours sewing, I would listen to 3 movies in a row and I still would not be done. I lost track somewhere around $600 in the cost of making this costume.