Royal Flush Group Costume

The idea started back in June, yes I was already thinking about Halloween...I know a bit too early even for me. I saw the Queen of hearts costume and the price of $168.99, I loved the costume just not the price. This is where my inspiration came from. My daughter and I tossed around a few ideas and came up with a Royal Flush of Hearts. Then I was inspired by a picture from Diviant art of a King on his throne (Toilet)it just all clicked. My daughter and I decided that it fit our theme and was just too funny. We thought about it for weeks after that, that we would need 3 other people to pull it off. We started shopping at thrift stores and picking up what we had envisioned as a Royal Heart Flush. We enjoy being very competitive when it comes to costumes. My daughter likes to bling it out , mainly with lights and special contacts. So then the next step was to sell our idea to three of our friends, to commit to being together as a group. We were so estatic...now to begin. Our group- each had an individual character.Our Ace of Hearts is also our enforcer and holds the Royal Family sign. Played by my daughter Heather.
The King is Low key, and pardons the queens subjects. Played by a Friend Robert. Our Queen,a bit bitchy and wants everything her way as well as orders commoners "off with their heads". Our Jack is our drinking Jack (Daniels)and the Royal Family enforcer. Played by our friend Sue. Our Ten of hearts is our perfect ten, and carries a tray to serve the King and Queen tea and crumpets and passes out our Royal family card or memorable item with the Royal Flush name on them. Now it was perfect- we only shopped at thrift stores to keep our costs down, the hardest to find was the gold trims,Walmart, Hobby lobby was also where we shopped. For the queens skirt and top I revamped a Vampira costume of red velvet that was too small for me. I added the Black and White material to the sides (2 yards) , added elastic to top skirt. I bought 3 hula hoops(small) from the dollar store and used to make my hoop skirt. It was easier than I thought to construct. I used elastic at the top,added 8 length of wide ribbon measured to the floor, then cut pieces of ribbon to tie , sewed on the wide ribbon to hold the hoops in place. Measure where you want your skirt to stick out mine was measured from the waist, 10", 17"and 31" is where I attached the ribbons (three per ribbon x8) Caution- they did come untied after a bit, so I would use some velcro on the hoops and ribbon. A couple of red bows, some stencils and fabric paint, cut our hearts from sequined fabric (Retail $10.00 yd.lucky for me I already had the fabric) for cape, skirt, and Kings robe. Tassels were purchased, some were drapery tassels, buttons and earrings glued on robes and toilet seats. Decorations on our seats were left to each individual.The queen had lace and a bow with earrings and paint, heart pin and crown template, the kings had poker chips and paint.All had the Royal Flush sign behind our seat showing threw the opening.Earrings were added to the cape for the queen of hearts at the top , and blinged with a sequined collar.You needed a bit of weight to hold the seat to your back , so loops were added to use like a draw bridge, and rope or tassels.Velcro on the robes to hold the seats in place.Added fur to the cape from a cut up coat. The kings robe added the gold trim, then the red trim on the gold to line the front. Added the hearts.Our Ace found a suit jacket and pants that were Black with red stripes, not a matching suit. Purchased a hat, some lights, she had foam hearts covered and added lights inside( battery operated) Glowing light gloves from Spencers some Ace confetti, and hearts glued to the outside, a Valentine heart on top of hat, with poker chips and Yellow and black feathers.Contacts-Red purchased from the Halloween store.Stickers of ace and hearts all along the sleeves and pant leg. Back of coat - "It is all about the Ace" taken from the song it is all about the base by Megan Trainer. Our Jack used a sweater she had and revamped it with lace at the end of the sleeves and added purchased trim for a collar, sequined heart and a Jack card with trim pieces above it. Mustache, Yellow curlers for her hair, and purchased a hat then made the top portion for the Jack out of plastic. Added some diamond shapes. Purchased some Harliquinn Socks from the Halloween store and wore a pair of knickers, and a ruffled blouse.Our 10 added 10 to the top corner of her collar, and sewed 10 hearts to a black body suit, with a shear sleeveless negligee over top.Added red ribbon at the waist. We added hearts to our faces, Ace, Jack, Ten our queen had heart shaped lips only. We were going to paint our faces into a white heart, but our Ten is allergic so we opted that out.. I made Jewelry for the King, a sash of white satin with king cards and hearts. a costume jewelry piece was created to hang at the end of his sash. A coronation pin on the outside of his long white robe.Purchased a new shirt from Thrift store, covered the advertisement with red and white checked material, added hearts and a sequined lightning bolt. Cost is approx $ 210.00 for all five costumes.