The Red Queen Costume

I wanted to do a different take on the Queen of Hearts-something a little darker and more macabre...I had been seeing photos of the face peeled off look, and decided to mix those 2 together.
The skirt-I bought 4 different formal dresses at the thrift store and cut them into strips...then sewed them together with a simple draw string for the waist. I added diamond ribbons, gold sparkle tulle, red and black satin ribbons running from panel to panel in a diamond-esk pattern with red silk roses that either had a skull or a small skeleton in the middle of them. I had a red corset where I used different pieces of the dresses cut up to make the fabric swoops around the bottom and used a smaller diamond ribbon to pull them into swoops. I then added the red roses and skulls to the pulls. The sleeves were made from a short red skirt with a sheer over skirt also from the thrift shop. I cut it in half, sewed it together to make bell sleeves. The top parts of the sleeves is a sequin bodice from one of the dresses cut in half. I sewed it together and added the bell sleeve underneath. The hat-I took deco wire and make a rectangle, wrapped it in a black lace and glued black sheer rosettes to the top...took a black piece of craft foam and put it in front of that adding the little pieces of trim seen...the base of the crown is 2 different sizes of deco wire where I made the base circle for the head and added the heart shapes. Then it was just gluing in the roses, skulls and skeleton hands.
The mask was made by cutting a store bought white mask, adding liquid latex and paper towels torn into strips around all the edges. I then added a base make up and a white face paint to match my skin as well as possible with me doing the white face paint. I then bloodied the back and edges with scab blood and added a stick with feather trim.
The make up was done by outlining the mask on my face, doing the same treatment of latex and paper towels and filling in with the scab blood and vampire blood where I wanted the drips. The red contact lenses set off the blood really well.
The last of it was a battery operated realistic looking heart that actually pumped/beat.
I would say that all together, including wig, hoop skirt and necklace-I spent around $100.00-120.00. It is hard to say as I had so many pieces collected over time such as the small skulls, small skeletons, feathers, ribbon etc.