Tag Archives: mardi gras

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mardi gras mambo

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Although I grew up in New Orleans, I’ve never costumed for parades before. Since this is my boyfriend’s first Mardi Gras we decided to go all out for the full experience.

our costumes, before the Endymion parade after Endymion, loaded with beads

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I call Jason’s costume the Psychedelic Dream Coat, and mine is Rainbow Peacock. As soon as we saw this amazing rainbow tinsel eyelash fabric we had these costumes in our minds. I can’t wait to see them under the lights of the Sensatron 5000 at Burning Man!

psychedelic dream coat psychedelic dream coat psychedelic dream coat psychedelic dream coat

Jason designed his ringmaster jacket and I made it, working in all his requests. It fits him like a glove (I had a blast measuring him) and looks amazing. Since he’s always warm, the interior is just a thin lining, and the trim is violet stretch velvet. I also made his red velvet pirate pants for the SF Decompression, and I have a matching bodysuit.

rainbow peacock rainbow peacock rainbow peacock cape rainbow peacock after Endymion

I wanted to have a little cape to be warm and snuggly in the frigid Nevada nights, so mine is lined with fleece. It can be worn many different ways so it will be just as great for dancing in the streets as for cruising around the playa in the art car. The velvet plackets at the arm holes keep them from opening up when I don’t want them to, and I made some fingerless gloves that I wore with green fringed arm warmers from my 2009 BM costumes. The cape looks great with all of my bodysuits!

rainbow tinsel

Although these costumes are made in time for Mardi Gras, we also had Burning Man in mind when we designed them. When we first found the rainbow tinsel at Lincoln Fabrics we thought it would be too MOOPy, but changed our minds after testing the fabric in the Fashion District. Plus, we figured that the fabric would get all its MOOP out at Mardi Gras, making it safe for Black Rock City.

rainbow peacock mask magic rocket mask our masks together

Mardi Gras masks often have fabulous feathers, but as we are both vegetarians and feathers are against Burning Man’s MOOP policy, we decided to find an animal and environmentally friendly alternative. My peacock feathers are made on recycled cardboard bases that were first painted in the Rainbow Peacock theme, then embellished with scraps of fabric, jewels, and shiny pieces of trash (the translucent green stars are from a plastic cup and the violet paper ribbon is from a bow I found on the street). Since they are mounted on spiraled pipe cleaners they move with me, similar to real feathers.

cardboard peacock feathers i can wear my glasses under my mask

Best part about the mask? I can wear it over my glasses!

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suiting up

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For about a year and a half I’ve been eying some glitter Spandex at Joann’s, knowing exactly what I would make out of it if I could only find the excuse. Well, this year I went to BURNING MAN. It was insane; it was incredible; it was indescribable! And I was well dressed.

First, here’s a shot from the desert, with the fabulous Cosmo:

As it turns out, you don’t have to have a great body to prance around in a bodysuit. Stick anything in 2 yards of sparkly spandex and it’s fabulous. I got more attention wearing these than when I walked around naked.

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The outfits were interpreted in so many ways, as a fish/mermaid suit, as an astronaut, as an alien (especially when I was in the rocket), and a superhero. It was actually pretty cold at night and my silver fringed arm warmers didn’t do much, so when I wasn’t dancing my tushy off I was snuggled up in a teal robe.

I didn’t use a pattern on these but they fit perfectly. I loved being able to change the attitude by the height of the zipper (I did wear it around with the zipper completely open). Also I whipped up a silver utility belt, which was so useful! I kept food, a camera, toilet paper, a knife, and all sorts of little essentials on hand.

The blue one was second and came out much better. It only took 90 minutes from start to finish (excluding the sequins at the collar). Also on this one I figured out to use the 3-stitch zig zag, which worked so much better than the regular zig zag!

Since I didn’t get a lot of shots at Burning Man, yesterday I suited up again and played in the neighbor’s tree house.

For next year I am going to have a different color for every night. Also, I’m thinking about putting in a much longer 2-way zipper to go from the neck all the way to the back, so that using the porta-potties isn’t such a hassle.

This is going to be great for Mardi Gras!

By the way, I totally wear these around my house and when I visit the neighbors. They’ve gotten used to it.

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