My costume bunnies are evil, I tell you!

To fully explain this, first I guess I would need to explain what I mean by costume bunnies. Do you ever look at someone’s costume, and go “this would be brilliant, if only…”. Or “I’d love to make something like that for myself, but with x, y, z modifications”. How about “This historical garment looks fantastic, and the silhouette would look so well on me and so suitable for a costume if I did x, y and z”? Or “oh look at that trim, it would be amazing as decoration for a costume”? And its close cousin, of course, which is mostly “look at that fabric! it would be great!”. And there’s the other one, “that costume doesn’t work on you, but if only you could find a piece with these characteristics, it suddenly would, and of course you have already invested in the parts so you should try to get to use them…”

Each of those is a costume bunny. And I view them as slightly demented, hyperactive and hyper-caffeinated, with big pointy teeth or claws that they hook on your poor brain and won’t let go until you do “something about it”. They demand your attention. They want you to focus on them, and they will chase you and haunt you until you deal with them somehow. They don’t sleep (why would they when there’s so much to do!) so why should you? Sometimes you can appease them by getting fabric for the project they want. Sometimes you can do it by sketching your ideas. But nothing works to exorcise them, other than fully finishing that particular costume, and even then, sometimes they are not pleased with the results -or they’ve strayed too much from the original idea- so they will keep haunting you until you do it again. And again.

Anyway, all of this is to say that my costume bunnies have been working overtime, and seem to be of a particularly evil inclination of late. “Look at that lovely trim, wouldn’t it be great for L’s costume”… that’s how it started this time. Even with some concern for someone else’s costumes, aw. Now with 5 metres of said lovely trim in my stash, and 2 of a similarly lovely trim for L, it went into “you know, that trim would be perfect for that teal ghawazee coat you keep saying you want to make, but never got around to do…” (witness the birth of a costume bunny! PLOP!). And while looking for the right teal fabric, it went straight into “while you’re looking for teal, you need that mesh to finish fixing the turquoise dress you got from S, and now that she’s found those gauntlets, to turn them into flouncy sleeves” (oh there goes another one! PLOP!). Which then turned into “look at that sequin stretched lace, it’s so similar to the one you’d seen in that Eman Zaki dress you drooled over so much, and also Nawarra’s light blue saidi dress you saw last week, and it’s the right colour to replace that circle skirt you bought to go with the Samia pieces by Hanan, that unfortunately makes you look like a giant spinning top; you can make it as an underbust skirt” (PLOP!) that quickly mutated into “let’s make it a full dress for added versatility, even though you will still use the crop top and the belt so no need for fancy decoration” (PLOP! bunny grows a third eye!) which even quicker turned into “Let’s do a full costume with at least some embroidery and edging around the top anyway, because that way of course you’ll have two costumes for the price of one! WIN!” (PLOP! here the bunny grows a second head, both heads look at each other and start laughing maniacally).

And to add insult to injury, when the fabric-procuring method resulted in the more insistent bunnies somewhat appeased, then the first one decided to split, and add “you know, you could do a nice choli top with the remaining teal fabric if it’s stretch velour, you have the pattern for that don’t you” (PLOP!) followed by “you’ll have leftover trim and both your existing and upcoming tribal bras are black, why not do a teal one too? it would contrast so nicely with your black pants and shawl” (PLOP!) followed by “but that also means you need to start thinking again about making those three different style of pants, and maybe that all-black and all-white skirts” (PLOP! PLOP! PLOP!)

Current result:
– plum lace and mesh ordered to create that “simple, one afternoon project” dress to use with the Samia pieces I’ve got; these better work or else I am going to be VERY disappointed
– mesh ordered to add the sleeves and finish mods on the turquoise costume, getting ready for the work I intend to do over the proper winter, which includes re-threading all the tassels, and remaking the edging
– several options being weighted for acquisition of the teal velvet I need
– choli top and teal belt/bra options being weighted on, but realistically pushed back into the bunny pen for the time being; skirt and pants bunnies have been moved back to “to do after new projects are done”

This is *exactly* what it feels like in my brain when the issue of creating costumes come to mind. Right now, the bunnies are biting hard and won’t let go, and nothing short of blood sacrifice will appease the most insistent.

And then people ask me why sometimes I have trouble sleeping *sigh*

Note: the Evil Bunny picture is used with permission from its author, Santani; he makes cute, creepy and utterly wonderful dolls for sale.