Inspiration: steampunk circus inspired by The Night Circus.  I based my look off of this Simplicity pattern:

Rather than buying the yards and yards of fabric that would be needed make the overcoat, and then having to actually SEW an overcoat, I decided to use what I had on hand:

This was my winter coat from several years ago, and I decided to cut it up since it was too big, didn’t really have any shaping to it, and was sort of pill-y and covered in lint, etc., and having three or four other winter coats in my closet… You can see the cutting lines I drew.

Cut off the collar and shaped the bottom hem line… Then I needed the ruffle!  I had just the thing: a butt-ugly sheer shirt (part of a dance costume for Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” but I won’t say anything more about that!) I was more than happy to cut up.

I had to make some major alterations to the jacket that had me wondering if altering was easier than sewing an entire new jacket, mostly because it all involved hand sewing, which I hate!  I added three panels into the “skirt” of the jacket to make it flare out, and also a false lacing up the back.  I also had to make the jacket double-breasted inside of single, which meant learning how to sew buttonholes.  That was much easier than I thought it would be.  ALL OF MY FUTURE PROJECTS WILL NOW HAVE BUTTONS!

I also had some red and white striped fabric for the corset, and some velvet I had used to make a jacket years earlier (which is how I knew I did not want to make another jacket…).  Made some little lace gloves out of some scraps I had, found a little top hat at Savers that I added some tulle and a fabric rose to, and voila!

I opted for leggings and boots rather than making a full skirt, just for ease of wearing and because I kinda ran out of time toward the end of October.  I’m not sure how many people “got” what I was for Halloween, but I did receive lots of compliments on my costume.  And on Janina’s Snow White costume: