I had so much fun this Halloween! Because my five young children decided on costumes at the last second, I got to feel like I was on project runway– trying to get Tinkerbelle, Rosetta, two Aquabats, and Medusa (this entry) ready for the ball. My daughter loves the Percy Jackson books, and wanted to spend the night as a Modern Medusa.

The foundation for the hair is a baseball hat with the bill cut off. I wound 18ft of .75″ black rope (hot glued at first, and secured with stitching later) to resemble snakes. Six toy plastic snakes were intertwined (again I tacked them down with hot glue first, and then anchored with stiches) throughout to make the hair more realistic. I spray painted everything black, and highlighted with brown and gold. To make the tongues pop I used nail polish. I primed them with white, and then went over it with red. The easiest way I found to accomplish the painting was to run upholstery thread through the middle of the hat, and hang it on a tree.

The jacket, made from vinyl, was my very first attempt at ever making a jacket… and I didn’t have a pattern! I’m thrilled at how it turned out. I had a great time taking measurements, making a “muslin,” and adjusting the fit. I loved that I got to practice techniques like hand pressing (which I now know is essential for vinyl), understitching, and adding a faux yoke in the back (who know my daughter slouched so much). I can’t wait to use Louise Cutting’s “Fuse and Interface Hem” technique to “bag” the jacket, which can be found in the video section of this website.

Launch Gallery