Nefertiti Costume for Halloween '09

For Halloween this year I created a Queen Nefertiti costume. Since there were several different pieces to the costume I have separated the steps into three categories: The hat, the jewelry and the dress. 

The Hat 

The Nefertiti hat consists of a plastic bucket and top, paper, oil and acrylic paints, cardboard, dimensional craft paint and super glue.

1. The bottom was cut out of the plastic bucket.

2. The plastic bucket (with the top) was covered in paper.

3. The paper was painted a dark blue.

4. Two pieces of cardboard were cut to make the front yellow piece which comes down in front of the ears, and the yellow strip above the back of the neck.

5. The cardboard was painted yellow and glued onto the bucket.

6. The colorful strips of squares were painted onto the bucket.

7. The snake was put onto the front of the hat with yellow dimensional craft paint.

8. A dark yellow oil paint was used to accent the edges of the snake.

The Jewelry

The Nefertiti jewelry consists of earring hooks, wire, beads, string, hem facing, snaps and super glue.

1. A selection of beads were put onto two segments of wire.

2. The segments of wire were shaped into circles and attached to the earring hooks.

3. A string of beads with a bead consistently looped back through so that it dangled was made using a needle and thread.

4. Another row of beads was sewn through the dangling bead of the first row and in between beads were looped back through so that they dangled from the second row.

5. Step 4 was repeated four more times.

6. A last row of beads was sewn through the sixth row of dangling beads to finish it.

7. Hem facing was glued over the ends of each side of the necklace.

8. Snaps were sewn onto the hem facing.

The Dress

The Nefertiti dress consists of a blue skirt that I'm borrowing from my mom, a white tank top, a white nightgown, white sheer fabric, hem facing, wire, beads, a hook and eye and super glue.

1. The ruffles and sleeves were cut off of the nightgown.

2. A piece was cut out of the front of the nightgown.

3. The blue skirt was taken in so that it fit better.

4. A piece of sheer fabric was cut into a triangular shape and two of the points were tied together to make shawl which wraps over one shoulder and under the other arm.

5. Wire and beads were wrapped around a scarab bead and glued onto the red hem facing to create the belt.

6. The shawl and belt were placed over the nightgown which was placed over skirt and tank top.

Here is the whole costume:

Nefertiti's first outing!

Yesterday Nefertiti made her first public appearance! I wore the costume to the Howl and Yowl Festival at Country Acres which I went to with my sister. Unfortunately, there weren't many other people in costume so it was a bit embarrassing at first, but the costume was a success. Here are some pictures of the full costume before and at the festival. 

After Halloween...

After Halloween I will post the full steps and pictures of the Nefertiti costume. This way I'll be able to post some pictures from the actual event the costume was made for! So you can expect that post to show up next Wednesday, at the latest. 

Until then!

Your Faithful Blogger,

Max

Nefertiti Dress

Here is the dress I will be using for halloween. As soon as all the pieces are finished I will post all the steps I went through to make it and pictures of the whole costume.

The dress consists of: 

• A long, blue skirt I'm borrowing from my Mom.

• A knee-length night gown which I cut the sleeves and ruffles off of and split down the front. 

• A sheer wrap which I cut from some fabric I found in one of my closets. 

• A belt which I made using red hem facing, a scarab bead, a few other beads, wire, a hook and eye, and super glue.

Nefertiti Makeup

In order to look more like Queen Nefertiti, I've been studying her face so I could copy the makeup. Although there are still enormous differences between our faces, I believe I have gotten the makeup to look pretty good. Here are some pictures of the bust of Nefertiti from the Berlin Museum and my own attempts at her makeup.

           

        

Weekly Tip

If you are often creating costumes for yourself, buying a dress form is a good idea. It comes in handy when you want to sew on additions by hand while its on you but can't since you're in the dress. New dress forms range from $100 to $200, but you can buy one for about $50 at a thrift store or antique store.

Nefertiti Necklace

Here are some pictures of the necklace I am making to go with my Nefertiti costume. I based it off of some pictures of Egyptian necklaces from around 1300 B.C. It isn't done yet, and there will be at least another row of beads after the blue ones.