One-Eyed Girl: costumes part 2 : wheelchair edition

i can't believe it took me as long as it did to finally start taking advantage of the hunk of titanium i'm sitting on ever single day of my life. in '07, i was working at the halloween store in hamilton, and i was conveniently placed by all the sexy costumes. i'd rather cut a finger off than wear any costume that has been sexified, however they had a cute racecar driver costume and my mind instantly went to being a driver and having my wheelchair be the racecar. i convinced tim it was an awesome idea and it was really exciting, especially as my wheelchair's very first costume.

i got that "sexy" racecar costume and altered it a little by sewing up the skirt's big slit, wearing a shirt under so none of my lovelies popped out (not that i actually foresaw them doing so anyway), and covering up the silly "69" number on my chest with an "88." i wore black armwarmers cause i'm basically a rolling icebox at all times, but my costume was completed by my sister's at-the-time boyfriend's giant helmet, for that last extra touch. for tim's costume, we altered his red shirt and black hat with some matching racing stripes, another thank you to mama bear for helping with her handy dandy sewing skills. he threw on some oversized sunglasses and headset to make him look like the professional pit crew that he is, complete with a little jug of gas.. or inflammable liquid. both of us, however, made the point to iron on our names on our shirts because that's what made us a real racecar crew. like i said, it was exciting as our very first attempt to use wheelchair as a basis for our costumes.

and that's our racecar crew!

next up is my greatest creation from 2008. pee wee herman and chairy! i tried my hardest to convince tim to be jambi or whoever else but he refused. this costume actually ended up helping me win a thousand dollars and two airline tickets, which paid for my trip to vegas that summer. what a glorious halloween that year. the story behind my big win: we dropped by 93.3 mmr's creep show and i can't tell you the excitement when they told me go get up on stage for the costume contest.. and i can't tell you the amazement i felt when i heard everyone screaming my very own name up on stage, loving me, chanting it: "peewee! peewee! peewee!" it was like a dream come true. especially after they gave me all those sweet prizes.

my suit jacket was found at the thrift store in the little boy's aisle. since i'm not actually a little boy, i wore my own gray pants. luckily i already had a blank white pair of shoes lying around, that i had planned on (still do) painting them. i sprayed my hair black, slicked it back, and went to town on my face making it pale with bright pink cheeks. basically all that comes down to is i looked like 13 year old with too much make up on. the fun part was making chairy. like our itchy and scratchy costumes, my mom took over this task as well. my mom, my dad, and i cut up some plasticy cardboard to fit around my chair and my mom found the perfect color fabric, and really soft fabric at that, which covered each cardboard piece: backrest, armrests, seat cushion, cushion below (mouth) and the tires. chairy's eyes i made from styrofoam and left over fabric and i think her eyelashes were just layers of tape cut to size.

and that's peewee and chairy!

finally is captain hook and his nemesis crocodile from '09! this one took a whole lot of time, from a bunch of different people, but i fully feel it was worth it. while i was constructing my ship, trying to figure out how to make it stand on its on, on my chair, figure out how to push it, and decorate it to look like a real pirate ship, my mom was off sewing my captain hook's jacket and tim's crocodile belly and tail.i went crazy looking for a big hat, but all i could find was a pimp hat that i of course used all my red spray paint on, and glued on the biggest feather i could find. building my ship wasn't an easy task, but once built, i just added details of wood, windows, cannons, and anchors, with paint/marker, and tiny little handmade ropes and sails, some sails even higher than me. basically, what truly brought my costume together wasn't any of the details or accessories, but the mustache. of course.

tim's costume was also simple. after sewing a belly filled with stuffing onto a green shirt, my mom did the same for the tail attached to the back of the shirt, then sewed a green hood. this is where we came in. we grabbed some foam sheets and cut out the shape of the mouth, teeth and tongue and began to make mr. evil crocodile man come to life. his eyes were styrofoam for cartoony effect. i believe the last step in finishing tim's costume was the dark green spikes i glued on from his back down to his tail. perfection. kim joined us as peter pan, so our trio of nemesis of nemesis of nemesis ended up being pretty fun.