Karrie Witkin is a member of the CrafterNews editorial team

A few weeks ago, when I was struggling to come up with a Halloween costume, I spotted a poster for the movie Black Swan on my way to work. Problem solved. I already had three different kinds of black feathers and several yards of black tulle in my craft supply stash, and my hair is dark and short (like Natalie Portman and Winona Ryder once wore), so clearly, the universe had spoken.

One problem, though; I wear glasses (my eyes don’t tolerate contacts), and my tortoise shell frames threatened to kill the entire look. A coworker suggested that I build a mask over my spare pair of glasses, and in retrospect, this also saved me the expense of buying all that crazy silver and black eye make-up.

For those of you who wear glasses; don’t let your specs cramp your Halloween style. Here’s how I transformed mine into a swanly mask:

I started with a soft black mask from Ricky’s costume shop.

I aligned my glasses with the eyeholes, and poked very small holes into the mask in three key places. Then I threaded through the wire and twisted it around the frames until it felt secure.

I trimmed the mask to suggest a beak and the dramatic brow shape of the Black Swan make-up.

With silver paint, I drew feather-like designs over the eyelids. I should have added the glitter at this stage, but I actually did it after gluing on the feathers which made the process messier. An amateur mistake.

Finally, I hot-glued feathers over the brow of the mask, and added a combination of spiky short feathers and long silky feathers to each side (these are glued behind the mask). I tend to favor asymmetry, so I put extra feathers on one side (easier than struggling to get both sides of the mask to look identical).

A close-up of me wearing the complete mask—in this picture you can’t really tell that I’m wearing glasses.

A photo of the entire costume and my best attempt at a swan-like pose.

I wore this outfit to a Halloween party on Saturday night. The daytime snowfall turned into blustery rain, and it was tempting to just stay in and rewatch the movie. But I’m glad that I stepped out, as my costume was quite well-received (one gentleman remarked that it was very elegant, although “a little last year”). NYC can be a tough place, but my feathery get-up weathered the storm!

-Karrie

Share your Halloween costume ideas for a chance to win a library of Potter Craft sewing titles (including, but not limited to a copy of the brand new The BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook, on sale tomorrow)!

Categories: Crafts-General |

Tags: Black Swan, Halloween, Halloween costume, Halloween mask, mask, swan, swan mask

Browse all articles from October 2011