Cool Mrs. Lovett Homemade Halloween Costume

I had so much fun putting together the Mrs. Lovett costume. I checked several photos, watched the movie again (3 times for mannerisms) and checked several homemade costumes as well. I noticed that I don’t have to look exactly like Helena Bonham Carter’s (HBC) character, which was encouraging. The best advice I can give, is to plan early. I started checking thrift shops in September.

SKIRT – I found a wonderful light blue prairie dress that fit, but it was a dress. So, I turned it into a skirt with an elastic waist, which was fine since it would be covered with the corset. Then I had to dye it a dark brown with Rit Dye, two bottles for the amount of fabric I had. The skirt was already a little tattered which was awesome for poor Mrs. Lovett.

CORSET – I already had this in my bag of things for my costumes. If I hadn’t had one, I most likely would have gotten one that wasn’t so shiny, but this one worked just fine for me.

LACE TOP – another awesome find from a thrift shop. The neckline was too high and it had a satin liner. I carefully removed the satin liner with a seam ripper as to not rip any lace too. Then I cut a “V” neck and no binding.

BLOOMERS – I found a pink polka dot pair of pajama’s. This was perfect for me. Although HBC’s character had red bloomers, I wear something pink everyday in October (Breast Cancer Awareness).

RED FRILL ON TOP – I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to do this. Then I found an awesome black bra with a red ruffle on top. This showed perfectly through the lace top.

LACE GLOVES – These should be fingerless. Found for $5 in a costume shop. I picked these particular ones with the ruffle since the shirt I had didn’t have one. (I forgot to put the gloves on when I took the first picture.)

LACE-UP BOOTS – I also had these in my wardrobe of shoes already. I actually saw quite a few pairs while I was thrift shopping.

HAIR – This was fun. My hair is already red. I watched a few YouTube videos on how to do the hair and I chose the one with some of the curls hanging down. First I curled my hair all over with a 1/2”curling iron, pinned small locks to my head. Then teased the heck out of it. And LOTS of hairspray. By the third night I wore the costume, I had really figured out how to do the hair right and make it look bigger and messy and still have some curls.

MAKEUP – Mrs.Todd is not white. She is fair skinned. I found an IVORY base makeup and used this from the showing cleavage area up and covered my face (including my eyes). I used a plum blush very low on the cheek line. I also used this same plum as the base for the eye makeup. Then I used a rust color shadow closest to the eye on top and bottom. I wanted my eyes to stand out, so I also used some fake lashes and I darkened my brows. She had natural colored lips, so I went with a muted orange similar in color to the rust shadow. There are several videos on her makeup too.

ACCESSORIES – I kept a rolling pin with me at locations that didn’t consider it a weapon. And I also added a little black bag to carry my ID, phone, keys and lipstick. Oh, and I also brought along a Sweeney Todd character – I think he was pretty good too! One night was a little chillier than the others, so I took along my brown velour coat and an old hat – the necklace for that night only (I didn’t see Mrs. Lovett with any jewelry) was a gift from a friend.

This was a fun and somewhat sexy costume. Plus it was warm for the October night air walking from the car to the Halloween party. I had all kinds of awesome comments and one guy told me that my costume was better than my Sweeney Todd’s costume (which I also put together).

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