daisies and dresses: Saint Edward Haunting

If anyone has peeked at my instagram account, they have probably noticed that I really love creepy photography. I also love Halloween. The two blend together into a perfect duet. I've wanted to do a ghost photo shoot for a while and I finally got my chance yesterday :)

Little Miss was originally going to be a wind up doll...last year. I did a self drafted pattern based on this photo I saw online. It's a Victorian dress with lace insets all down the front and broderie anglaise trim. I was in love the first moment I saw it. There are more beauties at the Bowes Museum website.

I started with lace inset in the front. I pieced it together from lace I bought on etsy. The two I used on the front of my dress are from mingmingworld. They seem to still carry them here and here. The anglaise trim is vintage and it's beautiful. So so beautiful. I had a rough time cutting it up. Once I had the lace inset done I couldn't wrap my brain around how to add it to the rest of the dress and then Miss decided she wanted to be Rapunzel anyway so the project sat until I picked it up last month.

The group of kids last year. My oldest made his own costume and I made the little one's. My poor chicken terrified all the kids in the neighborhood.

After I picked it up a year later, the pattern fell into place. I just added two side panels and a back panel and sewed on a skirt. It really wasn't all that difficult. I'll admit that the some of the seams are exposed under the front trim, but it's not really noticeable. The rest of my dress is cotton muslin. After I was finished, I tea stained the entire thing to give it more of a vintage look. The first time around it came out orange! Thank goodness a couple of washes fixed that.

She didn't want to be a wind up doll, so I thought a broken doll might be cute but after practicing with the makeup she didn't want to be that either. She wanted something "spookier". She thought a ghost would be pretty spooky. She sat still while I did her makeup and then we ran off to the park to do a ghostly photo shoot.

The photos were taken using a very slow shutter speed, sometimes as long as 30 seconds depending on the look I was going for. I also used a neutral density filter to help cut out light so that my shot wouldn't be overexposed. It was nice for Miss not to have to worry about sitting still for once. We also went later in the day on a damp overcast evening so there was hardly anyone around. I think they came out perfectly.