Labyrinth Masquerade Ball 2019

This year I got to attend the Labyrinth Masquerade Ball in LA.  This event is beyond phenomenal, the cast did an amazing job of creating multiple wonderful worlds, the entertainment was top notch and the costumes were to die for (I seriously recommend checking out the pictures on the website or facebook).  The whole event felt so immersive. We opted to attend the preshow, where you tour through the space with various cast members.  This was very worth it, the cast members were amazing and worked hard to orient the new people and to show you some of the unique things for the event.  We also attended the tea, which was amazing in both food and unique teas designed specifically for the event. I did take at least some pictures, so here are a selection from this magical event.

First, here is our outfits for the first night taken before we headed down to the ball.

There were so many amazing costumes, I captured only a handful of them, but here are some of my favorites we got to see first hand.  However, just looking at the facebook photos, we missed so many amazing costumes in the crowd!  I highly recommend this event for the sheer love of costume and hope to go again some day!

Steampunk Glinda the Good Witch Hoop Skirt

My husband and I are planning to attend the Labyrinth Masquerade Ball this year and are in need of costumes.  Since time is short and there is not time to do a completely new costume, I am trying to finish up a costume I started a few years ago, a Steampunk Glinda the Good Witch. This costume was wearable, but very unfinished, so this is a good opportunity to finish it up.


The first issue is that the hoop skirt I originally made for it is 1 inch wide steel bands riveted to leather.  While this is really fun to wear, it wont fit in the suitcase as it doesn't fold or bend at all.

To get a hoop that can fly with me, I purchased a cheap bridal hoop.  This hoop can be folded up to fit in a suitcase, but is made out of something that feels like a cheap tent......

The overskirt to this dress is actually sheer so the hoop will show at least a little bit and I also wanted to be able to wear the hoop without the overskirt.  So I went to the local fabric store and bought some bright pink sheer stripe and iridescent PVC to remake the hoop skirt into something Glinda appropriate.

I made a bunch of strips of the sheer stripe to make ruffles and strips of the PVC to cover the hoops.  The hoops were then suspended from ribbons hung from the waist band. This hoop was pretty simple to make but very very time consuming.  The PVC is absolutely nasty to sew on, it sticks to the foot of my machine.  I have heard there are special feet that can handle this stuff, but none of the ones I have did a good job, so I resorted to the old tried and true method.  I covered the PVC with thin tissue paper, stitched through the tissue paper and then tore it off the seams when finished.