Cheryl’s Final Halloween Costume

For my halloween costume, I am inspired by Peking Opera. I think it is incredible to see how different opera mask represents each roles’ characteristic, specifically through the use of colors and patterns. Nowadays, traditional opera are still very popular and beloved by younger generations, some hotpot restaurant also integrated opera shows as a part of the dinning experience. I really wanted my costume to emphasize my culture and background, so I decided to make a matching set of Peking Opera’s mask accessory.

I painted a couple layers of white paint first, and sketched out the contour where I will be filling in colors. To make the mask look neat, I went in again with a smaller brush and white paint to clean up the edges.

My initial idea was adding on a wig to the mask so that it feels more creepy, so I poked holes around the mask, and sewed the wig onto the mask. However, it does not turn out how I imagined, so I decided to remove the wig.

I made a small pouch to store batteries, and sewed it onto the hat.

Instead of the wig idea, my plan B is to sew the mask onto the back of a hat, and to prevent the threads getting loose in the middle of the parade, I added a little bit of hotglue.

I really want the light to be very bright, so I used thin muslin fabric to diffuse the light. I wrapped the fabric around the light and hotglued it.

This is the second mask, the patterns symbolizes tiger, my zodiac animal. it will be a “crossbody mask”. So I decided to poke two holes for the strap to go through. One thing that would be cool to improve on that Becky mentioned is to make a bigger pouch behind the mask and turn it into a functional purse.