This was not the costume I had planed pre-pandemic and leading up to Halloween I was scrambling for inspiration. I wasn’t sure I wanted to make a big effort on a costume that I didn’t have opportunity to wear anywhere.
To begin I decided to make a fish bone mask because at least I could wear it on my weekly grocery shopping. And then I realized that I could wear my XtraTufs (Alaska’s favorite footwear) and my blue tarp rain jacket that I made years ago for a “craft your hometown” challenge on the old site to make a kind of “Alaskana” costume.
Note: That’s the Alaska flag on the back of the coat. The Big Dipper and the North Star. Both blue tarps and XtraTufs are ubiquitous here in Alaska.
Close ups of the fish bones on my mask. They are salmon vertebrae, jaw bones, and teeth I collected from the beach.
It’s not my best halloween effort, but I am really proud of my mask. I used magpie’s pattern. The outer fabric is black velvet and I hand stitched on the fish bones.
