Constance Hatchaway, the Black Widow Bride from Disney's Haunted Mansion

 “I do… I did”

    My plan this year was to do a Disney Parks specific cosplay, and I am so pleased to have achieved that goal. I am delighted to introduce Constance Hatchaway, the black widow bride. If you are familiar with the Haunted Mansion attraction in the Disney Parks, you will know this deadly, dastardly lady. Somehow, any man that marries her mysteriously passes away. And of course, the grieving widow receives all the inheritance from her dearly departed hubby. In each new wedding portrait you see, she has added a pearl necklace. It’s an obvious symbol of her power and wealth growing with each husband. She’s been married 5 times, but she’s looking for husband number 6. 

    Haunted Mansion is my second favorite Disney attraction. (Only Pirates of the Caribbean ranks higher on my list.) There are an overabundance of happy haunts to choose from, but there was no doubt I would do Constance first. Her dialogue is basically just twisting the traditional wedding vows into very threatening remarks, and it’s hilarious.

    It’s really difficult to see details on the character’s costume in the attraction. (It’s dark in the mansion). So lots of artists have created lots of different versions of her outfit. When designing a new costume, I like to decide a time period and specific location first. It gives a direction to my research. I have decided to set this version of Constance in the 1880s/1890s, in New England, USA.

 

    I could have built a wedding dress from scratch, but honestly I didn’t want to do that. And I knew I would spend a lot of money on supplies and way too much time starting from nothing. So I searched thrift stores, hoping to find a perfect candidate to transform. Finally, I was out thrifting with my mom, and I found a dress! I have no idea of the age, but I don’t think it’s any older than the 1980s. But I could tell immediately that it had SO MUCH potential. The neckline was elegant and curved, and there was lace everywhere.  There are also some very much not-period-appropriate plastic sequins. But it’s ok. I can ignore that for now.

    Constance’s gown has fabulous sleeves, with a full puffy upper sleeve and a tighter lower sleeve. Sadly, this dress didn’t have sleeves.  I have Simplicity 8695, a reproduction 1930s sleeve pattern. I think I cut a size 14, but cut it down to a 12. And it’s still pretty loose, but it’s good enough. This pattern was easy to follow and I recommend it. It offers some unique shapes you don’t really see anymore. The lace to make the sleeves was a lucky find at a thrift store. It matches so well with the dress!

    For accessories, I made a few pearl necklaces with some plastic beads. I bought her axe at Spirit Halloween.  I made a petticoat from the Victorian Petticoats pattern from Truly Victorian. It was a chore and a half, but I’m glad it’s done. I can use it for multiple costumes in the future. I made the veil with the remainder of the lace from the sleeves and a few flowers from Michaels. The bouquet is a bunch of faux white roses and the rest of the veil flowers, all from Michaels. The wig was, once upon a time, my Galadriel wig. Alas, the ends were very much destroyed from years of brushing. So I just made it into an updo. And obviously, I couldn’t resist buying some blacklight bulbs and trying out some blacklight photography.

    I couldn’t resist making a little pouch for the jewelry. I bought a Haunted Mansion embroidery font on Etsy, but I didn’t realize I needed an embroidery program to actually use it. Annoying. In the end, I just used one of the native fonts in my embroidery machine.

    I hope you enjoyed this bit of spooky content and thanks for reading!

Yours in hard work, creativity, and a dash of Pixie Dust

Sarah