Halloween 2014 Cleopatra and her Cobra

Cleopatra costume made by me and Cobra costume from chasingfireflies.com

Emily and Ava as Cleopatra and her Asp. Did you know Cleopatra was killed by a cobra? So fascinating was her life.  Married to two of her brothers, she had relationship that produced a son with Caesar and a relationship with Mark Antony that produced 3 children (I think I have my facts straight...). Rather than be enslaved after Egypt was captured by Octavian she had an Asp (Egyptian Cobra) bite and kill her (or so they say. Apparently there are different theory's). One of the best books I have read on her is Memoirs of Cleopatra. Also, if you've not seen Rome you need to!

So how did we decide on these two? Emily wanted to be an Angler fish but we couldn't decide on a matching costume for Ava . I found this Cobra and Emily was immediately excited and wanted to be it. But what to do for Ava...Cleopatra! What sold Ava on the idea was the golden headpiece (from amazon).

So Emily's costume is from chasingfireflies.com  but Ava's is made. I used Simplicity 2329 in a size 7 (she's 6.5 and the 7 was huge on her. I cut off about 4-6" off the bodice width and about 15" off the length of the skirt). I used a stretchy gold/black velvety fabric for the dress and a gold pleather-like fabric for the neck and waist pieces. The cape is a gold/black lame that just snaps onto her neck piece. All beads and fabric are from Joanns. I didn't line or interface anything. I also didn't follow directions on the cape so it's off-center and wonky:)