COOS BAY — Halloween is Stacey Kelley’s Christmas.

The seamstress is steeped in costume orders. In her sewing nook, dozens of garbs soon will spring to life as fairies, executioners, kings and queens — if only for a night.

“This is the crazy time of year,” said Kelley.

From miscreants to royalties, she helps people dress the part.

Kelley operates Realm of the Ruby King, a custom costume design service that she operates out of The Mossy Rose in downtown Coos Bay.

It’s a joint business venture between Kelley and her mother-in-law, Diana Prickett. Kelley creates the outfits. Prickett sells jewelry, antiques and floral arrangements to go with your theme party. Their business interests are complimentary.

“They really do perpetuate each other,” Prickett said.

How the two became business partners can be attributed to Prickett’s son, James — Kelley’s husband. He urged his mom to look at his then-girlfriend’s costume-making skills. 

“I saw her stuff and said ‘Wow, that’s really cool!’ So we joined forces,” Prickett said.

They opened The Mossy Rose at 340 Central Ave. in the Hall Building. The business celebrated its fifth anniversary in September.

The store’s inventory is on the verge of outgrowing its space. Masks, capes, coifs, veils, sashes, frilly blouses and frippery of various sorts are displayed among antiques, fairy art and other decorum.

There is a market for this stuff.

“I never feel so feminine and so pretty than when I put on a gown by Mossy Rose,” Camby Collier said.

Collier is a member of the Shire of Tymberhavene, the local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism, an international organization of medieval Europe enthusiasts. There are about three dozen members between Coos and Curry counties.

Renaissance re-creationists pepper their speech with “thees” and “thous” and get together for feasts and competitions of chivalry.

Some make their own regalia. Others, like Collier, buy it.

If anyone asks how she made her dress, she has a retort at the ready.

“I say, ‘Oh my lady, I do not do such menial tasks. You must talk to my (seamstress),’” said Collier, known as Madame Du Pont among her historian peers.

Serving this small, but dedicated, niche keeps Kelley stitching throughout the year, though it tends to pick up around the spooky season.

“It’s busier this year than last,” Kelley said. “I guess that’s a good sign.”

The Mossy Rose has also found a market providing garb for less-than-traditional wedding ceremonies. They’ve arranged outfits for a marriage of pirates. And Kelley recently cut a black and red gown for a woman to be wed on Halloween.

“We’re not your classic wedding boutique,” Prickett said.

“We’ve pretty much done everything but a normal wedding,” Kelley added.

Kelley’s own wedding had a touch of Renaissance. It featured the musical accompaniment of an ages-old instrument called an ocarina. Brent Van Tassel was the one who performed the obscure oval-shaped trumpet. He was at The Mossy Rose to pick up his costume, a fur-legged get-up with which he’ll stick horns on his head as Pan, the goat god — known in Greek mythology to play a mean ocarina himself.

“I play the ocarina and keep goats,” said Van Tassel. “So, I thought ‘Hey, lets throw those together.’”

Kelley has had stranger requests. There was that one guy who wanted to be an eel.

“That one had me stumped,” she admitted.