Parrot Costume

I decided to be a pirate for Halloween this year. I had everything I needed except for boots, so I decided to make some shoe covers that looked like boots with some fake felt I had. I tried and tried shapes mainly for the Sonja costume, but still needed to know how to do them for myself. I found a couple tutorials that helped:

http://littlestonecape.blogspot.com/2012/10/childs-pirate-boots.html
http://www.practicallyfunctional.com/diy-rain-boot-liners/

For my little parrot I just made some wings to pin to a red fleece thing I made her (ok, I probably made it for her brother 12 years ago?), then made a little hat. I really liked this pattern, but made the hat too small, so she really ended up looking like a squid. I didn't bother putting a beak on the hat when I realized it was too small.

Sonja the Hedgehog

Did you even know there's a Sonja the Hedgehog? Yep. It's Sonic's sister. I think she turned out pretty cute, pink hair and all.

Colonial Day

In the middle of Halloween madness, it was Colonial Day for the 5th grade. I was crazy and decided to make a dress a week before. I was able to borrow a pattern and the dress turned out great. A little big, but super cute. I should have made the 10 rather than the 12 so it would fit my smaller daughters in the future in 5th grade.

Mummy Costume

My son wanted to be a mummy for Halloween, and I found this great video on YouTube.



I thought it would be easier to start more from scratch, though.

I found a pattern for loose pants (actually from an Indian costume), used white flannel, tore strips of muslin, and sewed them on, but not to the top of the pant, just to the crotch.

 Then I sewed the legs together and the crotch seam.

Then I sewed strips all around the hips so that the front/rear seams would be covered.  Then I made a casing for the elastic and hemmed the pants.

I really wanted a white turtleneck, but couldn't find one anywhere!  Finally I just got one of my old long-sleeved white t-shirts, cut it up the back, took a couple inches out, then sewed it back up.  I also chopped the sleeves a little shorter.

 I sliced the arms open like this so it would be easy to sew on the strips of muslin.

I sewed the muslin strips all the way up to the arm-pit on both the arms and the body.  Then, I stitched the arms back up and sewed the remaining strips over the shoulder/neck area on by hand.

We just wrapped more strips around his head.  I'm sure it's a safety hazard.

My Late Halloween Costume

For Christmas this year, my husband's work is having a 1920s themed party.  I thought, Great!  Now I can make a 1920s dress and use it for Halloween, too.  I bought fabric, a pattern, altered the pattern, made a skirt (you can see why). . .  and I ended up looking like a giant green grasshopper (I really should share a picture.  It was really awful.  It looked like a 1980s bridesmaid dress).

So, I gave up on the idea for Halloween, went back to the fabric store, used a smaller pattern size, designed a new skirt and this is the result.

I wish I would have made the bodice 1 - 2" longer, but too late now.

The skirt is slightly boring, but I'm too afraid to make the front shorter than the back.

Past Patterns #503

I'm also not sure how I like my two tiers, and I think it looks too long in the pictures (or maybe I'm just too short).  Maybe I can shorten the longer skirt.  Luckily I can bunch the short tier up into what looks like a belt.  My, my.  How versatile.

More inspiration:

Can't remember where I got this image!

Past Patterns Ladies' Evening Dress

I was afraid my fabric would be horribly slippery.  In fact, the lady at the fabric store said I'd probably need to pin it every inch!  However, it was actually quite easy to sew on, and it is so thin I was able to do a rolled hem. I'm still trying to perfect my technique, but for a costume, I'm okay with it.  I'll probably embellish the scarf a little and add some ribbon to the bottom of the sleeves.