The Doctor

Both my son and husband wanted to go as Doctor Who for Halloween. I was going to have one be the 11th and the other the 10th, but as I didn't have a pinstripe suit or tan trenchcoat for either of them, they both went has the 11th. He's easier to dress. :)

For my son, I made suspenders out of burgandy ribbon, and a bowtie and fez (fezzes are cool!) out of felt.  Then he just wore his sunday shirt, a pair of blue slacks, and carried his awesome LED sonic-screwdriver flashlight.

 

 

We went a similar route for my husband, donning a tweedy-looking blazer from Goodwill instead of suspenders, and a cowboy hat instead of a fez.  (I wear a stetson now.  Stetsons are cool.)  

Granted, nearly nobody knew who they were supposed to be, but my guys knew they had cool costumes even if nobody else did.  :)  I think it may be time to start encouraging all my friends to watch Doctor Who on Netflix.  :)

Mad-Eye Moody

I better hurry and get the rest of the Halloween costumes posted before Christmas, eh? :) Is it just me or are the last 3-4 months of the year like a train speeding towards a cliff sometimes? I swear it was just September, and now there's just a month left in the year. The time just seems to evaporate!

One of my twins wanted to go as Mad-Eye Moody this year.  He's a big Harry Potter fan.

And, his costume was pretty easy.  No sewing involved this time.  He wore a brown t-shirt, khakis, and an old "pleather" jacket of mine.  He carried a wand that was really the staff of one of those little American flags everyone waves on the 4th of July.  

 

The main construction part on his costume was the "mad" eye.  Years back, we bought a box of plastic animals from Michael's or somewhere.  Its lid was a spinning globe.  I held onto it, thinking it might come in handy sometime.  And it totally did!  I painted the globe to look like an eye.  I hot glued it to some black felt, and attached a ribbon.  Easy (and free, since I already had all the supplies!) mad-eye.  

Weeping Angel

Any Whovians out there?  If so, this Halloween costume will either thrill you, or totally freak you out.  :)  I went as a Weeping Angel this year!  I'm not sure why I went to such effort for a costume that like 2 people at the Halloween party actually got.  But, the rest of them either thought I was a statue or the Statue of Liberty (which, IS a weeping angel, if you've seen the latest Doctor Who episode!), which I guess is close enough.

If I were a really on-the-ball blogger, I would have had this costume done in September and blogged it the first week of October (and would now be posting Christmas tips).  But, I'm not.  I'm a busy mom of three who got all the costumes done just in the nick of time.  :)    I've got a few more in the pipeline for...when I get to it.  (Just keeping it real, people, just keeping it real.)  :)

I had a few Facebook friends tell me they couldn't look at my pictures (or look away, if you know what I mean), as it was too freaky.  Can't say I blame them.  Weeping Angels are, in my opinion, the scariest Doctor Who villains.  

I've never done full Halloween makeup before.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be (and I didn't break out after, either!).

I used this tutorial as a jumping off point.  I wasn't going to go quite as gung ho as she did, as this was just for a few hour church Halloween Trunk or Treat.  But, it gave me a few ideas as to how to execute the costume.  

I used foam poster board to do the wings.  I cut wing shapes out of the foam board, and used the extra left over to cut "feathers" out of.  I hot-glued the feathers to the wings.  

 

  I used duct tape to tape the wings together, looser on the outside and tighter on the inside (if that even makes sense...), so they'd stay in a partly closed position.  

I then spray-painted them well, duct tape and all. 

I then added some elastic to them so I could wear them (in the same manner as the costume/little kid fairy wings you can buy).  I should have used heavier elastic, but all I had on hand was skinny little stuff, and by that point, I was ready to just.be.done.already.  :)  By the end of the night, my wings were pretty droopy (see picture above--I had to keep remembering to pull them up) because the elastic over-stretched.  Eh.  It worked out fine for one night.  

I used gray tights as long gloves, just like the original tutorial did.  I probably could have just bought gray winter gloves, as it was rather cold the night of the (partly outdoor) party, and I wore a grey long-sleeved shirt over the long "gloves" for warmth.

For the dress, I drafted a yoke for the top, then draped about 2 yards (1.5 maybe? Bad blogger...no good records were kept!) of fabric, gathered well, and attached it to the yoke (both in front and in back). 

 

I sewed the sides together, leaving the arm holes very large (and sleeveless) because I was just too lazy to bother with a zipper or anything.  I wanted this quick and easy and able to slip over my head!  I then tied a grey ribbon around the waist and we had a dress!  I duct taped (yes, sewing blasphemy, I know) a hula hoop to the hem, to give me a statue look.  

The wig was one of my favorite parts.  I sewed grey yarn to a...ahem...pantyhose cap, then braided and twisted the yarn into an angel-esque hairstyle.  I added a ribbon headband and everything.  Bobby pins don't really work with a yarn wig, of course, so I secured the bun with a few stitches.  

It was a very fun costume to wear, even if only a select few knew what I was.  I knew what I was, and my Doctor Who fan family members knew who I was, and they had a great time with me as I pretended to be a Weeping Angel and tried to "get" them.  :)  I had a seriously fun time wearing this costume and fully embracing my nerdiness.  

Bert Costume

Since I went as Mary Poppins, of course I needed a Bert!  My husband was happy to oblige.

Most of his costume was pretty low-key.  The white pants are a pair of scrubs from Walmart.  I made him a quick felt bow tie.  He wore his own white dress shirt.  And, we bought him a skimmer hat for about a buck at a costume store.  I took the patriotic paper ribbon off of it and put on a red ribbon to match the jacket.

He needed some white shoes to go with it, but didn't have any, so I made a pair of very quick and dirty spats to go over his shoes. They're not hemmed or finished, there's no button closure, they're just a quick tracing of the shoe, with some elastic across the bottom of the shoe to hold them on.

The jacket was the trickiest part of his costume.  I bought a $6 sport coat at Goodwill, in the lightest color I could find, that was close to his size.  I tried bleaching it.  It is (I'm pretty sure) wool, and I read online that Clorox bleach would dissolve it, but that hydrogen peroxide would work.  I soaked it in H2O2 for 24 hours, and it might have gotten a tiny bit lighter, but didn't turn white.  The H2O2 did, however, dissolve the thread that held most of the buttons on.

I looked into dyeing it, but there's no such thing (that I could find, anyway) as white dye, just color remover.  And it contained sodium hypochlorite, or the same ingredient as Clorox bleach, so I figured it wouldn't work.  I tried painting it with fabric paint, but it was too light and didn't cover the gray.

Finally, I gave up and just painted it with craft paint.  Well, most of it, anyway.  I sewed on the ribbon stripes first, in case the paint made it too hard to sew through the fabric.  Then, I painted between the ribbons with a foam brush and craft paint.  I ran out of craft paint on the sleeves and rather than buying more, I just used up a can of white spray paint I had on hand for the back and the sleeves.

I jokingly call it his "cement suit" as it's a little stiff.  :)  But, it loosened up as he wore it, and wasn't so bad.  :)

And here's Bert and Mary Poppins together:

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Mary Poppins Dress

I've always wanted to be Mary Poppins (in her Jolly Holiday dress) for Halloween. This year, I made it happen.

I wish we'd (my hubby and I) noticed during our photo shoot that my hair had been blown into the tulle around the hat and got stuck, but we didn't, and I'm too lazy to do the shoot again.  So, this is what you get.  :)

I used Simplicity 2813, the Cinderella pattern I used last year, for the bodice and skirt.  I shortened the skirt considerably (Mary Poppins' dress is tea length, but I liked the just below knee length better on me.) and added an overskirt made of tulle.  If I had the time and money, I would have used organza or something for the sleeves, overskirt, and neckline, but as this is a costume I will only wear a few times, I went cheap and used tulle.  It's  "inspired-by" if you will.  :) I gave the hemline a tuck to add a bit of visual interest in the all white skirt.  I added to the fullness of the skirt by wearing a petticoat with it, which I'd previously made to go with my White Christmas dress.   I drafted the tulle neckline myself, and the sleeves were from a blouse pattern I had laying around.  

I also drafted the waist cincher (complete with boning) myself.  The jabot is just a bunch of ruffled tulle tacked on to the bodice.  I threaded ribbon through lace and trimmed the neckline and sleeves with it.  I tied the neckline in the back with ribbon, as I had already added the zipper in the back of the dress, and needed a way to close the tulle.  :)

And, I tacked on several bows on the overskirt.  The hat and parasol were from a local costume shop, though I spray painted the hat white (it was natural tan when I bought it) and added the tulle to it.

My husband went as Bert (which I will blog about in an upcoming post) and we were the hit of our church Trunk or Treat--we won Best Couple Costume.  :)

Easy Harry Potter Costume

My son is obsessed with Harry Potter right now, and insisted that he be Harry Potter for Halloween. I obliged and made a very quick robe for his HP costume.

I made it the same way as I made the Dumbledore robe, but without the trim.  I planned to put a Hogwarts crest on (by finding an image online and using iron-on printer paper), but I realized that I forgot to do so before taking the pictures.  You can imagine that it's there in the picture, right?  :)

The tie is a cheap (ugly knit) tie I found at Goodwill.  I added stripes with some puff paint.  Easy peasy.  The rest of the outfit is just his Sunday clothes that he already owned.  And, of course, we drew a little lightning-bolt scar on his forehead with some eyeliner.  And, he doesn't need glasses, since he already wears glasses!  This is possibly the easiest costume I've ever put together for my kids.  Yay for easy!

Dumbledore Costume

This may be my favorite costume I've made my kids, ever. Well, maybe second best--last year's Captain Smith, of Titanic fame, is up there, too.

My kids are going through a definite Harry Potter phase.  J wanted to be Dumbledore for Halloween this year, which I think is awesome.  I mean, every kid wants to be Harry, but how many do you know who have dressed up as Dumbledore, the awesomest wizard ever?

Using this photo as inspiration, I created a Dumbledore costume.

For the robe, I bought some cheap gray broadcloth at Walmart and traced a robe shape around J's body as he laid on top of the fabric.  I cut it out and sewed the back to the front, adding trim along the front and sleeves.  Though you can't see it, the front has a frog-type button clasp to hold it closed.

I'm pretty proud of the beard and hair.  Last year I made a beard out of felt for the Capt. Smith costume, but I wanted this one to be more flowey.  I thought of batting, but it wasn't quite what I wanted.  Instead, I used one of those fake spiderwebs they sell with the Halloween decorations!  Rather than stretching it out into a spider web, as it's meant for, I cut it into lengths and stretched it just wide enough to be hair-like.  I sewed the beard and mustache to a felt base, which ties around his head (and over his ears) with ribbon.  The hair is sewn onto the hat.

For the hat, I just sewed a length of fabric to a circle roughly the size of the top of J's head.  I trimmed it, of course, and even made a little tassel for the top out of a few inches of fringe that I bought in the trim section at Walmart.

Total cost?  About $10.  Cuteness factor?  Priceless.

Pioneer Dress

I've been giving sewing lessons to a young woman in my neighborhood.  She needed a pioneer dress for a themed youth-activity (a youth conference trek, for my LDS readers) and together we made her this pioneer dress:

I think it's rather a pretty color of blue, and even nicer with the bright yellow apron and blue bonnet.  We used McCalls 4548 for the dress and apron, and McCalls 9423 for the bonnet.

It was fun to make, and I have thoroughly been enjoying my student's enthusiasm at learning to make her own dress! 

The Princess Dress

I made this Belle princess dress for the daughter of a friend.  Here's the finished product: 

I used McCall's 5494 as the basic pattern, and then added my own touches, like the collar and ribbon flower, to make it look a little more like Belle's dress. 

 

Halloween Costumes

My favorite part of Halloween is dressing up.  Historic fashion and period dramas all play into my enjoyment of dressing up and pretending to be someone else for a moment.  I like Halloween costumes, and I really like the costumes I put together for our family this year. 

T has been fascinated with the Titanic since the Titanic exhibit came when he was about 4.  It has never waned.  He is a Titanic expert.  So, of course, he chose to go as Captain Edward Smith for Halloween.  Who's that, you ask?  Why, he's the captain of the Titanic. 

I altered a cheap too-big boys dress shirt into his jacket and sewed on gold buttons.  I made the epaulets out of felt.  I altered a $3 pair of women's white capris from Salvation Army into his pants.  The hat is a black women's visor, a circle of stiff white felt, and white cotton fabric draped over the felt and sewed to the inside of the visor.  The scrambled eggs and insignia are printed from images I found online (that's the actual White Star Line insignia) onto cardstock, cut out, and hot glued on.  My favorite part is the beard.  It's gray felt, tied on over his ears with ribbon. 

J's costume is also inspired by a museum exhibit.  We went to see King Tut this fall and he fell in love.  He's been devouring books and documentaries on King Tut ever since.  He was super excited to be King Tut for Halloween. 

I briefly contemplated buying a King Tut headdress at the gift shop or a party store for this costume, but they were much more expensive than I could make this one for, so I stuck with homemade.  The headdress is stiff black felt stitched to a headband and painted with blue and gold glitter craft paint.  The back of the headdress is painted broadcloth.  The tunic is made of broadcloth, too--leftover from an old project.  I free handed the shape of his tunic, cut it out, and sewed the two sides together.  Easy-peasy.  His belt is gold cord.  The collar is, again, painted broadcloth. 

He felt silly walking like an Egyptian in the above photo.  Can you see it in his face?  Cute boy.  Here's the back of the costume:

H was Gus-Gus from Cinderella, since Hubby and I were Prince Charming and Cinderella and H is still too young to protest having a family theme.  :)  His costume was a brown sweatsuit with hoodie, with a too-small yellow shirt I got for $1 on clearance.  (Too-small because Gus's shirt is too small for his big belly).  I made mouse ears out of felt and a hat out of another clearance t-shirt and stitched both to the hoodie.  Isn't he a cute little Gus-Gus?!

Hubby was Prince Charming.  His shirt (jacket?) was made out of a jacket I found with the scrubs at Walmart, sort of the kind you see dental hygienists wearing.  I cut off the cuffs on the sleeves and hemmed them.  I hot-glued fancier buttons onto the snaps and sewed on epaulets made of felt and gold fringe.  I stitched on the gold cord and made a sash and belt out of gold ribbon.  The pants are scrub pants with gold ribbon trim stitched to the sides. 

I was, of course, Cinderella.

My costume was the only one that I used a pattern for.  I used Simplicity 2813 for the dress.  I used costume satin, which I'm not a huge fan of working with; it's too slippery and frays too easily.  I wore my extra-full petticoat that I wore under my wedding dress for the perfect amount of pouf.  I stuck some velcro on a piece of black grosgrain ribbon for my choker and covered an old headband with left over fabric for the headband.  The gloves are store bought.  The earrings are large white wooden beads that I gave a coat of pearlized nail polish I had laying around to make them look more like pearls.  I hot glued them to some clip-on earring backs. 

It was a hit with little girls everywhere.  One little girl at our church's Trunk or Treat followed me around much of the evening, asking me if I was really Cinderella.  And, when Hubby and I stopped by Walmart to pick up some treats on our way to another Halloween party (while dressed in our costumes), several little girls got seriously excited about seeing Cinderella.  It was kind of fun to be such a celebrity for a weekend.  :) 

Here we are all together at the Trunk or Treat on Friday.  The party was outside, in the dark, so the lighting isn't great in this photo...

It was fun to wear our Halloween costumes!