Our Family Costumes of the Past

Halloween is coming!

I remember Halloween being very exciting as a kid, because of all the obvious reasons you gets lots of candy, get to dress up, and have a fun/silly night with family and friends.  

What's not to love?

When I was young, I remember about four years in a row I was a witch, sometimes with a green face, sometimes with Christmas ornaments hanging from my hat and costume (Christmas witch).  

But a good time was always had!

When I was 12 I did my last around the neighborhood Trick-or-Treating.  My Friend had Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum costumes, which we thought were fun...though we were worried, that perhaps we were getting too old for this.

I pretty much ignored Halloween after this.  

One year in college, I think I dressed up at Bam-Bam.  

When I was a teacher, my husband practically forced me to dress up, and I half-heartedly wore a "farmer" outfit with my overalls and a flannel.  The next year I wore a "bunny" costume, wearing pink clothes, and a fluffy tail and pink nose.

I really didn't get into Halloween until my first born was big enough to wear a costume.  I don't think it ever even occurred to me that some people actually buy costumes.  

My Go-TO has always been, What do I want to sew?

2007

Once my oldest could walk I decided to go with Harry Potter.  He looked so adorable and got a huge reaction from people we saw on the street.

I sewed the Cloak.

2008

That next year he was older and absolutely LOVED Toy Story, I asked him what he wanted to play dress up in.  That was an easy one, so of course we went with Sheriff Woody.

I sewed the button-up shirt and vest.

2009

I'm not even sure when this idea came to me. But I asked Husband if he was on board with doing our first Family Theme this year of The Incredibles.  

And it turned out to be such a blast! 

People would ask us, "Where's Violet?"  

And we'd smile and say, "She's here.  She's invisible, right next to us."

I Bought the red clothes, then sewed on the i's, and the felt underwear things.  

It was actually really easy.

2010

I had a one-month old baby, so I was looking for simple.  

This year we had a polar bear (wearing a baby snow suit), a Monkey, and Iron Man.

I took the red clothes from the year before, changed the felt on the front and made Iron Man.

2011

We decided this year to team up with the kids.  

We had a pair with Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat.

I sewed the felt tie and the letters for Curious George.

And a pair with Mary and her Little Lamb.

I sewed the pinafore and sized down the white dress.

2012

I had so much fun sewing these cute outfits for the Woodsman, The Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood.  The kids were so adorable.  I definitely love themed Halloween costumes Best!

I sewed the wolf mask and sewed on felt wolf details onto sweats.  I sewed the red cloak. 

This year I was pregnant again and tapped on a 5 minute cut out felt, white # 8, and made myself a Magic 8 ball. 

2013

I let the kids chose.  The boys were really into X-men, so they chose Cyclops and Wolverine. 

I sewed some yellow binding to the gray sweats and made the belts.

I used fabric paint to paint this yellow shirt with blue accents and made the wolverine claws out of felt.

 And my cutie decided to be a spooky Bat.

I sewed up the hat and wings.

2014

This year we decided to go back to a family theme and be The Pirates of the Caribbean! 

This was so fun.  We loved watching the movies together and being Pirates.

I sewed 5 vests (and a billion buttons), added felt to the hats, and sewed lots of fabric waist belts.

2015

Back to a little bit of everything.  We had Harry Potter, Batman, a Skeleton, and Elsa. 

For Harry Potter I sewed the cloak,crocheted his scarf and made his patch. I sewed Batman's cape and added Dark Night details to his black clothes.  I used fabric paint and painted all of the Skeleton's bones.  For Elsa, I sewed a cute cape and some long sleeves.

2016

Last year we let everyone pick their own thing. 

 We had a Vampire, a Ninja, a Peacock, Princess Rapunzel, and baby Where's Waldo!

I sewed up the peacock costume with knit fabric, paint, and cardboard, I added all the ninja details to black sweats, I changed the Harry Potter robe into a Vampire Cloak. I sewed the Waldo fat out of fleece, and added flower details to Rapunzel's long hair.

Ah, that was a fun look back at all our Halloween Costumes of the Past!

I finished sewing this year's costumes on Monday.

It's a Family Theme!

Can't wait to show you!  

May the Force be with you until then!

Swingset Skirt II

With another birthday here and gone, that means birthday sewing.  

This year I sewed my girl another Swingset skirt.

I used a sturdy cotton, quilting fabric for the main skirt and a gold lining fabric for the lining.  

And this time I lined the hem with adorable pom-poms.

I sewed this newly seven year old a size seven and the fit was perfect!

Enjoying the pumpkins from our garden.

I really love the swingset skirt pattern, the skirt is so twirly and beautifully constructed.

DIY Peacock Costume

So excited to share with you this darling Peacock Halloween Costume.

Usually my daughter goes for spooky or scary see HERE and HERE.

Last year when we were brainstorming costume ideas my daughter bounced around a lot of ideas and eventually landed on peacock -- due mostly to the fact that she had just been on a field trip to a farm and owned her very own peacock feather.

I searched around for some good ideas for a peacock and couldn't find anything that suited my fancy-- a lot of them were Va-va-voom, NO thanks!  And a few were not quite what I had inmind.

So, I stewed for weeks and weeks trying to figure out a good plan for this costume.

I happened to be in my sewing scrap pile, looking for something else, when I came across this maxi dress (purchased from Wal-mart several years ago).  I wore it twice when I was pregnant and everyone commented on how HUGE I was.  It was quickly thrown in the scrap pile after the baby was born.

Once I saw it, while still mulling over peacock ideas in my head, it quickly spoke to me--

 REUSE-- REFASHION -- PEACOCK!

I almost used the entire dress for the costume and it worked perfectly!

Here's how to make your own!

MATERIALS:

1. Maxi dress or green knit fabric

2. Sewing supplies

3. Thick poster board

4. Glue gun

5. Acrylic paint + brush

6. Headband, pipe cleaners, three puff balls.

STEP ONE:  Cut the dress where needed. 

 I cut the bottom for the feathers.  I left the top for the skirt. 

 And I reused the straps.

 STEP TWO:  With right sides together, cut out the feathers. 

 Pin the pieces together.  

Do a quick sew around the feathers from the left side to the right side, leaving the bottom open.  

Clip all the curved edges, so they will turn properly.

STEP THREE: Turn right side out and make sure everything looks good. 

STEP FOUR:  Using the sewn feathers as a guide, cut out the insert feathers from a thick poster board. 

I had a leftover poster board from the dollar store, which I reused, with lots of creative cutting and taping, plus a little cardboard for that one chunk that I ran out of poster board.

STEP FIVE: Using your model, determine where the four holes should be for the straps, using a knife or scissors, cut out the strap holes.

Place the cardboard inside the knit feathers, hopefully everything is a perfect fit! 

 STEP SIX:  Sketch out the feathers and base, where they belong. 

I used this image for help.

STEP SEVEN: Start painting!

 I used acrylic craft paint that dries really fast and it worked great!  

You can see my order below. 

I left it to dry over night, then the next day I flipped it over and did the exact same painting on the other side.

STEP EIGHT:  Once everything has dried.  Feel the straps that you cut out of the poster board, and use scissors to cut four (front and back) slits into the fabric.

 STEP NINE: Cut off the two straps, measure them with your model to make sure they'll fit.

Place them in the slits, pushing through the poster board, hot glue them against the backside of the board.  Repeat for the other strap. 

STEP TEN: Fold in the bottom of the fabric and hot glue down together.

For me, I had too long of poster board, so I had to cut off the excess, so it could fold it up and glue it down.

STEP ELEVEN: Make some simple peacock feather for the head.

I used a headband we already had, hot glued some puffballs to some sparkly pipe cleaners, wrapped them around the headband and called it good.  

She loved it!

All done!

Wa-HOO, Party!  Cutest little Peacock ever!

 Love this girl of mine!

The whole crew!

Halloween is so fun!  What are your plans this year?

We're going with a family theme-- My FAVORITE! 

Better get started!

What I Sewed-- EASTER Edition!

Each Easter I get the biggest joy out of sewing matching outfits for the family.  Sometimes I do just the kids, which is fun.  But this year, I found extra hours in the day and was able to sew a little something for everyone in my family.  JOY!

Here's the breakdown of what everyone was wearing.  

The boys got hand sewn bow ties, from my own pattern on my Etsy shop out of cute nautical seersucker.  And my oldest is wearing some suspenders I made him a couple years ago.

My husband is wearing an actual bow tie.  

The pattern came from this free pattern.

I was so proud I actually learned to tie a real bow tie when he and I tried to put it on.  It took a lot of trial and error, but I've got it now!

For me, I sewed a skirt with a lace overlay from a pattern I bought from JoAnns no less than 17 years ago-- whoa-- right when I was out of high school.  I remember wanting to do some sewing with my mom.  I grabbed a couple "sew and cool" patterns and sewed up a few skirts and dresses.  But I never got around to sewing up this skirt pattern.

About a week ago I decided to give it a try.  It was tricky.  I've become so accustomed to Oliver + S patterns, which carefully guide you through every step with wonderful directions and clear pictures.  Without all my previous sewing knowledge, I'm sure I would not have been able to sew this skirt.  But I figured it out...eventually.  I even consulted the Oliver + S website when this skirt told me to do french seams, but gave no instructions on how to do so. Oliver + S to the rescue, as always!

The girls are wearing dresses I sewed from Oliver + S patterns-- of course.

For my younger daughter I chose the Garden Party Dress.  But this time I decided to try to do some smocking for the bodice. I did the easy version, using elastic thread.  I cut my bodice piece too long, since I was eye-balling it.  So my side seams don't quite match up-- but I'm okay with that.

For my older daughter I tried to make an a-line, fully lined, invisible zipper, gathered sleeves, bias-faced neckline Dress-- Whoa, mouthful-- using the Building Block Dress book.

Because my girl is so skinny-minny the dress looked too baggy on her being just the a-line dress.  So I tried adding a belt to cinch things in and add interest.  That worked much better.

I had so much fun sewing for everyone! 

Happy Easter 2017!