A Harry Potter Halloween: 2013 Edition

Happy Halloween!

O wanted to do a family theme for costumes this year (yay!), and we kicked around a lot of ideas, but finally settled on Harry Potter again.  It took a while to decide on characters, since we didn't want repeats -- although O went from "generic Death Eater" to Lucius Malfoy specifically.

After much debate, we picked Crookshanks for E.  O thought we should really have a Hermione if Crookshanks was part of the group, but eventually came around to the idea.  A cat is perfect for her anyway, since she and our cat are BFFs.  Well, more like frenemies, but they are pretty much inseparable.

The cat costume costume is from Butterick 3238.  I made a 5, which is what she wears in RTW (albeit a slim in pants when I can find them).  It was roomy, but about what I expected.  I wasn't crazy about the fit of the hood, but it got the job done. 

I'd found some more cat-like faux fur at Joann's but they were 1/2 yard short of what I needed, so I ended up with this rather vibrant fleece.  At least it was cheap and super easy to sew.  My primary goal this year was to not stress about the details, especially for E's costume.  It's highly unlikely it will be worn again, hence the stash muslin lining for the hood rather than buying matching fabric.  I also didn't bother with shoe covers for the same reason.  And I may have run out of time to make those. Whatever.

O's cloak is McCall's 5952 and some cheap cotton/poly bottomweight fabric also from Joann's.  It also went together easily, although I should have checked the sizing before cutting it out.  I made his RTW size (8), and ended up taking 2" off the sleeves, leaving them to hit in the middle of his hand for some growing room, and 4" off the hem.  I really should have taken even more off the hem, since it dragged in the back if it wasn't situated perfectly and it's been raining all afternoon and evening, so he came home from trick-or-treating with a pretty soggy cloak.

I really liked how the neckline was finished with bias tape.  I'll have to remember that for other things that don't call for it in the directions, but could really use a cleaner finish. (I'm looking at you, Modkid Sydney!)

The only other modification I made was to curve the bottom of the sleeves so they weren't so pointy.  Lucius doesn't seem like a pointy sleeve kind of guy to me.  Actually, he probably would have a  tailored sleeve, but I wanted to make it a pretty generic cloak.

One of the things O really wanted to have was Malfoy's walking stick.  Since we weren't about to spend nearly $100 on a costume prop, we made our own out of a big dowel, clay, adhesive "emeralds", and some paint.  It's a little lumpier than either of us would have liked, but considering he's eight and I spent my semester of high school pottery drawing instead of actually touching any clay (my small-town school was not overly demanding -- ha ha), we did okay.  He was quite happy with it overall, and it was a fun project to do together.

Ray and I were Hagrid and Professor Trelawney, respectively.  Our costumes were primarily from our existing wardrobes and thrift stores.  I did buy some cheapo prescription glasses from Zenni Optical, since I have a few more future costumes in mind that would require similar frames.  And then I bought Ray's wig/beard combo from one of those pop-up Halloween stores.  The "Jesus" wig was the only one that was suitable, and I felt all weird buying it, wanting to tell people that we weren't actually going to use it for Jesus (I didn't, because who would actually care?!  They're all in there looking for sexy policewoman costumes or whatever, so I doubt they're judging me and my Jesus wig).  Can you tell I have a hang-up about religious costumes?  Also Native American costumes, but that's a bigger issue than I really need to get into at the moment.  Back to secondary Harry Potter characters!

We had a fun Halloween, and it was relatively low-stress. That doesn't mean I wasn't sewing the hem of O's cloak this afternoon, of course, but it really wouldn't be a holiday if I wasn't scrambling to finish something up at the last minute!

Butterick 4945 Apron II

Not the cleverest of titles for this post, huh?  At least it's descriptive. 

I made another Butterick 4945 view D this summer for our friends' mom's 60th birthday.  She's pretty awesome and threw herself a big party, because she knew her husband and sons wouldn't think of it.  Ha!  We've spend a lot of time at their house, especially before we had kids, and we adore her, so I was happy for a reason to make her something.  She's a fantastic hostess and great cook, so an apron seemed like a perfect fit.  Through a chain of texts (Ray -->  older son --> his dad, who we suspect just asked her), I found out her favorite colors and picked out this cute paisley print.

Oh, summer and sundresses, how I miss you both!

I made the same minor modifications as last time, mostly just adding a ton of topstitching.  I was quite happy with how this one turned out, especially since I sewed it up the morning of the party, as usual.  The flounce at the bottom is my favorite part.

Two more aprons still on the to-blog list!  I also need to finish up (er, start) Halloween costumes and get ready for the fall Kids Clothes Week next week.  Are you sewing along for this round of KCW?

More Raffle Aprons

As I was finishing up an apron to donate to a raffle basket at E's school, I realized I hadn't blogged yet about the last apron I sewed up for her school.  In February.  And then I remembered that there were three other aprons I made this year that haven't made an appearance on the blog yet either.  So it's going to be aprony around here for a while.

Up first is the one from February (Early Childhood always gets assigned kitchen things for their theme.  The apron from her first year is here).  This was view D of Butterick 4945, which was a gift from my friend Carrie.  I used two coordinates from Hobby Lobby that had been hanging out in the stash for a while and made the largest size, thinking an apron can't really be too big.  Or at least not if you're as messy as I am.

There were some issues with the facings at the arm edge being too long, but that was about it.  I also changed the waist ties to be turned and topstitched instead of hemmed and added additional topstitching in several other areas.

O. took this before school one snowy day in February, so less than ideal lighting conditions.

I really like this apron style, as you'll see when I get around to blogging the second one I sewed up.

E's school added a Fall Festival this year and moved the raffle baskets to October.  This time I chose the Urban Wrap Apron pattern again.  Stash fabric for this one too, including the fabric for the bias tape.  I always read the tutes that say, "You'll never buy bias tape again!" and get suckered into making my own, and then remember that my least favorite parts of sewing are cutting and ironing.  Which is basically the entire bias tape making experience.  Oh well, at least it's cute, and I have quite a bit left over for something else.

This apron is super quick to sew up, or would be if you purchased bias tape.  I also like that it's very adjustable size-wise.

Halloween 2012: The Scientist and Raggedy Ann

I was hoping to come up with another family theme for Halloween this year, but we couldn't agree on anything. It's probably for the best, since I just finished E's wig yesterday!  I don't know how I would have managed another two costumes also.

O prefers non-costumey costumes these days, so he decided a few weeks ago that he would like to be a "genius inventor" or a scientist with a lab coat and tie.  I used the pajama top from Butterick 5586 and extended the length by about 9", added two more patch pockets, lowered the top button and spread out the other two a bit more.  There was an insane amount of sleeve cap ease -- so much that I initially wondered if I'd accidentally cut the puffed sleeve from the nightgown -- which I took out by eyeballing.  There was a lot of reminding myself that it was just a costume! Other than that, it went together easily and fits well.

He also asked for another faux tie, which he chose to be from a skeleton print.

He's wearing my shoes, which are about three sizes too big.  Sometimes it's better not to ask.

We decided on Raggedy Ann for E, and just realized tonight that this is the first Halloween she hasn't been an animal!  She was a ladybug, a monkey, a bee, and then an owl.  There were a several pieces to Raggedy Ann, but most of them were quick to sew up.

I started with the Miss Madeline peasant dress with long sleeves with shirring at the wrists, no elastic at the waist, and an added neck ruffle like in this tutorial.

Her apron is a larger version of the one in this tutorial.  I used the same dimensions for the arm straps and waist ties, but made the waist band 3x21" and the body of the apron 17" x 43" (the width of the fabric).  The only other modification I made was to attach the straps behind the apron, rather than sandwiching them between the waist band and the main fabric. I also added some jumbo rickrack when I realized that my original overly ambitious plan to embroider "Raggedy Ann" onto it was soooo not going to happen.

For our first Halloween event last week, she wore the pantalets from this summer, but they didn't really show below the dress, so I made another full-length pair.  (I'm planning on having her wear them  for Christmas also, or I wouldn't have bothered -- I don't think... I do get kind of obsessive about costumes.  Ha.)  I was out of elastic thread, so made a casing on the inside with single-fold bias tape and ran elastic through it.  Finished with a rolled hem for the sake of speed, but then the thread kept breaking, making me wish I'd just done a quick regular hem!

The last piece, the yarn wig, took by far the longest, but was so worth the extra time.  It cracks me up every time I look at it.  She seemed to enjoy wearing it too.  I'm quite sure she knows when she's being funny.

I used the Scarecrow Wig pattern, but my first attempt at the hat turned out too big.  Casting on 78 stitches for the second try worked out much better. 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Projects

     Whew!  Halloween sewing finally wrapped up at 3:30 pm today!  Okay, there are a few things that I said I'd finish up for subsequent years, but the essentials got done.

     O. asked to have a Halloween party with some of his kindergarten buddies this year, so there was some sewing involved, of course.  First up was this bunting.  I have a thing for buntings.  ;)  Isn't that painted-over outlet above the mantel a nice touch too?  We used to have it covered by a picture, but it fell off the wall at 12:30 am one night!  Lovely to be woken up to the sound of glass shattering...

     O. and I made this little ghostie.  No sewing involved, but lots and lots of coats of various types of starch and stiffening agents.  I think he took us two weeks on and off.  We rigged up a form like this to shape him.  We downloaded the cupcake toppers from here, and O. helped by cutting out half of them, then we hot-glued them to toothpicks.

     I also made goodie bags for the party guests. (We kept it small, and I'm so glad.  Four boys doesn't sound like many, but it one small house, it was quite chaotic!)  O. chose the fabrics and wrote out the tags, which I found here. 

 

     On to the costumes....  E. is still small enough that we get to pick for her.  Yay!  Her favorite toy by far is a bee, so it was the obvious choice.  I used the same Nasta Pinafore pattern from Otto 4/08 that I used when she was a ladybug her first Halloween, modified to just pull on instead of buttoning at the shoulders.  The stripes are satin ribbon, which I probably wouldn't use again.  I made a cone out of fleece for her stinger, and stuffed it lightly, in case she ended up sitting on it.  Had I thought ahead, I would've flared out the jumper some more, since she can't stand.  It rode up quite a bit when she sat on the floor.  I was originally going to make wire wings, but thought it would be too uncomfortable when she was in the stroller or rolling around on the floor, so I used fusible web and two layers of felt, then tacked them onto the jumper.  They're a little droopy, but get the idea across.  Her hat is from the OOP Butterick 4305, the same as I used when O. was Mike Wazowski, with pipe cleaners that have pompoms hot-glued on.

Her bee slippers are from one of my standby patterns, the Darling Diaper Minimocs, which is a freebie.  I think the pattern runs a bit narrow, even with E's narrow feet, so I played with it a bit to get a good fit.  My first pair was too long (I always forget that her feet are small for her age!) and I also didn't like the narrow satin ribbon I'd appliqued for stripes.  I shortened the foot of the second pair and cut a curved piece of fleece for the stripe.  Much better!  I think I may put them on her for everyday slippers too.

O. wanted to be a clone trooper, which I was not too psyched about.  I figured I could modify the pattern for the armor from his knight costume from last year, but when I was looking for a helmet on eBay, I found a great deal for the entire costume, so I bought it.  O. requested that the husband also be someone from Star Wars, so he picked Obi-Wan Kenobi.  I should have started this much, much sooner, but didn't, so many of the details are still missing.  I used Simplicity 5840, and had pretty good luck with it for a Big 4 pattern.  I made the cloak first.  Wrestling with nearly eight yards of a cheap cotton/poly bottomweight fabric was interesting, to say the least!  I didn't stray much from the pattern, other than that the binding of the neck seam didn't work for me as written.  I had to trip the seam allowance a lot, and the topstitched it down from the right side, since I didn't have the time or patience to slip-stitch it all.  The tunic and belt were made from a much nicer linen/rayon blend.  The only change I made to the tunic was to skip the hand-sewing again.  You were supposed to slip-stitch the neckband facing, but I serged the facing and just stitched in the ditch instead.  The pattern belt ties, but we wanted to be more authentic, so I made a rectangular belt with hook & loop in the back, then he wore his own belt on top.

Happy Halloween!