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!

Swim Bag, Take Three

I think I'm going to keep gifting these until every kid I know has one.  It's a practical gift, but still kinda fun.  This bag was for a five-year-old who likes pink.  I made hers the same as my niece's, although I must have marked the drawstring openings wrong, because they were off a bit.  Still functional, fortunately, since I didn't realize it until it would have required serious tear-inducing seam ripping.

The birthday girl really likes pink, so my original plan was to have a pink zipper and drawstring, but Joann's didn't have any appropriate pink cord.  The PUL lining is very, very pink, though! Hopefully that pinked it up enough for her liking.

I love this print.  After making a play sling and a dress from it, I'm down to just a few scraps.  It's so girly and spring-like.  And I'm so very done with winter.  It appears that winter is not done with me, however.

In completely unrelated, but nonetheless awesome news, check out the envelope art on this pattern I won from What Nancy Drew Wore.  Pretty much the coolest ever.  I think I'm going to frame it to hang in my sewing room.

Honest Abe

The last three weeks have been a mad rush of sewing.  First up was O's previously mentioned Abe Lincoln costume.  There was a "wax museum" at his school, and kids chose a historical figure or celebrity to research.  They dressed up as their subject and did a small presentation.

Press the button to turn hear the speech!

Although I had previously publicly sworn off McCall's patterns after two successive disasters, M6143 was the only Lincoln costume pattern I could find, and I certainly am not capable of winging a jacket on my own, so I decided to give it a shot.  Fortunately, the smallest size was a 6/7, and O. is right between those two sizes at the moment.  No crazy Big 3 sizing here; it actually fit well!  I was pleasantly surprised.


The jacket was by far the most structured thing I've ever attempted, and I was quite happy with how relatively easily it went together.  Other than the part where I sewed the back on wrong side out and had to rip out three seams by the time I realized it... It's been a while since I've made such a rookie mistake.  I think I'd gotten too cocky! 

Don't the Chucks make the outfit?

There were several darts, and they turned out much better than my last attempt, which resulted in such pointy boobs that I never wore the top.  The construction of the lapel, collar and facings was quite different than anything I've sewn before, so it was fun to try something new.  My only real complaint was that there was what seemed to me to be an insane amount of ease in the sleeve caps.  Maybe because I'm so used to sewing knits?  For the first one I even hand-basted, but still needed to rip out three spots where there was too much puckering.  The second one I just pinned a lot and sewed with the sleeve against the presser foot, and that one went better -- only two spots to rip out!  They're still not perfect, but between it being black fabric and O. not standing still for more than a second anyway, it was good enough for my first try.


I really liked how the kick pleat was constructed, although I don't have a very good shot of it.  O. wouldn't try the whole thing on at home, just pieces as I finished them, so this is the best I could get.  School hallway lighting is also less than ideal.

The pants were a simple elastic waist style, and you were instructed to smooth out the front and sew through the elastic to create a faux flat front.  It worked well.  The shirt & vest are a dickey.  O. chose velvet ribbon for the tie, because it was the "blackest."

The only change I made throughout the process was to use Peltex for the brim of the hat, rather than the fusible interfacing and fusible web combo that was suggested.  I wasn't sure that would stiffen the felt enough.  Peltex worked well, but is so thick that some white showed.  A Sharpie fixed that pretty quickly. 


O's favorite part by far was the beard, which was the part that took about two minutes, of course.  It's just a piece of felt with elastic cording that went over his ears.


All that sewing for a six-year-old to wear for an hour!  I no longer have any residual guilt about buying his Halloween costume.  You can be sure I'll be spending the next four months slipping in subliminal messages about how awesome it would be to be Abraham Lincoln for Halloween.  I also suggested to him that he could use it to be Willy Wonka, but he pointed out that then it should be purple.  And then came up with the brilliant plan that I make the husband a purple Wonka costume.  Not likely.