Hello! I hope you all had a fabulous Halloween and before it gets too much past, I wanted to share our costumes. I know I said earlier that I wasn't making anything for the boys, but after waking up in the middle of the night early last week and having the thought that I wasn't making their costumes be the first thing that came to me, I changed my mind and made an emergency trip into to town for fabric and accessories. I convinced myself to buy pleather for the first time to make Batman costumes for both of the boys - one in black and one in silver. You won't be seeing the black one here, because when it came down to it, Ned was still pretty set on being the "green dinosaur" that he had picked out of Grandma's costume box, so now I suppose I have something for next year if he wants, or just for dress-up.
The pleather was actually pretty easy to work with and I loved using it for the appliques because there weren't any raw edges that had to be sewed over. I just used a straight stitch to attach those bats. I did have to be a bit careful about not pinning too much and pinning in inconspicuous locations because the pleather isn't very forgiving when it comes to pinholes. Other than that, it really wasn't that difficult to work with. And he didn't actually end up wearing the mask even though that was the only part of the costume he wanted to wear to school for his party (and the only part I really thought he should leave out for school).
And my costume - it has been a really long time since I have dressed up for Halloween and I really wanted to this year, so here I am - the fairly friendly witch. I made my skirt from a $4 piece of vintage grey and black woven plaid and then added some vintage trim on top of grosgrain ribbon to the hem. I did have to make a tulle underskirt (with some help from my mom) to add a little volume to all of that skirt. You can't see my shoes very well, but they were incredibly pointy and thrifted for $4. I added some rick rack and ribbon to a $2 shirt. I actually tried to reconstruct another $2 shirt first, but that turned out to be a disaster, so I got a shirt that fit the second time around and just embellished! My Mom gave me the hat from her costume box (the one that I remember from my childhood, although I don't think I've been a witch before) and I also embellished that. I made some of my first Wisecraft Fabric Flowers and added one to the hat and one as a brooch at the top of the cape. I had a lot of fun with this - I just might have to make another one next year!
And our little green dinosaur. My Mom made this costume for my younger brother about 20 years ago. It was a little big for Ned, but that made it easy to put his jacket under it. He also wouldn't wear the headpiece that went with it. He actually didn't even want to go trick or treating. I was convinced that he wouldn't be too happy with that decision when his brother brought home a big bagful of candy, so we finally got him to tell us that he thought there would be scary monsters there. Once we assured him that there wouldn't be any and that if there were, Dad would be there to keep him safe, he put on a smile and his costume and we made it out the door. Now I just need to figure out the best way to deal with all that candy. This is the first year that they are both begging for it constantly and the first year that I think they might notice if some accidentally went missing. What do you do with it?