Halloween attire 2013

Most of the family decided to go with a Wreck It Ralph theme. It was optional to participate, but those that did, LOVED it. The girls planned, talked and plotted every spare moment for weeks about how we would accomplish every detail of the costumes. Best of all, Clair continues to only refer to everyone by their character names. She calls Jared- Ralph or "the kind, bad guy", Lydia- Candlehead, Jeff- Felix or "the good guy", and herself - "the Glitch."  

 Jefferson made the cutest Fix-It-Felix.  His costume was by far the easiest. I got the hat on Amazon, and the patches from A Little Crafty. We had the pants and shirt, thrifted the boots, and I made the belt with notions from JoAnn's. I lucked out and found the wooden hammer at an estate sale a week ago. All it needed was a couple coats of gold paint.

Clarissa started the theme when she wanted to be Vanellope Von Schweets. I was hoping to find some of her costume pre-made, but no luck, I had to make everything. I used pink shoelaces from Walmart for the strings in her hoodie and embroidery floss for the stitching. I painted white microfiber tights with craft paint, placing cardboard inside them and taping off the stripes with painters tape. For her licorice hair tie, I wrapped a fabric trim (Walmart) around wire. For the sprinkles in her hair, I colored adhesive name tags. Then, using a hole puncher I cut the circles, removed the backing and stuck them to her hair. The peppermints were glued to velcro and stuck in her hair. Warning! use as little of the velcro as possible, it really sticks to the hair and can hurt when pulling it out.

I think the Candlehead hat, was my favorite project this year. I used some old mouse ears from Disneyland as the base. I simply ripped off the ears and painted it brown. I used felt for the rest of the construction. To make the whipped swirl on top, I loosely rolled a piece of felt with wire in the middle, securing the ends with glue. With the wire in the middle it was easy to manipulate the felt into the perfect swirl. The candle is also rolled-up felt with embroidery floss wrapped around it. I made the skirt, thrifted the jacket (lucky find), and had the shirt and tights. 

My husband was such a good sport to dress up with the kids. Finding his overalls was a nightmare. Apparently overalls are hard to find around Halloween. I went to probably 20 thrift stores, with no luck. Finally, I found a large pair of stretchy brown pants and knew I had to transform them into overalls. I made up the bib, sewed the decorative stitching on both the bib and pants, and added the overall buckles. In the end I was very happy with the results. Even if the fabric for the bib doesn't match perfectly, I think they look better than blue jean overalls would have looked. I thrifted his orange shirt: it originally had a collar, which I cut off. 

Of course no theme would be complete without a trunk to match it, right?

And here are our other costumes:

Kate is really into cats right now, so dressing as a black cat was a no brainer. The key to this costume was a black feather boa I got at JoAnn's for a few dollars. I constructed her tail by wrapping the black boa around a long wire and attached it to a felt belt. Here is the trick, the belt had two pieces of supporting wire sandwiched between two pieces of felt in the back.  I used my glue gun for all of this, no sewing. I made arm bands and leg warmers out of a fuzzy knit fabric (JoAnn's). I also glued extra boa to the wrist of the arm bands and around my felt cat ears. 

My oldest decided he was too cool to dress up this year and I kept telling him he wouldn't get any candy. That is how we came up with this costume at the last minute. He loved it. It's probably not politically correct, but was meant in fun. 

Happy Halloween!

harry potter and friends

My kids have known for months what they wanted to be this year. It all started when we listened to the first Harry Potter book on tape this summer on our way to California.

Luckily, I talked the little ones into being owls so we could finally have family themed costumes.

It helps that my kids already look similar to the characters.

I can't get over how much he looks like a young Harry Potter.

I made the robes with a $5 bolt from Walmart. I was so excited when I found it. They were a nightmare to line with the burgundy, but totally worth it. I ordered the patches online for a few dollars each.

Hermione wants to wear hers 24-7.  

It was her idea to pose with books.  She takes her character very seriously.

There has been non-stop spell casting in our home all week. 

I don't know if I should be concerned that they keep trying to kill each other with their spells?

Kate was so excited to not just be an owl, but Harry's owl.

I was inspired by THIS costume, but made mine a little differently. 

I made the mask so it could be worn over her eyes or can sit on top of her head.

I think my favorite is the brown owl. 

Hoo...Hoo...

I just love all the textures of the fabrics. 

And I love the mask. It's so cute and only too minutes to make.

I'm so glad to be done and that they all worked out. It's been a crazy week. The best part is that most of our costumes came from stuff we had around the house. I only had to buy the robe material, patches, and glasses. We borrowed the tie and had everything else on hand. The owl costumes are made from old clothing in our donate piles. 

tutu tutorial

I've had some requests for a tutorial for the tutu's. I wasn't sure if I wanted to give a tutorial for a few reasons, but the biggest was that the tule was difficult to work with. I didn't want anyone cursing my name while making this. 

The process may be easier for you, if you buy the tule from a bolt. I kind-of inherited my tule. I received a lot of tule in little folded up pieces.  It was great because I didn't have to buy yards and yards of tule, but I almost went crazy with all the creases that were created from it being folded. 

I'm not exactly sure how much tule I used. My best guess is that you'll need 3 yards of 3 different yet complimenting colors of tule.  Basically you need 9 yards of tule. I used less for my 18 month old. I probably used 6 yards for her. You can use less, it won't be as full, but will still stick out.

I stared by cutting my tule in 6" strips (4" for my 18m). Tule usually comes off the bolt folded into fourths.  Don't unfold it, just cut it into strips. Once cut, you can open the strip, so it's still has two layers of tule. Make 9 piles of strips. If you have three yards of each color you should have 2 strips of each color. 

When all of you strips are cut, take a pile and fold it in half. Put something heavy on the fold to hold it in place. 

Then cut your ends to a rounded point. 

Now open it back up and fold it in half lengthwise. 

Sew a straight stitch right down the middle. 

When all of your strips are done, attach them to a 2" elastic cut to the length of your child's waist. Space them out about 2" to 3" apart.  You can mark you elastic before you sew them on if you don't want to eyeball it. Sew a straight stitch over the previous stitch.  

The last thing you need to do it sew the two ends of the elastic together with a zigzag stitch. 

The elastic band will show, mine was hidden with the leaf aprons. You can leave it, cover it like I did or even dye it like Dana. 

For my leaf apron I cut leaf like shapes out of felt and sewed them to ribbon. Super Easy.

Good Luck and let me know if I need to clarify anything.

Pixie Fairy Pricesses

I've gotten into the habit of letting my oldest daughter decide what all three girls will be for Halloween. It's just easier to make three of the same thing. We were inspired by Tinkerbell and her friends at Pixie Hollow but stuck with a general fairy look. They are each a different kind of fairy. The blue fairy is a water fairy, green is a forest fairy, and the pink and orange is a garden fairy.  I'm just realizing how much the colors remind me of Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. How funny. 

This little water fairy is in heaven. 

I made them each a special crown of flowers and leaves. 

You can find a tutorial for the iridescent fairy wings HERE and the tutu HERE.

Our forest fairy:

Even though I call her a forest fairy, she calls herself Tinkerbell. 

The garden fairy:

Basically she hates her costume and refuses to wear it for more than 30 seconds. At our party the other night she ran around with just her shirt and leggings on.  Everyone asked if she was a flower. 

I guess you can't please everyone. 

Who ya gonna call?

Yeah! I'm all done with costumes!  

I was all set to make my son a robber costume as he requested, when he saw a commercial for Ghostbusters and begged me to switch.  I had no problem with the switch, as I knew this would be a lot more fun to put together. 

We are both thrilled with the outcome. 

I made the jumpsuit from a dress I found at the thrift store. 

I cut off the bottom and made a pair of pants using his pants as a pattern. Then I sewed the two pieces back together again. I added a name badge and a couple Ghostbuster patches made from iron-on transfer paper. 

The: Pack

For the pack, I started with a diet coke box. I made slots for straps and stuffed an old back pack inside. I spray painted it black and added several accessories with hot glue and mounting tabs.  

I found random things around the house, garage, the dollar store, and the thrift store to make up all the components. 

After I spay painted everything black, I added the little tags found HERE.

We made the gun so it could be disconnected from the pack, so he could still wear it to his school party.  

Our church had a Halloween Party last night and he won the costume contest. His excitement made all my work worth it. 

Here is a list of parties I'm linking to.