Halloween 2015 for crafting con

    I shared these costumes on my blog this fall, but I also shared them over at Crafting Con. I used different pictures in this post, so I thought I would finally bring it back home and keep another record of these fun get ups over here. The following post was written for the crafting con readers, which is why the wording may sound slightly off from my usual posts. Enjoy!


    I'm sure that most of the folks frequenting this site get pretty excited for this holiday and all the sewing fun that goes along with it and I am no exception. I have been making my kids costumes for the past few years as I have been getting more into sewing, and I have to say, I really killed it last year. In my kids eyes, anyways, and that is the most important thing!
     So here they are in all their glory, straight out of Neverland, Fawn and Gruff, (aka the Neverbeast)!

    I will start with Gruff. Althea is my little critter. Her favorite games always involve animal role play, and she knew she wanted to be the Neverbeast for Halloween as soon as she saw this movie.

   Gruff's fur is a greyish color, which I of course could not find for sale. So I dyed some white fur and achieved this greyish blue color. We went with it. That Gruffy suit was self-drafted, and after adding a large crotch gusset, it turned out well. There are flaps on the bottom to cover the tops of her shoes, mitts that can cover her hands and a long zipper that opens up the front from the neck to the crotch to gain entry. The zipper is an electric green color, reminiscent of Gruff's electric stripes. The whole thing is lined with a soft old sheet since the inside of the fur was rather scratchy. I painted the swirls onto the back, sides and legs once it was completed with black fabric paint.
   I decided to make a detached hat instead of a hood so that she could wear it separately afterwards. She wanted it to be a full face mask, as in nothing visible aside from some little eye holes covered in green film, but that sounded pretty claustrophobic. We compromised with a snapping chin strap that she pulls up over her mouth. I used the hood from a coat pattern in Ottobre 06/20013 for the hat. It was totally her idea that there should be teeth sticking out of the top of the chin strap. The horns are made from black fleece, stuffed with fleece scraps and hand sewn onto the hat, which I have decided is truly the best way to make something stand upright on a hat. The ears are fleece lined fur with pipe cleaners inside to give them a bit of shape, and are hand sewn onto the hat as well. It is lined with the same white sheet that the rest of the suit is lined with.

     She also has fleece wings, framed with a bent up wire coat hanger. They have straps made from the same fur as her suit so that the straps blend in. There was a black fleece tail as well, stuffed with more fleece scraps and pinned to the back of her costume (most of the time).

The real highlight of the Neverbeast costume though, is seen best at night. I hand sewed orange EL wire to Gruff's wings, and 2 separate packages of green EL wire along the black stripes on the body. I added a couple of hidden pockets at various points on the suit to stash her battery backs. 

And Voila! She is ready to collect lightning and save Pixie Hollow!

      But Gruff would of course be lost without her favorite fairy, Fawn.

    Halloween is usually pretty cold where we live, so I am always trying to incorporate warm things that are part of the costume. So Fern, aka Fawn has a reversible fleece coat modeled after Fawn's look from that time Tinkerbell's gang traveled to the land of winter. This coat is very toasty, complete with two layers of fleece, a tall collar and cuffs with thumb holes that come to a point over the top of her hand. 

     She also has tan fleece leggings and some really fun ear muffs that consist of a fleece headband with tan fleece elf ears. The ears are two layers of fleece quilted together with a spiral stitch radiating from the "inner ear". 

     This all is worn over a lightweight dress that is meant to look like Fawn's dress in the Neverbeast movie, which can be worn to indoor Halloween parties that are too hot for fleece. The one strap dress is a little skimpy however, so I also made a tan knit long sleeve shirt to be worn underneath the dress. I stuck with the Ottobre 06/2013, and used patterns from this magazine for the fleece pants, long sleeve shirt and the fleece coat (with severe modifications for the coat). 

        And to top it all off, she has some really spectacular wings. They are made out of Fantasy Film and the only regret I have is that I made them a little too large for her. Most of the Halloween activities we do happen in a crowd and it was hard for her to be spatially aware of them. But they were truly magical and will certainly be used again as she grows (or perhaps by an adult female in the family,...ahem). 

Please come on over to my blog for some more pictures and details about these costumes. We had so much fun with them, I hope you have enjoyed them too!

Thanks for having me!