Halloween 2015 - finally!

     Today I am back at Crafting Con! Season four began in April, and they have been hosting a new theme for friendly competition and tutorials each month throughout the spring and summer. I competed there back in May, which was Star Wars month. This season is culminating this month with a twist: the usual idea is that all clothes made for each theme must be inspired by the theme and sewn up in everyday clothes; in October, in honor of Halloween, it will be all full-on costumes all the time! Hurray! Also, there is no competition this month, and all the voting for each previous month of the season will be happening during this final month. So be sure to keep an eye on Crafting Con for some awesome costume inspiration and the results of all the fantastic sewing that went on this year.

     So, as  we find ourselves on the opening day of October, it's all about costumes. My blog was pretty sparse last year, and I never even posted the girls Halloween costumes! Which is ironic, because they may have been the best costumes I've created to date. (although I was pretty fond of Robin Hood and Maid Marion the year before). Sometimes it seems that all the sewing and the life-living just gets in the way of computer time. We sure had fun with those costumes though!
They were Fawn

 and the Neverbeast, 

and they were each so excited to play their role.

   Althea was Gruff (the Neverbeast) of course. She still to this day loves animal role play above all other games (panda, cheetah, wolf, ewok, Neverbeast, joey, cat, monkey-you name it). This has been going on for years, and it's amazing to watch. Her feline and canine personas even have names (Nora and Stella, respectively).  She loved all the versions of Gruff in the movie, although she did need some reassuring when things started to get intense towards the end and Gruff transforms to his super hero self.

She knew that she wanted to be Gruff as soon as she saw him. And I was pretty into the challenge of recreating that awesome character for her. Finding the fur was the first obstacle. He looks pretty grey to me. I couldn't find any grey fur however, so I decided to see if I could create some by dyeing white fake fur. The catch is, that most dyes are aimed at natural fabrics, which this certainly is not. I read some tutorials and cosplay discussion boards and found this tutorial the most helpful.  I decided that since I wanted to achieve a pastel color, I would probably be okay. They make a special kind of dye for synthetic fabric, so I bought the black RIT for polyester and went to work. Unfortunately, there were some unexpected undertones to the dye and when I took my fur out of the dye bath, it was a very dark green color. Yikes! I began washing it out in hot water as much as I could and it finally dulled down to this more subtle greyish blue. 

The moral of this story I believe, is that simpler is probably better sometimes. We could have certainly pulled off a white Gruff especially since I also painted black stripes and swirls onto the costume with black fabric paint once it was all sewn up. (That was another adventure; I ended up hanging the costume from the ceiling to paint it, so that I could do it all in one shot instead of flipping it over and letting it dry between sides.) But if I hadn't done it, I would have wished that I had, not knowing what the end result would have been. 

I wanted to make her at least one piece that would be wearable outside of the costume setting and debated doing a hoodie with pants for the final look, but ended up with a fur suit and a hat. So she is able to wear the hat on its own throughout the cold weather.

     I used the hood from the same pattern in Ottobre 06/2013 that I used for Althea's popsicle coat to make the hat. I added two snaps to the chin strap to keep it closed (velcro would have been too rough on her chin; I abhor buttonholes, so snaps it was. They worked well. It actually stays snapped most of the time and she just slides it on that way, so perhaps I could have avoided closures altogether). The ears are fur with some fleece for the inner ear. They each have a pipe cleaner stuffed inside to give them a little bit of shape and are hand sewn onto the hat. The horns came out great. They are made of two pieces of fleece each and are stuffed with fleece scraps. The key though, is that they are hand sewn on and so have a wide round base that is attached to the hat. I have made a few unicorn hats in the past and attached the horn by sandwiching it into the midline of the hat and no matter how much you tack the seam allowance down and stuff the horn, there is just no way that it will ever stand up properly. They need to be hand sewn with a round base. Totally worth the time, and with fabric like this, you can't see the stitches no matter how sloppy they are!

   The last thing I would like to point out on the hat, are the teeth. I thought I was done with that at one point, and was asking Althea how she liked it, and she told me "Good, Mommy, just needs teeth". This had not even been on my radar at all, but as soon as she said it I realized it was the perfect detail. So I added the teeth along with a black "lower lip" around them to finish it off.
    I ended up drafting the rest of the fur suit myself, and I have since decided to use patterns as often as possible. Saving a few bucks is not worth the aggravation. I ended up having to add in a big crotch gusset, which would have been much easier to do before I sewed the whole thing together.
It worked out in the end though, and really only cost me some extra time. Both the body and the hat are lined with an old soft bed sheet so that it isn't itchy at all. This also gives a little extra warmth.  I added flaps to cover her shoes and mitts that can go over her hands (the mitts can also be slipped off to leave the hands free). There is a zipper for entry, and several hidden pockets to stash battery packs.
    Battery packs you say? What do you need battery packs for? Well no Gruff costume would be complete without taking into account his superhero self. I thought I was going to use green Christmas lights, but a friend of mine clued me in about electroluminescent aka EL wire and I bought some off Amazon for amazingly cheap. It was perfect!!! They had so many colors to choose from and came in four foot strands that run off a small battery pack with two double A's. The battery packs had little clips on the back, but they all broke off (I seriously paid about $4 for each package though, so I wasn't expecting much; and to their credit the fur was too thick for the plastic clips). This was no biggie though; I had plenty of extra fur, so I sewed on some patch pockets in key locations and we just tucked those battery packs in and hid them. Also, the battery packs are detachable from the line of wire and so I can remove them completely to store the costume. I hand sewed the wire to the costume - green all along the black stripes and orange outlining the wings. I have a better picture over at Crafting Con, but here is a blurry shot that gives an idea of how bright she was:

     Light up Halloween costumes are the best! We are always trying to make them visible and therefore safe when they run around at night. Dave has had the genius idea of dropping a headlamp or lit flashlight or powerful glow stick into their candy-holding plastic pumpkins, but Gruff could be seen down the entire street. She was pretty easy to find in a crowd as well!
    Althea was so happy with her costume, and I was so happy watching her play in it. The way that Halloween sparks the imagination is one of the most magical parts about it.

    Her sister was just as excited for her costume! Fern was Fawn, Gruff's closest fairy friend. We started by recreating the dress Fawn wears in the Neverbeast movie. The one shoulder look is a little beyond her years though, and she has agreed to wear the tan long sleeve shirt I made to go with it whenever she wears it out of the house. The shirt was made from that same Ottobre magazine (I have gotten some serious miles from this!) and the dress is essentially self drafted but the bodice began with the same pattern as the shirt.

   Halloween is a chilly time of year in New England (usually) though, so we couldn't stop there. I went back to the Ottobre mag for a pants pattern, and made her some tan fleece leggings. Having tan, close-enough-to-flesh-tone garments to go underneath all the dress up clothes is great. These two garments will get some use in a variety of situations.

    She had the perfect pair of tall brown boots, so I was off the hook for making her a pair (which she totally thought I was capable of; love that girl). But she did need a warm coat that was part of her look as well. So we went back to The Secret of the Wings for some inspiration and tried to mimic the coat Fawn wears when they travel to winter.

   This coat was a lot of fun and ended up being the real heart of the costume.

I used the same pattern from that Ottobre (again!) that I used as a base for Fern's lollipop coat. This coat is not only fully lined with another layer of fleece, but it is fully reversible to increase the options for wearing this after Halloween. 

For closures, it has a button near the top and a waist band that is actually two part; half is sewn down to the coat and the other half is loose and tucks through a slit in the side seam to wrap around and secure the coat closed. There are two buttons; one on each side of the coat, and also two sets of snaps on the waistband to complete the reverse-ability. 

The coat also has a whimsical collar and a fun hem to match Fawn's coat. 

And in order to keep those hands warm, we have thumbholes and a pointed cuff that extends down over the top of her hand in the style of all of your favorite princess gowns. 

This coat was so toasty, and she wore it all winter long, unless it was a total snow day. 

But to complete the Fawn look, we needed a couple more key items. 

    How can you be a fairy without wings? There are some incredible cosplayers out there, that are wonderful about sharing tips on creating their favorite looks. I found the flying fox on Deviant Art through pinterest, and completely relied on her tutorial to make these wings. They are made using Fantasy Film, which was unavailable in the large sheets the last time I checked and was only available in rolls 4"x10'. Hopefully they will restock though, because this stuff is truly magical!

Watching the light catch and shine through them was so captivating. 

They ended up being rather fragile and big for her. She kept bumping people with them, and some of her friends poked a hole in part with their fondling and aggressive ogling. But we still have them, and she wore them with pride multiple times throughout that Halloween season. 

The final detail was one my of absolute favorites. In order to keep her head warm, I made some pixie ear muffs! These are awesome in their simplicity and ability to be worn to enhance so many different costumes. Or whenever you feel like being an elf!

She kills me in this one!

The ears are so simple. It is a headband made to fit her head, with the ears sewn on. The ears are two layers of fleece sewn together with an left open to turn them right-side out. Once they were turned rightside out and the tip of the ear was pushed all the up, the open inch was sewn shut with seam allowance tucked in.  Then, I just sewed the ears to the headband with a spiral shape to give the ears a quilted look that mimics the curvature of the inside of the ear pinna. 

They are such a fun accessory, your sister will probably want to borrow them. 

 She will start with a sneaky photobomb....

 get caught in the act....

                                      and end up wearing them all night long. Literally. Sleeping with them on. 

But when you have a great costume you might as well get some miles out of it, right? 

Happy Halloween!

Thanks for stopping by!

Huggable loveable (sentimental) fleece

      I am certainly a fleece addict. I have spoken about this before. I can't help it. So soft. Such fun prints. Such a quick sew with results that turn my kids into the most squeezable cozy little things around. When it is cold (which it typically is around here for several months out of the year - this year is not a shining example of this) they will go head to toe in fleece outfits. I might have to admit to doing the same thing myself in the name of pajamas when we are lounging around the house.
      So far this winter, I have made fleece leggings for myself (in a killer multicolored leaf print), for my husband (yup, leggings for him; he can wear them under his work pants - I even included a fly flap! black of course) and for each of my four nieces and nephews. I also made a cowl neck sweatshirt for my sister in law, and, point of this post, outfits for both of my girls at Christmas time.  I will have to come back another time to show you all the fun things I did with fleece on Halloween. So there is a small taste of my addiction. Not one I am even trying to shake however.
      Two years ago I made both girls fleece dresses and they still wear them, but the fit is getting pretty tight. It was time to update. I kind of wanted to make them look like little elves on Christmas and the younger one is totally into it. She was happy with me choosing all of the design elements of this outfit (we agreed together that she wanted a hood to snug up in). So she got a pointy, gnome-like hoodie in a plaid print. The front waist line is rounded, meaning that it arches up in the center. It is subtle though and can be hard to notice in the pictures. The skirt portion of the hoodie is cut on the bias for interest of the print direction. There is also a high-low hem that ended up being more dramatic than I intended, but I have decided I like it.

 I didn't even hem the bottom of this one. I planned to, but after she tried it on, 

then refused to take it off for a while, I realized it doesn't bother me. Fleece! Gotta love it. 

       

    Another thing I am becoming addicted to are heart shaped knee patches. So simple, so cute, so much more fun than plain solid colored pants.

           My older daughter wasn't willing to ride the hoodie train like her sister, so we moved away from the gnome / elf feel a bit on hers. Instead we went with a big cozy cowl-ish collar attached to a dress with a full skirt. The cowl is a contrasting fabric, which I like - it seems like she is wearing an infinity scarf. I used a long sleeve t-shirt pattern from an ottobre magazine as the base for both of these, hacked a bit obviously. On this dress I tried to hack it into a v shaped front waistline but that didn't work for me. Perhaps the fabric was just too bulky? Or else I should have cut the skirt differently. I ended up have to flatten it out a bit which added some extra fullness to the skirt in the form of those gathers that you can see in the picture below.

    I also made her some green fleece leggings with red knee patches. 

 You better believe there are heart patches under there!

     I really was drawn to this cardinal print fleece. It was a different kind of fleece; anti-pill instead of blizzard I guess; or maybe it was even micro fleece. Point being that it was even softer than the other stuff. 

     But mostly this is a sentimental thing for me. My whole family loves cardinals. My grandfather always loved them, along with anything red. Since he passed, we always seem to see cardinals hovering about when we are all together, particularly on special occasions, and we all agree that it seems to be his way of watching over us. This December we lost my grandmother. She had been experiencing dementia and kept forgetting that he was no longer alive, so she was constantly seeking him out. She was missing him so much. The last time I saw her, she spoke to me as if she were on the phone with me, not in the same room, holding my hand. She seemed to be holding two conversations; one with me and one with him. As if she were actually with him at the time and talking to me from across a divide. And soon afterwards she was finally able to rejoin him completely. Eleven of us spoke at her funeral. My brothers words brought happy tears to my eyes, as he asked us all to picture the joyous reunion the two of them were having. Shortly after my grandmother died, my mom had a male and female cardinal pair visiting her bird feeders. I have always loved watching cardinal pairs. They seem to have such strong bonds, neither wanting to stray far from its partner. A perfect image to frame in a heart. And possibly a reminder to treasure these kids, while they are so sweet and young, and are so unencumbered in their love for us, before all of these moments just go racing by.  

   

 Thanks for stopping by.

  It's an exciting time of year in the land of sewing blogs! Project Run and Play time! (A really fun spoof on Project Runway that takes place online as a sew-off between bloggers that sew for their kids). The main reason I started this blog was to be able to participate in sew alongs like this one, and to be able to comment on all the amazing things that I see others posting. There are so many incredibly inspirational acts of sewing happening out there! I don't know if I will be able to sew along every week since we have a little trip coming up, but I will try for at least three out of four.
   I was a little late catching on to the start date and themes of this season, but fortunately the theme for week one is "Winter Wonderland." This fit nicely with some sewing projects that I already had planned and designed and was set to sew. I mentioned before that I went a little nuts at Joann's during a fleece sale they had in early November. Dresses for all of us was what I had in mind, and potentially some leggings as well, because who doesn't want a pair of fleece leggings when it is 5 degrees outside?
So here are the girls in their dresses!

I posted about Althea's Red Riding Hood dress already, so I will just talk about Fern's Unicorn dress right now. I was trying to encourage them to pick a solid color of fleece at the store, but she fell in love with the unicorn print instantly (not surprised!) and was so enthusiastic about it that we compromised and got about 1/2 yard of the print and picked a coordinating color to make up the rest of the yardage. I love the result! I drafted the pattern myself and gave it a shawl collar, wide Aline skirt, on seam pockets and color blocked cuffs and skirt length. I also decided to make her a unicorn hat to match the one I made her sister for halloween, since she wears that hat all the time. You can't tell from the above picture since she wisely decided to wear her mud boots outside for these pictures, but she also has some color blocked fleece leggings to go along with the outfit. (Somehow head-to-toe fleece seems less absurd to me when I dress them in it then if I were to do the same for myself)

This was the first time I added a shawl collar to anything and it came together much more simply than I had been bracing myself for. I should have been focusing more attention on the sleeves probably, than the collar because they ended up getting a little bit awkward on me. It looks like there are some shoulder pads in there. This is a case where it would probably have been easier on myself if I were not too cheap to buy a pattern like the Bimaa Pattern I have read so many wonderful things about (which isn't expensive, but I have this stubborn streak where I always want to try figuring out the math of sewing myself instead of forking it over for patterns).

Nonetheless, she is so enamored with this fabric that she loves the dress no matter what. And that is why she gets to come to the store to pick out fabric with me! I am happy I got that white unicorn front and center right beneath the collar.

The dress is very long as you can see, and the cuffs are folded in half right now, so hopefully it will continue to fit her for a while!

Here she is in our "winter wonderland" reality: our muddy / wet / frozen ice skating rink of a back yard. She was quite excited to be Princess Unicorn out there though, on her Unicorn Skating Rink (until she fell in a big puddle and completely soaked herself; then indoors we went for some hot chocolate).

Here are her leggings poking out under her dress:  

And here they are on their own:

I didn't have enough pink fleece for the pants, but fortunately I had one scrap left over from the purple fleece dress I made Fern last year that was big enough to make up the difference. I like that it goes along with the pink / purple theme of the outfit but is a little bit different and continues the theme of color blocking. I used some purple elastic for the waist which is basically just top-stitched right onto the waist line. I modified a pattern I made for her last summer which was created by disecting a pair of stained pants that fit her well. I did end up adding a little bit extra to the top of the rear of the pants before adding the waist band after having her try them on and squat down for me. She's a princess, not a plumber. I didn't hem the cuffs on these pants. I love how fleece provides that option. I did use a flat felled seam for the crotch, and am very happy with that. It looks neat, lays flat on the inside and hopefully will hold up to wear well.

 And Althea of course needed to try on her sister's unicorn hat

Althea also got some fleecies to go under that red dress. It's hard to read the coloring here, but the pants are a dark hunter green which was the fleece that I chose for my dress. The hearts are red scraps from her dress. So now she can where them together without being too ridiculously matchy matchy. I love these little pants. They look much more finished than Fern's - although you can get away without hemming fleece, it does look nice when you do. There is a couple inches of extra length basted up in a hem on the bottom of the leg (I probably wouldn't have bothered doing it, but the extra length was sliding under her feet when she tried them on). I didn't want to lose any of the height of the waist, so I added a fleece waist band that is encasing a 1/2 " wide elastic which is a slightly shorter length than the rest of the waist band. These pants have a flat felled seam at the crotch as well. I'm hoping to get a few years out of them! 

Here's a little parting shot of the back pleat on the red dress!

I hope to be posting a little more frequently now that the holidays are over. Let's see what the new year will bring!