Halloween Part Deux: Cinderella Costume

After having to wear a box of puppies for the entire weekend, Teenie was ready to be a princess and demanded that I finish her dress. Sorry for the lack of tutorials, but as stated in my prior post I have been suffering from a serious case of lazy-assedness and I was in a super hurry to get this project done and over with.  Basically what I did was take a dress and cut out the middle of it, then stitched it up to fit Teenie. This was not an easy task, as the fabric that this dress was made out of was a pain in the ass to sew because it slid around like crazy on the machine.      

The second hand dress came with a matching sheer wrap so I cut it in half to use it to make the two poofs on the the sides, and a matching headband.

With the scraps I made straps, (me and Teenie agreed that the original dress's pouf sleeves were just way to lame and outdated) an insert for the back that laced up (to make it more modest)

Because it gets super cold on Halloween night I made a matching hooded cloak so she wouldn't have to cover up her dress with a big coat.

I used 2 yards of polar fleece, 3 yards of fun fur trim, and a yard of Disney Princess ribbon for the tie closure.  

The gloves are the same ones that she used for her Belle costume, the choker was a black ribbon that I sewed Velcro closures to. 

Her"glass" slippers were the silver one inch heels that she insisted that I buy her for Easter.

All in all I'd say her costume came out well, she loves it and I'm just happy that it's done.  And I did it all without getting blood, tears or wine stains on it.  Yay me!

Halloween Part 1: Puppies for Sale!

I love Halloween...I mean I really, Really love Halloween and I usually do all kinds of cool stuff for the kids.  But for some strange reason, this year, I just wasn't feelin' it. I have no idea why, but for some stupid reason I waited until the last minute to do everything. I didn't even muster up the strength to decorate, luckily Teenie loves decorating and being a big helper, because she did everything!

I guess one of the man reasons why I was just so blah about the whole thing is because number one it has been a horrible allergy season for me this year, and number two, because the kids kept changing their minds about what they wanted to be for Halloween.  That drives me nuts, because there is nothing worse than trying to make a costume at the last minute.  

Sonshine, as usually was pretty indifferent to the idea of dressing up, but still changed his mind about 800 times about what he wanted to be, just in case he did decide to dress up.  He ended up being a punk rocker.  Easy peasy I did his hair and gave him some of my clothes from my goth days.  Teenie on the other hand wanted to be something that required sparkle, ruffles and lots of sewing, fabric and my time.  She wanted to be a princess, but she couldn't decide which one.

Being that I have been feeling incredibly lazy and unmotivated, I decided on a shortcut.  So I scoured the local thrift stores looking for a cheap, hideous old prom dress or wedding dress to cut up and refashion, like I did last year's witch costume.  What I found was better than I could have ever hoped for. A light blue dress, sprinkled in rhinestones, with a matching wrap for $13.99!  It was an already lovely dress, but what I liked is that I saw it and immediately thought of Cinderella!  Teenie, having not been Cinderella yet, was so excited! And I was happy because I thought it would be an easy, quick costume.

As you may have noticed, the title of this post is Halloween Costume: Puppies for Sale!  Although I took the dress home and got started on it, the fabric proved difficult to work with, and the dress ended up taking longer than I thought it would.  We had plans to go to a Harvest Festival where the kids would trick or treat in costume and Teenie had NO COSTUME!!  So, there I was the morning of  the festival, I had to think fast and throw together something super fast.

Teenie had seen a picture in a magazine of a "puppies for sale" costume and had started making one herself, but she used the wrong kind of box and it was uncomfortable and her puppies kept falling off.  So I found a box, tied a bunch of stuffed animal dogs on her (she is obsessed with puppies and has tons of them) and strapped it to her.  Then I used a red elastic headband as a dog collar, and borrowed a tag from one of my dogs. I put her hair in pigtails and the hubby painted her face.  

Her costume was super easy and she got tons of compliments.  Not bad for a backup costume!

Teenie the Witch Halloween Costume aka Formal Dress Reconstruction

Teenie saw a witch hat and broom at Target and decided to be a witch.  I refused to buy a $20 costume that looked like I was going to fall apart. Then she fell in love with the little witch cocktail hat, and my hubby, being the sucker he is for his little girl, bought it for her for $14.99.  Then of course she needed a broom, that was another $4.99.  So my new goal was to make a costume for as cheaply as possible.  I started out with this lovely gown that I found at the local thrift store. It was FOUR BUCKS!!! What a deal!
I cut to kidlet size and adjusted it to fit her by sewing elastic into the bottom half, essentially making a skirt, using the existing hem. (He He less work for me to do ;) )  Next I used  the top portion as a bodice, by hemming the bottom, removing the top sash, and adding some grommet tape and laced it up with ribbon to make it look like a corset. The original dress had funky straps so I removed those and replaced them with black ribbon.

This is what I came up with.

The dress still didn't scream witch to me, more like fair maiden so I decided to dye it.  Wow, what a PITA!!! No one bothered to tell me that dye does not work on 100% polyester.  I actually ended up cooking the dress in a dye bath for about 4 hours, then let it set over night.  The next morning I woke up and checked it again. I still was not happy with way the dye was turning out so I cooked it some more. While the vat of polyester fabric was coming to a slow, rolling boil, I decided that she needed a cape.  It gets really cold the area I live in during the last week of October so this was a necessity. I couldn't let my daughter ruin all of my hard work by wearing a hideous turtle neck under her beautiful new dress! Her hat looked a little steampunk so I thought "why not liven up the cape as well?"  So I went on the good ol' trusty interwebs and found a pattern for a caplet.    

I used some black fleece and muslin, to make the caplet and had it tie with a bow instead of trying to figure out how to use the buttonholer on my sewing machine.  We only had a few hours left before we were to go out to a Halloween carnival so I had to improvise.

The dress looked a little flat and boring so I added a hoop skirt, that I found at my favorite thrift store for a buck.

TA-DA!!! All done at the Harvest Festival.  

Unfortunately her dress that I tried really hard to press, got wrinkled all over again after we had to cram her in the car with her hoop skirt.

Teenie as "Princess Tiana" Halloween Costume

Of all the things I have made for Teenie, this is one of my favorites.  I did not use a pattern, just a picture of the dress I found on the interwebs. I used yellow satin, green satin, tulle, and muslin for the underskirt, (because Teenie thought it was too itchy.) I made the crown with fabric scraps and a headband.

There's her frog in her bucket! She got tired of carrying him.

The back I used elastic to make it easy to take off and on, and then used sheer ribbon for the halter style tie around the neck. She loved this dress and it came out really well and she still has it to this day.  She can't fit this one anymore but she said she is saving it for her daughters.

Hermione Granger Costume

 

 Dressed up as a favorite movie character for "school." Teenie went as Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. I threw this costume together the day before the event.  I went to the nearest thrift store and brought a shirt 99 cents, a skirt 99 cents, a tie 59 cents, and 2 t-shirts each 99 cents.  I cut up the shirts to make the scarf.  The tie I shortened and threaded elastic through so she could slip it on over her head.  The Harry Potter robe was a prior yard sale find for a quarter.  The wand I made with a stick from our apple tree, that I spray painted with gold, black and brown.  (I wish I would have taken a close up, it came out really cool.

Halloween Costumes 2012: Little Red Riding Hood :) | Make It and Love It

Halloween Costumes 2012: Little Red Riding Hood :) | Make It and Love It

This is a beautifully made costume!  I would love to make Teenie one of these. Maybe next year. 

The Train To Crazy: Handmade Costume Series: DIY Rapunzel Dress Tutorial

The Train To Crazy: Handmade Costume Series: DIY Rapunzel Dress Tutorial

Love this beautiful costume! The hair idea is genius! Most of ideas I have seen on the Net consisted of a ton of yarn fashioned into a long braid.  This looks so much better.  The costume is very well crafted and detailed.  I would have loved to make this for Teenie for Halloween.  Oh well, maybe for dress up instead.