"The best-laid plans of mice and men..." That's what I'm feeling now. Oh, so much I had wanted to do and share on this blog o' mine. But life gets in the way sometimes.
I've been busy, that is a sure thing. And I'm happy to say that this Halloween has not passed without some homemade goodness for my little ones.
We started out our Halloween festivities last Saturday, when we found ourselves at Strawbery Banke participating in their annual Ghosts on the Banke festival. That meant that I had to be sure the costumes were ready almost a week before Halloween! While at Strawbery Banke, my gregarious middle child introduced herself to another angel she saw, and in the process, got us in the local paper! I loved hearing her brag about her homemade costume and treat bag! It made it all worth the effort.
Luckily, this year, the girls seemed to know what they wanted to be and weren't changing their minds every few hours. Phew. My littlest didn't have much choice. It was decided that she would wear a lion costume we had in our dress-up bin (no extra sewing in my part, and the costume was warm enough we wouldn't need to worry about a coat).
My eldest wanted to be a ninja. My middle one, an angel (so appropriate given that last year she was a devil).
The ninja costume was simple. Black pants (which I, by the way, made myself, but that is worth another blog post), long-sleeved black shirt, ninja mask. In a fit of inspiration, I was able to make the ninja mask out of the same rayon jersey fabric I use to make her pants. I basically sewed a long tube-like cowl, made straps out of the fabric to attach to one end of the cowl, and tie those straps behind the head to form the "mask" part. It makes more sense if you look at the photos:
It would be easy enough to tuck the hair in to hide it, but when I suggested that, my eldest stated that she wanted to be sure everyone knew she was a girl ninja! We also made some throwing stars for her costume, out of aluminum foil, glue and cardboard. No pictures of those.
Then came the angel costume. I had some tough hurdles to overcome with that one. Highest on the list was the fact that my middle child is VERY particular about the type of neckline she has on any clothes she wears. Case in point - I had to chop off the arms of her turtleneck shirts so she would have something to wear during the summer. The key is that the neck must be high and tight.
Again, the day was saved by this rayon jersey fabric. My idea was to create a white robe out of some stash white fabric I had and then sew another of these long cowls and attach it to the neck. Here's a picture to show how it turned out:
This time, I suggested leaving her flowing hair out, to show it off, but no, my middle child wanted to hid her hair under the cowl. Oh well. A feather boa was sewn in a circle as a halo. The wings were made from two wire clothes hangers, bent to shape, attached together with white duck tape, and white felt hot glued over it for the wings (two layers). I love the swirly white patterned felt I found at the fabric store. It allowed me to avoid having to glue feathers on the wings. I sewed two pieces of elastic into circles then duck taped them to the wings.
The idea I'm most happy about was to sew two big buttonholes in the back of the robe to run the elastics for the wings into. That way, the elastics wouldn't show over the robe and a nice silhouette would be maintained for the costume. Here's a close-up:
Both girls were over the moon about their costumes.
And then I made everyone's trick-or-treat bags. Very simple... 1/2 yard each of two different fabrics - the girls got to choose. One for lining, one for outside and strap. I made the strap long enough so they each could wear it over their costumes cross-wise.
With a chill in the air and Halloween behind me now, I'm anxious to get some wool on my needles so I have a few project to share with you!
