Halloween Costumes

Halloween was never a favorite holiday until I had kids and got to help them dress up. This year I was really proud of what we came up with.

For my youngest I used a dress that I made from a Butterick Pattern #3236 over 5 years ago for my oldest daughter when she was my youngest daughter's age. Over the years I have lent it to cousins and friends and was so excited to see another daughter wear it. When I made it my oldest was a little short for the pattern, but I didn't realize it until I had sewn the dress, so I cut it off. The original pattern had an extra row of black lace on the skirt. Little did I know I would have a daughter who would need the extra. For the necklace I used the lace from the dress and hand stiched a Victorian cameo button onto the middle and then safety pined it in the back. For the bow in her hair I cut a piece about 4" x 12-18" (I don't exactly remember it has been too many years) from both the lace and dress fabric. I then folded each in half and layed the lace on top of the fabric with the folds even. I pinned those together and then serged them together. I then used a basting stitch and ran it across the layers next to the serging and gathered them up. Then I rolled them into a flower and hand stiched the edges together. Then I hot glued the flower to a hair clip. When worn next to the bun the edges dissapear and it just looks like a fancy flower. Now just had red lipstick and a beauty mark and you have a flamanco dancer!

A beauty!

My oldest want to be a ballerina, despite many attempts at talking her into something more interesting. It is just too cold here for ballerinas. But she insisted. Since she is tall and super skinny (don't we all want to be like this) I decided to make her leotard. I used McCall's Pattern #MP279. I then got an iron-on from a local craft store to iron on to the top. For the skirt I got 3 yds of some beaded tulle (it looks like glue gun drops) and regular tulle. I then cut to to the length I needed with the folds being on the bottom of the skirt. I then basted the edges together and sewed a seamed up the back leaving about 4" open. I then gathered the top of the skirt and sewed a ribbon to the top. I ended up making 2 seams on the ribbon. One about 5/8" down and then another a little further down to help it lay better. I wish I would have sewn one at the top of the tulle as well to help it lay even better but it worked out pretty well. I then dumped som flower petels into the skirt through the opening in the back and voile add a bun, tights and ballet flats and you have a ballerina. I was so afraid it would turn out boring, but to my suprise I think it turned out rather sophisticated, for a halloween costume.

The "sophisticated" ballerina.

My son and husband are obsessed with rockets and he HAD to be an astronaut. The outfit turned out to be one of the easiest I have done. I found clipart on line by googling "astronaut clipart" and by going to the NASA website. I then printed them out on Black T-Shirt iron-on paper and ironed them onto a gray sweatshirt (he was a Mercury astronaut). For the helmet we found an old football helmet and covered it in tin foil. For the boots, he has both out-grown and out-worn his tennis shoes so I took some silver tissue lame and, using his shoe as a guide, made a boot. I then seamed the back seam and front seam and made a 1/2" casing at the top for 1/4" elastic cut to fit his leg. I threaded the elastic and then hot-glued the bottom of the fabric directly to the shoe above the tread so he could walk safely.

Our "spacey" Space Man