Halloween 2018- Voltron and a Fox

Max was very into Voltron when he was 2-3, which is funny because now he thinks it's too scary and won't watch it! 

Andrew took the lead on this one and constructed his costume from cardboard and tape. Here is a fitting.

Andrew spent at least a week cutting and building it, and then I helped paint it. I enjoy painting, so that was fun. We got really detailed with the black sharpies. 

It happened to be beautiful weather that year in Chicago so we had a very nice time trick or treating and Max looked cute in his costume. After awhile we took off his arm and leg shields, as they were making it hard for him to go up and down the steps to every door. Whoops, that was an unseen design flaw!

Claire wore Max's old fox costume which I had stored in the basement. I just went to link to the post, only to find I never posted it! I actually didn't have to alter it at all, and I left the feet on because they fit into her shoes. That actually worked well so it wouldn't ride up her legs in the stroller and make her cold. 

Only a year and a half ago, but they look so small ❤️

-Molly

Pregnant Halloween: Melisandre from Game of Thrones

I helped with the school haunted house this year and that made me excited about making a costume. 

In late September, I googled pregnant Halloween costumes and they were the WORST. No offense to you if you have done any of the following, but they are terrible: painting your stomach like a basketball, watermelon or pumpkin; wearing black and painting a baby skeleton on your stomach; gluing doll arms to your stomach like your baby is a zombie; etc etc etc.

Bleh. So then I was thinking about Game of Thrones/ASOIAF characters and how many Daenerys and Cersei costumes I had already seen online. That made me think of Melisandre, the red witch/priestess of R'hollor. I don't particularly like her character that much, but I thought it would be easy to make and she even is "pregnant" at one point with the Shadow Baby that then goes and kills Renly. Perfect!

I used this vintage pattern, Simplicity 5967. It is for a bust 38 which is still laughably big, so I made it as is and then just made crazy alterations as I went. 

 Pictures of Melisandre from the show: here.

She always has her red jewel necklace on, so I made one out of craft rhinestones and fake gold leather- plus my trusty old hot glue gun, which I accidentally left plugged in OVERNIGHT and it somehow did not burn down the house!

Crafty!

 I bought a long, curly red wig online. It unfortunately had bangs, but what can you do? It was at least closer to burgundy or maroon than Ronald McDonald red. It was surprisingly not itchy or that hot.

Andrew did not think it was funny to call our baby "my shadow baby" LOL

 I made the dress out of dark red, cheap polyester knit from JoAnn that was also on sale. I changed the sleeves to be full length and bell out at the ends. I wore it with my cheap red flats from Target, et voila, my costume!

 I ended up taking in the side seams a ton, the shoulder seams, trimming the sleeve heads and shortening the skirt. It is pretty shoddily made, but it's a Halloween costume!!!

I wore it for the two days of the haunted house at school and it was fun. People liked it and it was both comfortable and warm. Sadly I did not wear it on Halloween itself because Chicago decided to be freezing cold, rainy, snow intermittently (!!!!) and have a high wind advisory. The weather was absolutely miserable and there were hardly any Trick or Treaters! Sad...

I will never use this pattern again because it was so big, so I think it will be part of the next giveaway!

Wedding Planning and Halloween in NOLA

We went to New Orleans last week to do some in-person wedding planning stuff. We checked out our venue and the guy explained how everything will be set up. This is where we will be getting married!

 The reception is in the same place, which I prefer. Everyone is already travelling to attend our wedding, this just makes it easier for everyone!

We also chose and ordered the cake, which will look like this:

Source

Minus the roses, my flowers are different, but the cake topper will be flowers. Also, not fondant so the edges will be crisper and it will actually taste good! The inside is white cake and then layers of filling in almond cream and sliced strawberries and cream.

Source

We also figured out the flowers as well. I really want peonies, but she said we have to wait and see. Sometimes they can get them from Israel in March, but not always. It's going to be lilac, white hydrangea, white peonies (or roses if not) and stephanotis. It should be really pretty! Sort of like these:

Source

So we made a lot of progress. We still have to choose a photographer (which is horrifyingly difficult) and a dj and the order and send out invites. Bam, done!

We were also there for Halloween, so I went as the Miller High Life girl in the moon, which is the best costume I have ever made. A random person emailed me once to see if they could rent it, but I love it too much. Andrew went as Mitt Romney and had his binder full of women and made some pink slips to fire people. It was very amusing.

Pink slips

High life girl in the moon and Mitt Romney

We had a lot of fun and got to see our good friends, so it was a fun and productive trip!

Happy Halloween from Napoleon BONEaparte!

T-Rex would like to wish all of you a happy Halloween!

 He looks very regal. I totally screwed up on the hat and it looks like a floppy beret, but it's not like he'll wear it for more than 2 minutes anyways. I had to remove the cravat and the hat to get him to act even slightly happy.

 Luckily, he is dumb enough that removing the hat and tie and then shouting "SQUIRREL" got him happy again. Here is the dictator of the yard hunting for squirrels.

 I like how his tail pokes out from between the coat-tails. Win!

Have a fun night everyone and eat a ton of candy!

Pumpkin fun!

We finally carved the pumpkins last night; it only took us almost a month! 

Shockingly, my 45 lb pumpkin was full of goop. Ha ha. The seeds were giant and it was very thick. It would have been good for making pies, I bet.

 Andrew carved his with a T-Rex face and traced it out in pen and everything. I, on the other hand, just hacked away at mine to make a scary face.

 I like to think of mine as having "freaky shark teeth." Go google shark teeth if that's confusing.

I do need candles to make them glow. Finally pictures of Andrew's coat tomorrow. I just need to sew on the buttons tonight after work and it's FINISHED!! Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Tiny Napoleon Bonaparte- dog costume part I

If you were following my blog last year, you know that I had planned on making T-Rex a Napoleon Bonaparte Halloween costume. My costume took a long time, so it got put on the back burner and I just forced him to wear his Chiquita Banana costume instead. 

With all of the restaurant training (5 days, with 2 more to go!), I only had time to make this this week. 

Crying because he jammed his ball under the sofa. What a fun game!

 As you can see, it is a blue velvet coat with tails and some very fancy details. He still needs a white cravat (lol) and a tiny blue tricorne hat. So it's not quite complete, but still!

Looking at Andrew with sad eyes and refusing to look at me or come onto the porch. 

Sad dog hates his costume, but too bad- I love it!

 You can see his epaulets, made from gold ribbon.

I had all the trim and buttons, I bought the velvet and the white fabric for his cravat last year.

I can't wait until it's finished. Anyone have any ideas on how to make a tiny tricorne hat?

Andrew Halloween costume: Inspiration

I asked Andrew id he had any good ideas for his Halloween costume. He did not, as his only idea was to make a papier mache Forever Alone guy mask and wear normal clothes. Lame!

I am wearing last year's costume, of course, because it took so long to make!

I showed him my idea, which is to make this Jolly Green Giant costume and he agreed happily. It helps that he is 6 foot 3, so he practically is a giant! I'm thinking green spandex bodysuit, and felt or cotton tunic with leaves and leaf hat.

Any other possibilities for construction?

Halloween 2010!

Andrew and Steph on the streetcar, which was full of fun people. Andrew was a priest and everyone LOVED his costume, even though it took about 3 min to "make", aka stapling paper to his collar and drawing a cross on a book. Andrew had his picture with religious figures, Steph with other animals and I took mine with alcohol related costumes.

This guy made his costume too, and it was awesome. The Duff Man, from the Simpsons. I wish we had taken this standing up for better effect.

I don't know what these were, but they were awesome.

And, my finished costume. I am really proud of the hat and the sash. It is perfect!

Here is a good full-on pig and lady shot.
It was a great Halloween, and I'm glad I spent all of today feeling ill, rather than tomorrow, which is will be an 11 hour day at work...

I wonder where I could wear this costume again??

Past Halloweens and an Owl

I posted this a long time ago when I had about 5 readers and my mom. I made this for Halloween two years ago, when I was just starting to sew again. It may have been my second or third project. I was insanely ambitious and made it all without a pattern. The sleeves are weird, and the back has slits instead of buttonholes, since I didn't know how to operate the attachment then. However, it is heavily interfaced so it's stiff as a board and it gives a corsety look. Plus, it has pockets, so that I could have my phone, camera, lip gloss, ID and money and have no purse. Actually, I am going to go rip open my red skirt and add pockets. What was I thinking? It also has a purple tulle underskirt to give it some foof.

I wore it last night to the Halloween dance. The kids had a lot of fun- there was a costume contest and a dj, etc, etc.
This was Wednesday's sewing club project. I took the idea from Burdastyle, where I saw these a few months ago. It's really a rectangle with a pointed top. Then you tack down the point to make the beak and sew on button eyes, stuff, and sew closed. It was a really cute and easy project. For our next meeting in three weeks, I am going to bring the Necci to school and we're going to try to start making pajama shorts. I just tried to spell that pyjama, and was confused as to why it was correcting me. Ha.
Super cute! Tonight we are going to the Quarter to celebrate Halloween, which should be super fun! Tomorrow I'll have pix of my costume, Andrew's, and the dog's.

Getting closer!

I added the swirls of ribbon. It was really annoying and lumpy, so I left it at one thin ribbon instead of three. Look at my photo genius- You can see the swirls in the mirror! That was an accident, of course...

As you can see I have also made my black and gold striped camisole. I did use my rotary cutter which is so fast and fun. They are 3 inch strips, and then they ended up about 2 inches wide. I made so straps. I am going to have three button closures on the back. It's pinned and ready, but I'm getting too sleepy.

Hat and sash, then the dog costume. Look at all the progress I'm making when I have a deadline! I need to make some public sewing goals and post them, so people will shame me if I start slacking!

PS This freak moth came in the other night because I left the window open and the light on. Just to give you a frame of reference, each of the strips of wood are probably two inches wide. This is by FAR the biggest moth I have ever seen. Look at its creepy fake eyes!

Ribbon-iffic!

I spent some time last night sewing on my ribbon- now it looks so much more like a costume! It still needs one more row or swirls on the jacket, but I am nearly done.

Here is my sketch of T-Rex's costume. We jokingly decided on this last Christmas, since he has a big personality for tiny little dog. I find the term "Napoleon complex" offensive as it relates to people, but a dog is a dog.
On the left, gold and black for my top and scarf. On the right, blue velvet and white cotton for the weenie dog's costume. Andrew never decided on a costume, so he will prob be a pikgrim for the third time.

Halloween Progress and a Haircut!

Before the haircut shot (long and raggedy)

Back, after:
Front, after:
I only cut my hair 2 times a year, so this was fun. I just wanted shoulder-length layers, and the hairstylist did a great job! I am very pleased with the results, and hopefully the will withstand my "blow-dry head upside down" method of fixing my hair each morning.

And here is my progress on my costume:
It's starting to come together, right?

I went to Jo-Ann and used my 50% off coupon to buy the velvet for T-Rex's Napoleon Bonaparte costume. With that and my teacher discount card, it was seven bucks. Sweet!

Then I went to compare the selection at Hancock and the store was a mess and they were out of everything. So tomorrow, I will go back to Jo-Ann to use my other coupon and pick up the rest of what I need. Everywhere is out of gold ribbon and because I am an idiot, I only bought one spool, which is five yards! So I ended up going to Michael's and buying 5 99-cent spools of 1/4 inch ribbon. I guess I'll just double it up so it looks right.

On Friday the school is having a Halloween dance, and I think I'll wear my old Marie Antoinette dress. I can't really be telling the students I am a girl from a beer ad, right? :)

Halloweenification!

If you recall, I am going to be the High Life girl in the moon for Halloween. I ripped the end off of a box of beer bottles, for inspiration.

I ordered the straw hat online on Sunday, so that should be on its way. I also bought 5 yards of red cotton, just to be safe. So far, I have made the circle skirt and part of the jacket. Granted, it looks like a whole bunch of nothing, but I have made the fronts and back, with all of the princess seams. I mastered those making my navy blue dress, so I blasted through that last night.

The skirt is super simple, and I made it on Sunday, zipper included.

So I need to:

1. Finish the jacket

2. Make the black and gold top

3. Make the sash with hearts.

4. Sew on all the ribbon.

5. Make hat red.

And ta-da! Done!

Then, I am making T-Rex a tiny Napoleon army uniform too. It'll be AMAZING!