Halloween 2018

I've really slowed down in my blog writing but I'm okay with that.  I will still pop in and write a post when I have time/feel motivated to but it won't be 3-4 posts a month like it used to be.  I definitely had to write a post about this year's handmade costumes.

I can't believe that I've already made 4 Halloween costumes for this girl!  You can read about all the past costumes on the blog: no sew owl, no sew kitty, and Minnie Mouse.  This year my girl wanted to be Vampirina since it is one of her favorite shows on Disney Junior.  Thankfully one of my favorite pattern companies Violette Field Threads came out with the perfect little jumper with their back to school collection called the Maddie Jumper.

I used solid black cotton fabric from Joann.  The only pattern alterations I made was making a pattern for the scalloped bottom.  I made a facing piece with the scallops too and sewed it to the bottom trimmed the seam allowance and clipped all the points and then turned and top stitched.  I made the spider webs by drawing them on the jumper with a marking pencil and then top stitched the lines with purple thread.  I used black Kam snaps for the closures on the straps.  For the top I used another Violette Field Threads pattern, the Talulah (I used the top version with long sleeves).  I used some solid cotton lycra fabric for the top and dress from Girl Charlee in Persian Pink.  The leggings are the free Bonny Leggings pattern from Made for Mermaids.  I made the bat wings from glitter foam that I had in my craft room.  I originally put them on clips but changed it to a headband because I couldn't get them to stay in her hair right.  The boots are from Old Navy.

She loved her costume so much and every time she put it on she would run to the mirror and say "I'm Vampirina!"  It was so cute!

This is Ana's 2nd Halloween but her first year dressing up.  She was only a month old last Halloween so I didn't bother making her a costume.  I had also been in the hospital to have emergency gall bladder surgery a few days before Halloween so I just didn't get around to making her one and she didn't fit in Lyla's owl costume.  This year I decided to make dress her up as Alice in Wonderland.  The patterns that I used for this one were all by Violette Field Threads: Rosemary Pinafore, Matilda Dress, and Alexandra Bow.  You can also buy the Rosemary and Matilda as a bundle.  This costume used all solid cotton fabric from Joann.

She just looked so darling!  She grabbed that shoe right before I started taking pictures.  She just loves to walk around with something in her hands.  I love that picture where I caught her mid fall because it reminds me of Alice falling into Wonderland.

It was a fun Halloween and making their costumes was so fun too!

Minnie Mouse Costume

 

Good morning and happy day after Halloween!  This was Lyla's 3rd Halloween and her 1st time trick or treating in the neighborhood.  It was pretty cold so we only went to a few houses but it was fun anyway.  I have made all three of Lyla's costumes and plan to continue making costumes for both my girls because it is so much fun.

When Lyla was 3 months old she was an owl.  You can read about how I made this costume here.  This costume was a no sew costume.

Last year Lyla was a cat.  You can read about that costume here.  This was also a no sew costume and was extremely simple to make.

This year Lyla was Minnie Mouse.  This was my first time sewing a costume for Lyla and I am so pleased with how it turned out!  When I decided that she was going to be Minnie for Halloween I spent some time searching for the perfect dress pattern.  I knew that it had to have a peter pan collar, puff sleeves (this reminds me of Anne of Green Gables and how she begged Marilla to make her a dress with puff sleeves), and a sash.  After searching I found The English Rose Dress pattern from the Etsy shop Mandy K Design.  It was perfect!

I like the look of the traditional Minnie with the red and white polka dot dress as opposed to the new pink and white version.  I found the red and white polka dot fabric at Joann Fabrics and also purchased some plain white cotton fabric for the accents.  The only other fabric I needed was some white muslin for the bodice lining which I already had on hand.  The pattern had several options for collars, sashes, and ruffles.  I chose the peter pan collar, the simple sash, and the fabric ruffle.  As you can see I chose to make the collar, sash, sleeve trim, and fabric ruffle with the white accent fabric.  I made the 3T size to make sure the dress would be roomy enough.  This pattern used layers in Adobe which is nice because I only had to print out the pattern pieces for the size I wanted to make.

This was a great pattern!  The instructions were easy to follow although I would definitely say this is an intermediate sewing pattern.  You will get really good at your gathering skills by the time you are done with this dress because there is a ton of gathering.  I only had to use the seam ripper once so I must be getting better at sewing!

For the ears I just purchased some from Target for $3.99.  They were in the party supplies section.  They had both Mickey and Minnie ones.  I bought the Mickey ones because I wanted to make a bow out of leftover fabric from the dress.  You can find a ton of bow tutorials online.  The are quite easy to make.  Then I just hot glued the bow onto the ears.

She didn't always want to wear the ears.  That is the explanation for her reaction in the top photo above ha ha!  I ended up putting her hair in two buns to help hold the headband for the ears on but they also doubled as ears themselves when she wouldn't wear the headband.  The only other things that I needed for the costume were a pair of black tights and a long sleeve black shirt.

On Halloween it was quite cold so I found this adorable hat and mitten set on Amazon.  I just love those pom pom balls for the ears.  The bonus is that my Minnie loving girl can use them all winter!

I didn't make a costume for Ana and she was a little too small yet to fit Lyla's owl costume so she just wore a cute Halloween outfit.  

I hope you enjoyed this post on Lyla's adorable costume.  Next up on the blog I will be posting on Ana's monthly photos.  She is already a month old!  It is so crazy!  I have also begun work on the fireplace in the living room and I can't wait to share that makeover with you too.

Simple Black Cat Costume

Well the plan was to get this post in before the end of October but I missed it by a day.  Oh well! I hope you all had a Happy Halloween!  Today I am here to share the simple Halloween costume that I made for my daughter.  Last year for her first Halloween Lyla was an owl.  You can check out how I made that costume in this post.

Owl Baby Costume

She's just changed a little bit! ;)  This year I decided to dress her as a black cat.  She loves kitties and one of her first "words" was kitty.  I say words in quotations because it was mostly just a "k" sound followed by hissing sound.  Now she can say it so that it sounds more like the actual word. I knew that this would be the perfect costume for her. This costume was so easy to put together and it was cheap!

I have the "paws" from her costume in the picture above but I never put them on her because both times that she wore her costume it was unseasonably warm.  I will start with how I made the tail.  The tail was made with a feather boa that I purchased at Joann Fabrics.  I attached it to a Kam pacifier clip which you can purchase here.  I tied it on and then put a dab of hot glue to secure it. I had to cut it of course so that it wouldn't be too long and trip her.  She was just starting to walk when I started making the costume but I knew that by Halloween she would be walking well so it wouldn't get in her way. Here a really blurry picture of the clip attached to the boa, sorry!

The paws were just a simple pair of mittens with extra pieces of boa glued around the wrist part.

I cut the ears out of black felt.  I didn't use a pattern at all, I just eyeballed it.  I used some gold glitter heat transfer material for the middle part of the ears and attached it to the felt using the package directions.

I attached the ears to metal hair clips with hot glue.  I then tied some ribbon that I had on hand into bows and glued them to the ears.

When I dressed her in her costume, I put her hair in pigtails on the top of her head and just clipped the ears to the pigtails.  Super simple and cute.

Her tail was clipped onto to her black leggings.  The rest of her costume consisted of black leggings and a black shirt from Old Navy, this cute skirt from Macy's, and a pair of hand-me-down boots.  The above pictures are from Boo at the Zoo.  The picture at the top of the post is from Halloween and she is wearing a this cute Cat & Jack sweatshirt from Target.  This costume even survived the day at daycare yesterday!  Everybody commented on how cute she looked and I loved that it took me about 15 minutes to put together.