October! I can’t believe it. One minute I’m going on and on about summer on the cusp of ending and now it’s full-blown autumn. The first day of October always compels me to start thinking about Halloween, and this year K has requested an owl costume. What you see here is the second ever Halloween costume I made in 2008 (I talked about the first here), and this one was sewn with a proper sewing machine using jersey knit and mesh. It was a right mess.
Batgirl, just in case it’s not obvious. I embellished the front of the dress and wings with flower sequins, and the bat ears were painstakingly stitched by hand onto an existing headband. Look at those chubby cheeks!
The dress, I’m ashamed to admit, fell apart quickly. Despite my amateur attempt, K loved this costume so much and she wore that knit dress frequently after Halloween was over, gaping seams and all. I made everything up as I went along – back then I was so much more fearless about sewing than I am now, I think. I’ve become more cognizant and critical of the the “right” way to do things, but back then I just flung myself into projects without much forethought. I want to bring back that adventurous spirit a bit more.
Anyway, I’m off to hunt down owl costume inspiration. In the meantime, here are a few Halloween-y fabric I’d like to give away. I assumed it was American, this whole notion of All Hallows’ Eve, but I assumed wrong and I guess it is arguably Celtic in origin. At any rate, I hear the dressing up and trick- or-treating bonanza is gaining popularity in other parts of the world?
The fabrics are, from left to right, multi-colored spiderwebs on mesh, mottled red cotton, black-on-black taffeta-esque polyester with velvet-ish spiderwebs. About a yard each and perfect for costumes, Halloween or ghoul-ish crafts.
The giveaway is open to one and all, and to enter, I’ll keep it simple this time. Any comment will do, but if you’d like some ideas, how about the best or funniest costume you’ve ever seen? At one of the fabric stores I frequent, there’s an employee who loves to sew Halloween costumes. One year, she made a circus strongman costume for herself, complete with tattoos and bulging muscles. It was awesome. I also always get a kick out of seeing a mini Batman with his Daddy as Robin. Every year, there’s always at least one pair. The giveaway is open until this Thursday, October 3rd, and I will announce the winner the next day. I’m thinking your chances are really excellent for this one. Good luck!
what a cutie! My big girl has requested to be a witch this year, which will be her first ‘scary’ Halloween costume… those spider webs could be perfect! As for funny Halloween costumes, I was pee wee herman as a child one year, and a pilgrim the other year. Both were odd choices and but got me a lot of compliments!
Oh I’m not sure what the best/funniest costume I’ve ever seen was..I love seeing how creative everyone can be…I always make sure to tune in (or DVR) the Today show on Halloween b/c there are always so many amazing and creative and fun costumes there. Thanks for the opportunity.
Fun! My oldest once dressed up as a Queen Monarch Butterfly Wearing a Lizard Mask (you could hear those capitals when she announced to people what she was). Last year, she contemplated being a vampire-cat-baby but then settled on just a simple vampire. This year the funny costume in the house will be my husband, who’s making himself a fox costume, a la “what does the fox say.” Halloween is so much fun!
Way back in the early to mid 80’s (cant remember the year) my mom mDe me aa Miss Piggy costume. The mask she made out of some type of stiff fabric, she used an old dress of hers and sized it down to my child sized body, and she did an awesome job. She still has it somewhere in her basement.
Here’s the owl costume I made a couple years ago. You could definitely make some improvements. The arms could use some adjustment and I’d make it with fleece instead of felt if I made it again. In any case, we got a lot of compliments trick or treating in Ballard. http://www.flickr.com/photos/56011586@N04/6292305151/
That same year (two years ag0) we saw an awesome handmade peacock costume.
I’m going to keep it personal. My favorite costume was my daughter’s scarecrow costume she wore as a 1.5 year old. It was perfect for that tottering, falling down stage, and I was able to reuse a witch hat that I knit for her the year before.
I was trying to think if I’d use the fabrics, but my son has an obsession with spiders… so I’m pretty sure I could find a way to put them to good use! Have you seen the big spider web (of ropes) at the Seattle Zoo, we have a picture of him climbing on it, like he’s the spider. That might have been more fun for him than the animals! I don’t know what we’re going to dress as this year. Last year our family dressed as people from the Little House on the Prairie books. It was pretty fun to dress as “Ma”.
I have such fond memories of trick or treating in suburban California with my brothers and sisters and a huge crew of neighborhood kids. One year my brother V elaborated a mummy costume using gauze bandaging- of course the whole thing unraveled as we tripped through the night, but we still all came home with pillowcases loaded (yes- those were the days!) Now I live in Spain and Halloween definitely is catching on, but so far it’s pretty low key. I’ve been dreaming of making some capes for my 3 year old son and his classmates to use in their dress up box- this fabric would be so great.
I love the bat girl costume. What a great idea! I somehow once ended up at a Halloween cotume Karaoke and say a couple that was Lobster and Butter and the Lobster could put his claws in the butter. It was a great costume.
Adorable little chubby cheek K! When I was pregnant with my son, I dressed up like a cat holding a fish bowl. I made the “costume” myself which was super easy because I just cut a hole in a black turtleneck for my belly to fit through and decorated a blue shirt underneath to look like a fish bowl. I then pinned a tail to the back of my black pants, put on a cat ear headband and walked around holding my belly all night!
My son’s friend (he’s 4) has decided to be an undercover policeman. I can’t wait to see how he dresses up for that one!
My husband is insistent that we need to let me son go trick or treating in tightie whities and goofy glasses, carrying a bag of blue rock candy so that he can be Walter White from Breaking Bad. Um, hilarious, but not appropriate for a three-year-old. : )
By the way I just saw this Owl costume pattern in my Burda Style e-mail that’s adorable (here’s the link): http://www.burdastyle.com/pattern_store/patterns/owl-costume-012013?utm_source=burdastyle&utm_medium=nl&utm_campaign=bsawnl100113A-owltxt&et_mid=639556&rid=241032304
oh! K is the cutest toddler ever! What a honey:)
Last year I made my daughter a snow fairy costume. It had a white brocade skirt, sheer golden cape, top out of cruched velvet pannee (is that how it is spelled?) and was trimmed with skinny feather boas and gold braids. The best thing was that it was lined with ribknit and was actually made using a t-shirt pattern. But most memorable was her first Halloween costume at age 3 that I whipped out at a moments notice. It was a bear costume, an ottobre pullover hoodie with little bear ears and tail sewn on and pull-on pants. It took me maybe a bit over half an hour since I didn’t have to finish seam allowances – it was made from brown fleece. But she wore it for months and months. I still have it. And just for eye candy, one year, I think she was 5, she wanted to be a Hawaiian volcano: http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazyestonian/5136223829/
Although you say that Halloween has Celtic roots the whole trick or treating aspect is definitely American but does seem to gripping the rest of the world. Here in the UK though it isn’t very welcomed and it does actually scare some of the older people (mainly due to some teenagers taking the Trick side of things a little too seriously).
After saying all this though my littles will still be going trick or treating this year although I’m ashamed to say that it may well be in shop bought consumes (unless I win some fabulous fabrics – I’d have to make them costumes then 🙂
My daughter has decided this year that because our last names Ward tha she wants a prison orange jumpsuit with ‘crazy ward’ written on the back!
My girl likes to be original. One year she wore an Alice in Wonderland costume I had made along with bat wings and a bat mask — her own creations out of tights, coat hangers and lots of sparkles. No one knew what to make of her!
and last year she was hedwig — Maybe my post can help you?
http://mel-mel-o.blogspot.ca/2012/10/hedwig-costume.html