Halloween is usually the time when mom's who sew can rock their kids worlds.
As the mom who sews, it's fun to make something you couldn't find in stores, like a minion, Gus Gus the Mouse, Ewok, Max from Where the Wild Things Are, Willow, Ellora Dannon, Link, fox, etc.
So this year it's kind of lame at our house.
RJ is Spiderman from Costco, and Ellie wanted to be...gasp...a princess.
So lame Ellie!
But she's 2 1/2 and despite my feeling like that costume choice is boring and lame, she kept talking about it.
What's worse, she wanted a pink princess dress.
I hate pink usually...so I kind of tricked her and went with peach and told her it was pink.
So here it is.
I decided if I was making a princess dress, at least I could design something interesting and fun to sew.
I bought a piping presser foot this past spring after seeing the perfect Peter Pan collar Danielle made and was excited to pipe the crap out of my peach princess dress.
Through our church we have an easy way to help families in need for Christmas.
They have a little tree with ornaments and each has a gift and an age so you can anonymously donate a Christmas gift to someone in our town.
I got a gift ornament for "Dress Up Kit" 7 year old.
So I put a few things together, and hope whichever 7 year old girl received it liked it in the end.
I could have done more, but ran out of time.
I kind of went with a red set and pink set in the kit.
Joann's had sparkle organza on sale so I got a yard of each and made simple elastic waist skirts with satin lining underneath.
They're meant to be longer princess skirts, and I figure you can always roll the waistband if they're too long.
I also made simple sequin headbands to match from 12 inches of stretch sequins you buy in the ribbon/ trim area. I sewed the ends together with 2-3" of colored elastic.
Then the other project in the kit I made were the glitter heels.
I found a small sized pair of short heels at the thrift store and decided to bling them up.
I thought actual heels would be better than the plastic wedge flip flops that usually come in dress ups, and they're small enough they'll hopefully stay on, but will be bigger than most 7 year olds actual foot size I imagine.
So after cleaning the shoes, I applied a pretty thick layer of mod podge to the outside and dumped glitter all over. It was a mess, but I did it in a plastic bucket which helped contain the glitter.
After the glitter dried for a few hours, I went back and coated the shoes with another thick layer of mod podge to glue the glitter on so it hopefully won't flake off everywhere when worn.
The right (white) shoe above just got the second coat of mod podge, which did dry clear in the end and make a nice layer to lock the glitter in.
So pretty easy if you need to make your own glitter crusted shoes any time soon!
I'd like to see how it worked on a canvas pair of converse or something.
Part two of our Halloween Costumes even though Halloween is now over.
So for the kids we had Gru and a minion from the movie Despicable Me.
So for RJ we had him be Gru, and it's not that much of a costume.
Just black pants and t-shirt we already had with is church shoes.
But we did make the scarf by dying a navy/white stripe knit I had black.
He did have his ghost costume he wore to some things as well that is a little more exciting on its own.
RJ is a very protective older brother which transfers to a controlling master over his minion, which she resents from time to time.
On to the minion.

RJ decided she should be a one-eye minion, and I designed the costume so the mouth was her face.
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I hacked this minion costume together last Friday during her nap barely in time for a party that afternoon. We got to the house and RJ had to help me force Ellie into the costume, all the while she was crying. I was laughing, and considering what a ridiculous mom I am shoving a toddler in a costume while she wails, and here's the picture we got.
But once we got in there she got lots of attention and candy and seemed not to mind the costume.
One little boy came up to her and said: "oh how cute, a Cheeto man!"
The other occasions she had to put on the costume, she didn't cry but I think realized it meant candy was soon to come.
As for the costume construction, it's basically a yellow hooded t-shirt sewn under a yellow rounded cone with arm holes, stuffing between the two layers.
Then I made the pants and top stitched them to the head.To get in and out, there's a zipper from the top of her head down to her bum. I only had a long pink zipper on hand and just used it exposed.
The eye goggles on the front were from felt and a mason jar ring I painted silver.
The goggles strap is black elastic I sewed the to outer layer before it was stuffed.
The hair is black embroidery floss knotted through the top like you would sew when you tie a quilt.
I've been readjusting the stuffing every time she wears it, and haven't got it where it's both even and standing straight up. But it worked, kept her warm, and was a fun costume.
Happy Halloween!
Here our the Halloween costumes for our family this year:

We're all characters from the kids movie, Despicable Me.
I got the idea for these costumes a few months ago when my belly started showing with this pregnancy. RJ told me I looked like Vector (who has a middle aged man gut) and would always love for me to say "Oh yeah! Oh yeah!" and stick my belly out.
If you haven't seen the movie, here is where the Vector character is introduced...OH YEAH!

We're all characters from the kids movie, Despicable Me.
I got the idea for these costumes a few months ago when my belly started showing with this pregnancy. RJ told me I looked like Vector (who has a middle aged man gut) and would always love for me to say "Oh yeah! Oh yeah!" and stick my belly out.
If you haven't seen the movie, here is where the Vector character is introduced...OH YEAH!
So trying to think of maternity Halloween costumes led me to go with the whole Despicable Me family theme this year. Kind of selfish, but our Halloween revolved around my pregnant belly and needing to costume it somehow, luckily the rest of the fam liked their assigned roles...except for maybe Ellie.
In case you can't tell who we are:
Me= Vector: pirhana gun weilding villain
RJ= Gru: villain determined to steal the moon
Ellie= minion: mindless servant to Gru
Rhett=Dr. Nefario: old man scientist who works for Gru in the laboratory
I'm planning to post the other costumes separately this week, so here's a little about mine.
It is a total hacked job during one afternoon nap trying to sew as fast as I could just to whip it out, so the ankles and wrists aren't even hemmed.
I used an athletic mini mesh because it was the cheapest orange fabric I could find, so I have to wear leggings and a shirt underneath, but that's OK since it was snowing a few days ago here.
The front is only a zipper half way, I faked the bottom half by just top stitching twill tape down the center.
| Vector's "V" nerd gang signs |
I used the same pattern I've been sewing for the maternity skinny jeans, which helped make it a fast project.
All the white track stripes are just knit strips I top-stitched on with the raw edges that won't fray.The collar is the fun part and I did actually not finish it all during the nap and had to go back that night and draft/ sew the collar.
Glasses were sunglasses from the dollar store and I busted the lenses out, wig $6.00 from walmart that was as sexy vampire bob I cut into my attempted bowl cut.
This is a funny clip where they discuss Vector's wardrobe and I realized I should have had a black fanny-pack to complete the costume!
It was kind of fun to dress up pregnant actually.
Someone that knows I am expecting even asked me if the belly was real or if I stuffed it.
Oh no, it's real, and I've still got 12 weeks to go.
Happy Halloween!

This summer when I started sewing again, my son RJ started asking for a ghost costume and pulled out any white fabric from my stash. The other day I finally broke down and decided to throw a ghost together.
I took a yard of cheap, white, slub knit I had from a $5.00/ 5 yard Walmart bolt and cut off a yard.
I serged the sides to curve up for a snug fit on the head and tried it on.
While he had it on I marked his eyes, then we talked about ways to make the scary eye holes.He wanted them black, but I wanted him to be able to see where he was going, so we compromised on using black lace so we both got what we thought was important.
I drew 2" circles at the eye markings, pinned a scrap of black lace on the back, and sewed around the circles. Then I just snipped away the knit white circles, being careful not to cut through the lace, revealing the black scary eyes.
The overall shape just tapers from the head to the side seams which are the full width of the fabric, and I didn't even even off the bottom.
Look out for this creepy ghost!
It was really quick, I think since I serged it and just hacked it all out beginning to end it only took 10 minutes.
Love those quick, easy projects he gets so excited about!
Do you have your Halloween costumes in the works?
It's a good time to start on Halloween costumes once you're back to school is done!
My kids have been playing in the dress ups lately and we have two little foxes.
RJ has outgrown his fox, but still squishes in it.
There's the PDF print at home pattern for this fox, wolf, or bear here.
{for us RJ was Max from Where the Wild Things Are and an ewok}
Or for a quick easy costume, you can always whip up a dino tail!
I committed to sew some empty tails as charity for a children's museum in Nebraska and I finally got them done and ready to ship off. I'm slowly getting back into sewing again.
This year I'm really excited for our Halloween costumes, we're doing a whole family theme...hopefully.
I was working on sewing a craft for girls camp when my son came in and noticed I was at my sewing machine again…it had been weeks and weeks since I’d sewn.
He’s been asking me to make him a Link hat for a while, and asked again when he saw I was sewing.
He’s been asking me to make him a Link hat for a while, and asked again when he saw I was sewing.
So I took a minute to make him the hat.
He and my husband play the Zelda video games, and RJ pretends he’s Link, the main character all the time.
So he found some green fabric that he thought would work and we hacked out the hat.
But then he felt he really needed the “shirt with the slice in the front” and so we hacked that out.
I didn’t even hem the wrists, I was in a hurry and he didn’t seem to care.
But then he felt he really needed the “shirt with the slice in the front” and so we hacked that out.
I didn’t even hem the wrists, I was in a hurry and he didn’t seem to care.
So now with his cardboard shield we made earlier in the summer and a plastic sword our neighbor gave him from the dumpster, he’s ready to be Link.
Mainly he likes to jump off things,and asks me if I saw his hat go up.
Mainly he likes to jump off things,and asks me if I saw his hat go up.
I guess his favorite part of the get up is the long hat tail and jumping so it flies up off his back like Link.
He was pretty excited and wore it constantly until he took a bath and I threw it in the wash.
It’s kind of annoying to get interrupted with a kid request project, but it’s worth it to me to see how much he gets excited watching it come to life and enjoying it, unlike other things I’ve sewn for him that he just won’t wear.
Here's the other half of our little Willow Halloween.
RJ was Willow, and Ellaria was the baby--Elora Danon.
Most of the movie the baby is wrapped up and you only see her hood and arms.
So this is just a hooded dress with little fleece pants.
Probably my favorite element is the front placket.
To get it over her head, I added the opening on the front of the dress.
Using a facing and the elastic cording, it closes by wrapping around the wood buttons.
I made these large enough she can wear them as regular clothes in the winter months ahead.
Little Ellie was ready for a nap by the end of our afternoon in the leaves.
Halloween is officially over, hope you had a good one this year!
We ended up having unusually great weather that wasn't freezing or snowing so it was a good Halloween at our house.
My husband had to work all night, and my sister watched Ellie so RJ and I went trick or treating for a mother-son date I guess.


































