Halloween Costumes 2014: Little Red Riding Hood & the Big, Bad Wolf

Little Red Riding Hood & the Big Bad Wolf

Little Red Riding Hood was sick with a confirmed case of the flu the week of Halloween, so sewing the costume was more last minute than planned due to extra snuggles and not being sure if she'd even need it.  But things were looking up on Halloween and she went to school.  Friends and a cousin even joined her for trick or treating that evening.

McCall's 6187

Adjustments to the bodice: made the bodice 5/6 width but 7/8 length.  Added at least 3 inches to the height of the bodice front for modesty/coverage (who wrote this pattern for little girls and what were they thinking on the lowness of the neckline?!?) and added an inch or so to the back bodice neckline.  Skirt adjustments:  I added fullness and length to both the skirt and the apron.

Sleeve adjustments: I lengthened the sleeves to be around just above her elbows.

The hood is lined.

Main fabrics are Riley Blake:

Black on Black Basics

Country Girls by Tasha Noel C3645 & C3642

The lace, ribbon, rick rac, white fabric and red fabric for the lining are from Jo Ann's 

The Big, Bad Wolf.

Brown hoodie ordered online, felt pieces glued on.  Easy.

Idea from Between U&Me

Instructions from Martha Stewart

Dorothy & Tin Man

This year K* is Dorothy and S* is the Tin Man.

 

Dorothy

 

 

Pattern: McCall's 6313

(size 7, I lined the skirt and the buttons are just for looks)

Fabric from JoAnn's

Ruby slippers ($11) & Toto in basket ($7) from Gymboree

Socks from Target

It was easier to just wear a white t-shirt than make one.

 

For Halloween, we'll do low pony tails with bows.  It's been raining all day, so K* and I ran outside on the porch really quick to try and get a shot or two this afternoon.

Hopefully I'll get a picture of them together tomorrow.

 

Tin Man

 

The Tin Man has been very busy in the evenings this week and was available for a few quick poses right before bed tonight, which was later than it should have been (again).

 

Spray painted a funnel from Walmart ($1) silver.

Long sleeve tee from Walmart too.

Gray flannel and red felt from JoAnn's.

He'll probably just wear jeans with it for Halloween.

Fall Clothing Repeat

Luckily, the Fall outfits I made for K* last year still fit {and may next year too} so we got another year's wear out of them, yay!  I'm guessing the Christmas/Winter skirts do too, I know I want to adjust the Christmas one though, will have to pull those out soon.

 

 

 

 

There are so many projects I'd like to do and there's just not time, sometimes it's hard to decide what I really should/want to work on.  I think one of the problems is that I like to work on crafts "in season".  So I come across all sorts of fun, cute ideas for a certain season or holiday, but don't end up with enough time to make what I want before it's time to move on to the next season.  If I could just get on the ball just a little bit ahead of  time.... Oh well, there's always next year, right ;)

Rapunzel's Hair

 

Storybook day at school this year.

It was even cool enough to need long sleeves, which K* was not happy about until I pointed out that in the movie Tangled she actually has thin long sleeves.  Then it was all good.

We are going with the same costumes as last year at this point.  I wanted to make Strawberry Shortcake several weeks ago, but K* wanted to wear Rapunzel, so I said okay.  Glad she likes it so much though.  Then on Thursday, she asked me about Strawberry Shortcake and then there is a discussion about her telling me she wanted to wear Rapunzel so I didn't make Strawberry Shortcake that ended with me buying some fabric online that I hope comes in time for me to meet the Halloween deadline, thought it's not looking likely.  Had I not already wanted to make Strawberry Shortcake, or if she had asked to be something else, I probably would have told her she was out of luck.  But then again, she's my real life doll, my only girl and how many more Halloween costumes will I really get to sew for my kids. 

 

Anyway, last year I never posted the back of Rapunzel's hair where the long braid meets the headband part and a comment was left asking about it, so here it is.  If you want to read last year's post, Rapunzel {and her hair} there's more details there about it all.  Please feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to remember what I did last year.

 

Halloween Decor 2012

 

 

This is the extent of our Halloween decor this year.  These two things.

And the occasional plastic spider ring.

 

 There is a bin fairly accessible in the storage unit marked Fall/Halloween, but I've decided for now to leave it alone.  Maybe it's 'cause I'd have to pack it up to the third floor and back down and then over to the storage unit again.  Or maybe because it's nice to be simple once in awhile.   I know I'll be getting into the Christmas bin though.   It will be interesting to dejunk after not using so many of our things for so many months when we unpack in the Spring. I am missing some of my recipes & recipe books that were packed up.  You have to understand that when we first started packing up our house we hadn't decided to build a house for sure and thought we might be into a house in just two or three months.  So I am very grateful for all the things I do have access to.  Having access to my sewing stuff is a big one.  And friends who let me borrow mod podge so I don't have to buy another jar of it.

 

Right now I am weeding vinyl to make about 15 of the framed happy haunting craft for a craft group tonight.  We are also going to sew hooded towels.  It's fun to be creative with friends.

Halloween Countdowns

My mom made these cute Halloween countdowns to hang on the fridge for S* & K* this year.  They are excitedly awaiting until October 19th when they can start eating one Hershey kiss each day.

 

 

And a look at the Halloween quilt I am making with Riley Blake'sTrick or Treat fabric line from last year.  I hope to finish it for this year.  I have a cute panel and some decent scraps leftover from cutting out the quilt, but I will probably get to those next year.  Now to decided about borders.....

Halloween Tees by My SIL

My SIL made these cute tee shirts for my kids.  The white thread glows in the dark.  How Fun!

 

Halloween by My Mom

My mom sent me some pics of Halloween projects she's been working on, so I thought I'd share.

 

Batty Wreaths & Thistle Spiders

I'm so glad I made the time to make my batty wreath, I LOVE it!  I came across the idea on Carina Gardner's site.

I cut bats out of various Halloween papers with my silhouette, glued them onto a vine wreath from Hobby Lobby with hot glue (my hot glue gun is getting a lot of use lately), attached a ribbon and bow and hung it up on my front door.  I already had the supplies and bats cut out, so when I finally sat down to make it, it was 45 minutes tops.

I also made a mini one for my pantry door with smaller black bats and orange ribbon.  I like it, but I like the big one better.   Maybe it needs more color?  I think I'll leave it alone for now, but I can always go at it again next Halloween.

Today after school, we made thistle spiders, 15 of them.  My sister in Utah, mailed me some thistles last week and I was so excited to get these made.  We made them as kids with my mom, so it was  fun to make them with/for my own kids.  I had forgotten about thistle spiders until coming across them in blogland last year, so this year we were ready with the supplies needed.

I pretty much made them how she does in this tutorial on Every Creative Endeavor.  I tried to coat mine really well with the black spray paint, I wanted them nice and black. The kids each picked one out to have in their rooms, one even "watched" S* do his homework, several are going with DH to work tomorrow, the kids want to give them to their teachers and I guess we'll scatter the rest around the house.  We may need to make more next year.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Rapunzel {and her hair}

This costume was fun to make.  It mostly turned out how I envisioned, which isn't something that always happens.  At first I was worried.  They no longer had the fabric I originally wanted at Jo Ann's so I had to pick something else, which I like better anyway.  Then I wasn't sure the sleeves I added to the pattern (the original pattern doesn't have sleeves) were going to look right, but they seem to have turned out fine.  I have never added sleeves to something that didn't already have them before.  I used a pattern I bought a few years ago, and it was perfect for this year.  McCall's 5153.  I think it's out of print now.  I have noticed a crisscross ribbon trend in my costume making.  I have unintentionally used patterns with crisscross ribbons for three costumes (rapunzel, bo peep, and a princess). The dark purple fabric is luna blooms by Sue Zipkin for Clothworks. 

After posing for a picture, she twirled.....

 

and twirled some more.....

 

then she rested.....

 

before twirling some more.....

 

and some more.

 

I'm so glad that she loves to wear it and twirl around.  Makes having spent the time to sew it even better.

The hair of all things actually gave me more trouble than expected. I started off following the instructions from the Simplicity Disney Tangled pattern, but the measurements were off and I had to mess around with it a bit.  I ended up cutting the yarn for the head band part 34 inches long (the pattern said to cut the yarn 18 inches long, no way that was going to fit her head after it was braided, maybe not even a baby's).  I had a second attempt after the 18 inch failure, which after braiding it, it ended up being an inch or two too short to go around her head.  Rats!  Third time (yarn cut at 34 inches) worked out just about right.  In the pictures above, the second attempt for the headband was loosely attached as the longer braided part to see how it would look.  K* asked if I could make it longer though.  At first I didn't want to waste more yarn to make a longer braid, but on Friday before she came home from school, I decided to make a longer one.  And since she wasn't there to measure, it ended up plenty long, almost touching the ground.  I cut the yarn strands 48 inches long.  After braiding and attaching it, I hot glued flowers onto it and it was ready for the trunk or treat that night.  Maybe next time she wears it, I can snap some better pictures to show the back where it's attached together.  Nothing like a carnival a week and a half  before Halloween to help keep me on top of getting the costume made so I'm not finishing it up last minute on Halloween.  Yay!! I put a picture from that night at the end of this post that shows the finished hair.

I used Carron simply soft yarn in Autumn Maize (hobby lobby).  I'm into my third 6 oz. skein because of mess ups, but you'd probably only need one skein, two tops to be "safe".  I also used light pink offray ribbon and purple & pink rose like fake flowers from Hobby Lobby.  Each section of the braid has 60+ strands.  You could do each 60+ strand section separately and then tie them together to braid (what I did for the head band part) or just divide 180+ strands into three sections to braid (what I did for the long braided part that hangs down).   I nailed two nails onto a long board and looped the yarn around them to make things faster and easier.  I then tied the top off with a piece of yarn and cut the bottom loops before braiding.  I left the tops uncut & looped. I slipped the headband part through the loop of the long braided part to help things seem more secure and to hide where the two ends meet on the headband part.  I don't know if any of this makes sense, but I hope it might help someone out rather than going through some of the trial and errors I encountered when making one.

Halloween skirts & tees

I made these two Halloween outfits  (candy corn & spider) for my daughter and a skirt for my niece in Utah for some Halloween fun in their wardrobe selection.  Earlier this year, I came across Riley Blake's fun & really cute trick or treat fabric line and knew I wanted to make some things out of it.  I also have some of the fabric for a Halloween quilt, but I might not get to that this year.  It's a cute line for kids, but in the future I can see myself using a nice, "softer" orange, cream and black to sew with/decorate some things (I want to make fabric roses in those colors, but probably won't get to those this year either).  I enjoyed sewing these, and it was fun sewing with colors I wouldn't normally make something out of for K*.  I made the outfits big so hopefully they'll fit for a Halloween or two (or three).  Although it wouldn't be the worst thing though if I had to buy cute Halloween fabric again soon. 

I used the Pinkfig girly skirt pattern for the two green  black skirts and studied a few patterns (mainly Pinkfig's nie nie pattern and a free tutorial from Izzy & Ivy) to make the orange & yellow candy corn skirt since I don't have a pattern for a two ruffle layered skirt.  I'm happy with how the t-shirt appliques turned out, I was having a bit of trouble with the candy corns at one point and had to cut new ones out, but in the end it seems to have worked out.  My original plan was to use a bat, but I'm glad I went with the spider dangling down with a bow, so fun.  Another fun thing I've never done before: tags.  Last time I made some skirts, K* told me she couldn't tell which way was the back and that I should put a tag.  I think they look cute out of Halloween print ribbon.

DETAILS Yellow fabric: what a hoot by exclusively quilters; Orange fabric: scrappy and happy baby #3530 by Jane Selck; Black & green Halloween prints, green dots and tag ribbon: trick or treat by Riley Blake; Black fabric: from my stash; Spider and candy corn shapes: silhouette shapes; Tees: target and the children's place

And a wooden witch hat:

This wooden witch hat is from the wood connection in Utah.  They don't ship, but fortunatley I have family who is willing to send things to me. 

I used black paint, some Halloween paper I already had in my stash, purple paint for the moon, green tulle for the "bow", black glitter over the black paint on the bottom of the hat, a plastic ring spider {since I misplaced the one that came with it} and three gems from some Halloween stamp packages my mom sent me.  I spent the good part of one morning start to finish.  I also kept bugging my sister over the phone about how did she make hers.

Rapunzel is finished too!  Thanks to the school trunk or treat on Friday, I'm ahead of schedule for Halloween as far as having costumes done.  Yay! Pictures soon.  And {hopefully} my tips for braided yarn Rapunzel hair after some trial and error.

happy HAUNTING

Idea from here and here.
Made three of these recently.  Vinyl shapes by Deena Rutter are from here.  Cut the vinyl out with my silhouette.  For this one, I used paper from Circa 1934 by Cosmo Cricket.  I used various Halloween papers I had for the other two.  The vinyl is on the front of the glass and the paper is modpodged onto the back of the glass.  The frame is from Walmart ($3).  After riping the back off, I hot glued the glass in place (hope it holds).  Another easy crafty project once you have all the supplies.  Seriously, picking out paper (and fabric) can take me longer than making the actual thing sometimes.

On top of all my other projects I have piled up/stashed away, I have a Rapunzel Tangled costume to sew, a Halloween skirt or two to sew, a wooden witch hat from the wood connection in Utah to finish and this batty wreath found here on Carina Gardner's website.  I think I have most of the supplies I need, I just need to get going.  I did have my wisdom teeth out on Friday, so I'm not back to my usual self yet, dry socket on the right side is no fun.