Frozen Halloween

I haven't been doing much sewing lately, but I did manage to make two little Halloween costumes this year. Charlotte decided, after going back and forth a lot, to dress up as Princess Anna from Frozen. I knew there were patterns out there to make an Anna dress and I decided I was up for the challenge, though there were a few moments where I wanted to toss the whole thing into the garbage can and drive directly to the Disney store to be done with it.

But I persisted, and I'm glad. This is one of those projects that stands out as one that I'm most proud of. And it didn't hurt that the dress fit her perfectly and she LOVED it.

I made a few minor tweaks to the dress but stuck pretty closely to the pattern. For the cape, I used comfy fleece so it would be warm and sewed rick-rack around the edges. I skipped the collar and clasp and just added a ribbon to tie it closed.

Are you ready for Princess Anna, in all of her adorable-ness?

But I didn't stop there. Princess Anna would be lost without her loyal sidekick Olaf, so behold Baby Olaf:

That is one cute snowman :)

Happy (belated) Halloween!

~Stacy

Fairy Godmother Costume

So Halloween is next Friday and I'm not sure how that happened. Thankfully I got my act together enough to make sure Charlotte has a costume.

This year was interesting, since she (mostly) gets the idea of Halloween and what it's all about--which meant she had opinions about her costume. Many opinions, that changed frequently. She had announced her decision to dress up as Dory the fish, Jessi the cowgirl, Cinderella, a bride, a dragon, a mermaid and, oddly, a donkey. The one that ended up sticking was a fairy godmother, so I ran with it (because any more time to think and she would've insisted on dressing up as Elsa or Anna, and I can only imagine how many little Elsa's and Anna's will be trick-or-treating this year). She was firm in her color choice for her costume: purple.

Next was pattern hunting. I didn't find any tutorials online that I liked so I looked at regular patterns and found this one:

I wanted a full length skirt and some type of jacket piece that she could wear over a long sleeved shirt. I went with this view:

My mom make the skirt, which was good for me and traumatizing for her. I wasn't about sew four layers of slippery tulle on top of a layer of slippery satin with a ton of gathering involved. No thanks. She would've been a fairy godmother in leggings if that had been up to me :)

I was in charge of the jacket/vest portion. I made it out of a sparkly satin type fabric and lined it with fleece for warmth. My hope is that she can wear layers of long sleeved shirts if it's cold out and use the vest as a jacket...fingers crossed it isn't too cold on the 31st.

The last step came this morning, when I made the hat. I used a large piece of purple foam and cut a half circle about 10" tall, formed into a cone shape, and stapled shut. Before stapling I took four strips of tulle and knotted the end a few times and inserted that into the hat. Lastly, I used a hole punch on both sides and tied ribbons so I can tie it under her chin to stay put.

I'm pretty excited about this costume :) I like that it's homemade and was (mostly) fun to make. Another bonus is the cost. If I add in my and my mom's time, the cost comes out quite high. However, since sewing is a fun hobby I am NOT counting our time. The overall materials cost was just under $20, which is fantastic considering the crazy prices stores charge for ready made costumes. I used a few 40% coupons at Joann's, which helped keep prices down as well. And she loves to play dress up, so I know the costume will get used beyond just Halloween.

I actually haven't tried this on her yet--I know if I do she won't want to take it off. So pictures to follow next week of her as Fairy Godmother Charlotte.

Happy Halloween!

~Stacy

Little Red Riding Hood Costume

My girl is still young enough that she doesn't have much of an opinion about what she wants to be for Halloween. This is not because she isn't opinionated (she is) but because she's not quite familiar with this whole Halloween concept. Last year she was too little to have any idea what we were doing but this year she's very excited about the idea. It's blowing her mind that we get to walk around to our neighbor's houses, ring their doorbells, and get candy :)

Since this is most definitely the last year of her life where I'll get to pick her costume without any input from her, I decided to make her a Little Red Riding Hood costume. I had a pattern from the Oliver + S book for a cape that I wanted to make, so I found a costume that would work with it. Also, I went as Little Red when I was about 4 or 5 so there's a bit of nostalgia wrapped up in it.

For the dress, I just made an Ice Cream Social Dress out of red gingham. I went this route instead of using a detailed pattern specifically for Little Red Riding Hood since I wanted her to be able to wear the dress again in the summer on its own.

The cape is made out of a solid deep red for the exterior and a white/gray print by Swirly Girls for the lining.

Little Red loves her costume. She went into the woods to show it off:

Happy Halloween!