FO: Halloween Costumes 2022

I just posted my kids' Christmas dresses thinking I had finished posting about last year's makes. Wrong! I skipped Halloween, lol. I went into last Halloween a few months before thinking I would sew my kids' costumes. They ask me if I will make them a _____ for Halloween all year long, and I always say yes, but they change it every few days all year long. When it gets closer to the actual month it will happen, I pay attention to what they as for, and they had both been stuck on something very specific for a few months by the time Halloween actually came around. One wanted to be Brutus from The Rescuers (a crocodile, lol), and the other wanted to be a Blue Fairy. I thought this wouldn't be a problem, but I honestly looked for 2 months for green fabric that wasn't fleece and I couldn't find anything. My sister happened to be at Target and saw an alligator costume for $25, so I decided that her being happy and me being off the hook was more important than me feeling like I made the whole thing. I bought one. 

So one girl was done, but the blue fairy proved much more complicated. They had one fairy looking dress at Target, but it was not blue, and it was also $25 so I didn't want to spend the money if it wasn't what she wanted, you know? Then no joke 2 days later I was looking around in a thrift store and found THE EXACT dress I had looked at on Target's website. It was the right size and it was only $2, so I decided the universe was throwing me a bone and I bought it. 

So this was what I started with - a green and purple dress. I had about a yard of blue poly crepe satin in my stash that someone gave me who knows when. I used tracing paper to trace out the general shape of the bodice and then cut out a piece of satin. I serged the edges (because this stuff frays like the dickens), and then I just folded the edges under as needed and hand sewed it under the trim pieces. The trim covered the stitching perfectly and it worked great. The back got a little more complex, but honestly it still finished off cleaner than the store had left theirs (all these cheap costumes are just serged on the edges and then have velcro spots sewn on for closure).

Next came the skirt. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a few yards of each color of blue tulle they had. Tulle is just so cheap that it wasn't a big deal to grab a bunch to play with. At home I played around with layering the blue tulle pieces over top of the purple that was already there. I wound up using just one color of the tulle I bought but I believe this is 3 or 4 layers of it. I sewed a gathering stitch at the waist and then just hand sewed it under the green flaps at the waist to secure it. The blue tulle wasn't quite as long as the original purple, but this was actually better because it meant my daughter wouldn't step on the blue and rip the whole thing off.

I felt bad that my crocodile didn't get anything made by me for her costume, so when she asked me for hand and feet covers, I decided to go for it. I grabbed some cheap green fabric at Hobby Lobby (this is that paper stuff they make reusable shopping bags out of) simply because it was the only fabric that was the right color. I grabbed the shoe covers from a costume they wore years before (a puppy) and just eye-balled the same shape but made them fit their current shoes. Then I took triangles of green felt and sewed on claws. I added an elastic strap across the bottom of the foot and it was good. The hands are done in a similar fashion but with 2 straps of clear elastic to hold them on. Done!

For this part being so cheap and thrown together, I was actually pretty pleased with how they turned out. My little crocodile was happy too.

Next she kept saying that she needed to be fat like Brutus in the movie, so I used the remainder of the blue poly satin and sewed a pillow to stuff in her tummy. 

So things might not be as home made as I wanted them to be, but I'm pretty proud of what I was able to pull off for my little ladies. They both loved their costumes and still dress up in them now all the time.

We went to our church Trunk or Treat as well as trick or treating around my parents' neighborhood. They weren't too sweaty, which is quite a feat in Florida, and they got lots of candy. The crocodile even had glow in the dark spots. Everyone was happy, which is really all you can ask for, right?

I'm glad I was able to make my girls the exact costumes they wanted and that they got to choose things to customize them. They love Halloween and I know this coming year with be no different. Sheesh, I can't believe it's already almost the fall. Gotta start planning, lol.