Video: My Handmade Halloween Costume Through The Years!

 

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year, and while I haven't been able to make myself anything cool since adopting kids, I managed to make myself a decent wardrobe to choose from in years past. Come hang out with me as I show some of the costumes I've made over the years and get inspired to make something yourself! Click the video link below to watch.

Video: My Spooky Cute Halloween Makes! (PLUS plans for more!)

 

I've been making all the Halloween themed items lately, so I decided to show all my latest projects :) Head over to My YouTube Channel or click the link below to scope out all my spooky cute makes.

 

Video Tutorial: Crochet the PERFECT Pumpkin! with FREE Pattern

 

This new video is an ode to the ultimate easy home decor project: The Small Pumpkin :) These are seriously so quick and easy to make - I made 5! This video has a step by step tutorial, but I'm also writing out the pattern here for anyone who prefers to have it typed out (that would be me, lol). So watch the video below and then scroll down to find the complete pattern. Enjoy!

Little Pumpkin Pattern:

Supplies:

• Approximately 1/2 a skein of Hobbii Honey Bunny Candy Halloween Yarn  in Pumpkin colorway (2 skeins makes 5 pumpkins)
• 10 grams Vanna's Choice yarn in Toffee colorway
• US H crochet hook
• Darning Needle
• 18mm craft eyes
• Polyfill
• Scrap of black yarn

Directions:

Pumpkin:

1. C2, SC 6 times into 2nd c from hook (6 sts)
2. SC 2 in each stitch (12 sts)
3. *SC 2 in next st, SC in next 1 st* repeat 6 times (18 sts)
4. *SC 2 in next st, SC in next 2 sts* repeat 6 times (24 sts)
5. *SC 2 in next st, SC in next 3 sts* repeat 6 times (30 sts)
6. *SC 2 in next st, SC in next 4 sts* repeat 6 times (36 sts)
7. *SC 2 in next st, SC in next 5 sts* repeat 6 times (42 sts)
8. *SC 2 in next st, SC in next 6 sts* repeat 6 times (48 sts)
9. - 14. SC around for 5 rows (48 sts)

    15. *SC2TOG, SC in next 6 st* repeat 6 times (42 sts)

    16. *SC2TOG, SC in next 5 st* repeat 6 times (36 sts)

    17. *SC2TOG, SC in next 4 st* repeat 6 times (30 sts)

Stop to add eyes: Place eyes on Row 9 or 10 with 5 stitches between them. Stuff body.

    18. *SC2TOG, SC in next 3 st* repeat 6 times (24 sts)

    19. *SC2TOG, SC in next 2 st* repeat 6 times (18 sts)

    20. *SC2TOG, SC in next 1 st* repeat 6 times (12 sts)

    21. *SC2TOG* repeat 6 times (6 sts)

    22. SC2TOG stitch 1 and 4. Fasten off leaving 2 foot long tail.

Thread tail through top center of pumpkin down into the center of the bottom of the pumpkin and pull tight to cinch down. Thread tail back up through the center of the body 1 stitch over from where you came out and pull to cinch down. Keep tension on the initial cinched section while you thread the tail through the center of the body again and wrap the tail around the outside of the body on one side of the face, threading back through the center top of the pumpkin and pull to cinch. Wrap tail yarn through the center of the body and around to make 5 cinched sections. Fasten off snugly to maintain the cinched shape.

Stem: 

1. With brown yarn, make magic loop and SC 6 sts (6 sts)
2. *SC2 in next st, SC 1 in next st* repeat 3 times (9 sts)
3. SC in each st (9 sts)
4. *SC2TOG in next st, SC 1 in next st* repeat 3 times
5. Fasten off. Sew to top divot on pumpkin body.

Embroider Mouth 2 rows down from eyes in the center 2 stitches.

Enjoy your new pumpkin!

Video: My Fall Knitting Plans ALL From Stash Yarn!

The season is changing, and my knitting plans are moving right along with it. Come check out what I plan to make in the coming months, nincluding both knittin and crochet. Head over to You Tube or click the video below to watch :)

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. 

 

FO: Who's Your Friend Who Likes To Play?

BING BONG! BING BONG! I decided to dress up as Joy for Halloween months ago, and I knew I was going to make my dress but that was all I had planned. Until about a month ago when I came across this fantastic free pattern on Ravelry. I knew I had to have a Bing Bong to hang out with Joy on Halloween :)

I used the Bing Bong pattern by Sabrina Somers (free on Ravelry - along with all the other characters as well!). The pattern calls for sport weight yarn, but I decided to use worsted weight instead since this project took so many small colors and I have so much more worsted weight in my stash. I used a size H hook with the worsted weight yarn.

The only yarn I had to buy for this project was the pink for his body - I didn't have enough of any pinks available. I went with Red Heart Super Saver in Perfect Pink because it was the best pink color available at Walmart, lol. Every other color was from my stash (hooray!). I did run into an issue on his jacket though. I didn't have two browns that were contrasting enough to use for his jacket and his gloves. I decided to make the gloves in brown and use gray for the jacket. All was well until I finished the body of the jacket ... and I didn't have enough yarn! I was on a serious time crunch (I didn't make most of him until 2 days before I needed him, lol), so I dug through my stash and made a "design choice"by using a gray yarn from the same line (Vanna's Choice) that was variegated instead of solid gray. It still had the original gray, so I went for it. I think he still looks just fine!

All of his features are actually sewn on in felt. I surprised myself with all the colors I had in my stash, lol, so I lucked out there. The eye circles are all thanks to Sizzix Paddle Punches - love those things! - the eye browns, eye whites, and mouth were just cut out freehand and stitched on. The pattern tells you to put garden wire in his trunk, but I didn't have any on hand so I skipped that and I just bend it every so often to keep its shape.

His flower is made up of multi colored felt circles all stitched on. The bow is the one place that I did not use the pattern. Honestly, I forgot to make the bow so when I was sewing everything else on, I just crocheted a few rows in the round, wrapped yarn in the center to cinch it in and called it done, ha ha. I think it looks just fine. I also really like the effect of the variegated yarn around the edge of the jacket. The jacket is actually crocheted as separate pieces - you first stitch the body of the jacket to the body, then you stitch the actual arms (meaning pink and brown and stuffed) on with the sleeves on the jacket. So his jacket is not removable at all. 

Another fun detail about this pattern is that you brush the yarn out for the bottom of the body and the tail. You just crochet it like normal, then brush violently with a cat brush to make it all fuzzy. It's a fairly good stress reliever, ha ha. I've done this once before when I made Chewbacca, but it's always kind of fun to do. 

And here were are at the party :) Bing Bong was a big hit, and I just put him in my bag whenever I needed to twist a balloon for the kids.

The whole gang! If I'd had time, you can bet I would've made the other characters too, lol. 

So that's the story of my Bing Bong :) My nephew loves him and asked me if he can play with him today. Because I used worsted weight yarn, he came out much bigger than the pattern says - mine is 16.5" tall, making him the perfect huggable size for a toddler. This guy was a lot of work, but he came out great and really amped up my costume.

FO: A Joy-full Halloween Costume

Every year around Halloween, I start thinking about what my costume will be. In the past few years, I've managed to pull something together, often with some kind of quick handmade item, but it never fails that I just don't have enough time in the month of October to make up a proper costume of the caliber that I want. So this year, I started planning and acquiring for this costume in mid August to make sure I made my plan a reality. I'm happy to say it came out just like I'd hoped!

I decided as soon as I watched Inside Out that I would go as Joy for Halloween this year. She wears a simple dress that I could certainly recreate myself, then all I had to do was find a blue wig and a few accessories. Originally, that was as far as my plan extended. Then I was poking around Ravelry one day and came across a free pattern for a crocheted Bing Bong and I knew I had to include that as well. I've written a separate post on Bing Bong, so you'll see him again soon :)

So, my costume. Joy's dress is just lime green with a full drapey skirt and freehand looking splotchy flowers on it. I decided to use my already fitted pattern of the year - Simplicity 1419.I've made this dress 3 other times already this year, so I figured it would be quick to make (hint - it wasn't and I will explain lower in this post). I added sleeves to my dress just because I always have sleeves and no one mentioned anything about lack of authenticity, lol.

I made the dress with some lime green broadcloth I bought at Joann's on sale. There was much deliberation with my husband in the fabric store to decide which lime green was the "joy" color and this one won out. I used matching thread and sewed the whole dress before adding the flower things.

The flower splotches were something I had to think on for a while. At first I thought I would block print them, but when it came time to it I realized the flowers were all different sizes which blew that idea out of the running. Then I bought acrylic paint thinking that would be better, but I didn't like the idea of it flaking off as I moved around. I finally came across the display of multi colored permanent markers that you can buy individually and brought in a scrap of fabric to try it out. It looked pretty good! Basically it was like dying the fabric with a stick - too easy. I ended up draining 2 markers in making all these flowers, but that ensured they were nice an saturated. The flowers are a little stiffer than the rest of the dress, but nothing that affected its comfort.

I staggered the flowers, making different sizes diagonal from each other. I started by sketching out the flowers with a friction pen, then coloring them in, and ironing the flowers to remove the friction ink. Seriously, if you haven't tried out friction pens in your sewing, look into it! My sister brought back a variety of colors for me from Japan when she lived there (this was before they were for sale in the states) and I use them constantly for pattern drafting as well as marking on cotton fabrics since the ink disappears when you touch it with an iron. Magic! I'm no artist, so if I hadn't had the friction pen option these flowers would have looked much more homemade and awful.

Now onto the hiccup in this sewing experience. I'm sure you may have noticed I am wearing a wide belt in these photos. Joy doesn't have a belt. It became a necessity for me. Apparently I made a mistake when cutting out my fabric because my dress that I muslined and tinkered with the fit and have made 4 times ... came out too small. Of course I didn't realize this until I had already cut down the seam allowances because having made this so many times before I decided I did not need to check the fit. How wrong I was! I was so depressed. My dress that I thought would be a quick sew ended up sitting on my dress form for weeks while I mustered the courage to fix it. I didn't want to cut new pieces because that would have meant disassembling the entire dress at that point, so first I let it out at the zipper opening - not enough. Then I let it out at the sides the tiny bit that was possible - not enough. It sat for a while longer before I just decided to be completely experimental and I sewed a knit fabric gusset at the side waist seam. The fabric I had was green, but didn't match so even though it fit at that point, I wouldn't have wanted to wear it in public and have to explain to curious onlookers that I was too fat for my dress and had to add a stretchy piece. Ugh, isn't that just the worst ever? I waited a while longer to address the awful look of the knit piece, and one night I thought about a stretchy belt I have. I put it on with the dress and it covered the knit section almost completely, but the belt was black and looked awful - it would completely throw off my authenticity. I did have a small amount of fabric left though, and I had some incredibly heavy fusible interfacing on hand, so I decided to make a belt the same width as my stretchy belt. 

I just cut two 4" wide strips across the width of the remaining fabric, fused a 3" wide piece of the heavy fusible (meaning the heaviest fusible I've ever found) inside the middle of the belt front piece (so not in the seam allowance), did some straight seams and topstitching and had a long belt. I put on the belt with the dress, overlapped the ends where it fit me, and added 3 hooks and eyes to make it stay straight and secure. It was actually incredibly easy to do, and it really made the difference in not only how my costume looked but also how confident I felt in it. No one wants to walk around feeling too fat for their clothes.

After adding the gusset, I just kind of stopped caring if everything was perfect on this dress. Originally I hoped that I could maybe wear this just as a normal dress, but I lost that desire pretty quickly - lime green isn't really my color anyway without my blue hair. I promise the wrinkles you see on the dress and belt are not fitting issues - I didn't get to take these photos until I had already worn the dress once to a party. I added pockets (because why not?) and I used a blue invisible zipper from my stash. I also made my own bias tape to finish the neckline. I'm really proud of how well the flowers turned out especially where they span across a seam or a dart. The permanent marker worked perfectly and people were amazed that I drew them on myself and it didn't come printed that way.

I finished the dress on October 23rd so I could wear it to our church Trunk or Treat party on the 24th. The night of the party, I started off with my makeup. I dusted my face all over with a yellow eye shadow, dusted with a little bit of MAC highlight powder (for a light shimmer), then re-dusted the yellow again. I used a bright blue eye shadow for my eye liner, put on a little mascara, then sprayed it all with Urban Decay All Nighter spray (this stuff is great - it's like hair spray for your face!). Nest I had to help my husband cover himself in red cream makeup (I sponged his face just so it was more even), then I sprayed his hair red. Next I had to wig cap my hair and put on my wig. My tights and shoes were completely random - I've had them for years but never worn them (in fact I rescued the shoes from my donate pile for this costume, lol). Then I just had to don my dress, grab Bing Bong, put a towel under my husband to save the car, and drive to the party :)

(I know I have total bucket face in these photos, and I could have gone whole hog like my husband, but I didn't have enough powder to cover my whiteness plus I didn't want to get it all over my car)

We were in such a hurry that I did not manage to take nice pictures of the two of us. All I have is this kind of awful photo a friend took. We were Joy and Anger! I was making balloon animals for the kids (one of my other hidden talents) at the party, then we decorated our trunk for trunk or treating:

Again, I forgot to take a photo at the party, so this is the aftermath. I swear that bowl was full of candy. We gave away candy and glow bracelets. My trunk was lit up balloons in the colors of Riley's memories from the movie. And of course Bing Bong hung out there too :) Yay for a full theme! I promise it looked much better in real life and the light was much more faint. 

Here we were at the end of the night. The kids really loved our costume and we won the adult costume contest :) Ho yeah! lol

Also I had to include this photo because it was just so crazy. This is what our shower looked like when my husband washed off all that red makeup. It's like a murder scene in there, lol.

I did my whole costume again a week later on Halloween and we gave out candy at my parents house (not a lot of trick or treaters at our house). I went as Joy but my husband did his usual scarecrow routine to scare the living daylights out of kids. We rate how fun our evening was based on how many kids scream and run away without collecting their piece of candy, ha ha. It's great.

So there you have it - my Joy-full Halloween :) It was a lot of fun, and I was really proud of how well my costume turned out. On a slightly more serious note, I love the symbolism of the fact that I chose to be Joy. I was talking to my husband after Halloween, and it really does sum up my outlook I've been trying for this year. I think in any situation you can choose to be sadness or anger or any other easier emotion, but life is so much better when you choose Joy :) I hope you all had as much fun this Halloween as I did!

Summary:
Fabric: 3.5 yards lime green broadcloth from Joann's - $12.50
Pattern: Simplicity 1419 and 2444
Notions: thread - $2, invisible zipper - $1.50, 2 turquoise Sharpie permanent markers - $4, knit fabric scraps - free, fusible interfacing - free (stash), hooks and eyes - $0.50

Hours: Who knows, lol. Maybe around 10 with all the futzing
Total Cost: $20.50 (plus the wig)
Fun had: Immeasurable!

WIP Wednesday: Halloween Prep and Progress

I've been busy with so many other things this past week - lots of sewing (and various issues with fitting and whatnot that have made me so stinkin' mad), lots of cleaning and home repairs, and lots of going to bed early and waking up really early to teach early morning seminary at my church (thankfully I'm just substituting for the week - I'm so tired!). It seems that I spoke too soon about how much knitting I got done, because I've now negated the speed with not doing anything on my Penelope for a full week. Ah well. At least I made the sleeve cap and got started on the straight knitting and decreases. At least that's visible progress. Come November, I hope to have more knitting time. Halloween is always busy for me. One of the things that took some of my knitting time is this next project:

Can you guess what it is yet? Probably not, lol. It's Bing Bong from Inside Out! I'm making him to go with my Halloween costume (I'm setting up a whole Inside Out themed trunk for Trunk or Treat this weekend at church - I will get pictures!), and I really need to kick some butt on making him up. Above you see his head and body along with his ears and half of his nose. At least the body is done since that's the biggest piece. I have all the yarns picked out from my stash for his parts, I've just got to have more crocheting time! So frustrating. I'm hoping that I can finish him tomorrow along with my dress so I don't have to stress about my costume at the last second.

I also did manage to finish my Put A Cat On It skirt, but I have to get pictures to post it. Hopefully I can accomplish that soon! Sigh. If only I had more time and didn't need so much sleep.

That's it for me this week :) Check out Gracey's Goodies to see what others are making up too!

Happy Halloween!

I know it's really late, but I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween :)

My husband and I went as Finn and Fiona at our church trunk or treat last weekend. Then on Halloween night my husband went as his tried and true scarecrow.

He just sits there, perfectly still, while I lure the children in the porch for candy :) This year he chased a girl half way down the street. It was awesome!

Earlier today, we visited Justin's grandma in the nursing home. They had a costume parade and seriously, some of those costumes were fantastic! The Lady who was a bobcat had the front scoop rigged with ropes so she could move it, the airplane guy's propeller spun, and there was even Cinderella in her carriage! How great to use their wheelchairs as part of the costume, right? They had a great time and it was a lot of fun :)

So, even though it's November now, I hope you had a fun Halloween :)

FO Friday: Another Pumpkin Hat

After my first pumpkin hat came out so cute, I knew my nephew needed on too :) I actually started this project back in August, but I set it aside to finish some more pressing projects ... and just realized that it would be obsolete in a week if I didn't buckle down and get it done. Whoops! So, I've been working on it in my spare minutes this week (including at the DMV, lol). So, here is my new, slightly larger pumpkin baby hat!

I used the exact same yarn from the first hat (in fact it is the leftover yarn), Wool-Ease in Pumpkin and Avocado. This hat did take more yarn since the first was the newborn size and this is the 1-2 year old size, but I still have about 1/4 of a skein left of the orange :) 

The only thing I changed about this version of the hat is the stem. The pattern has you alternate between a knit row and a purl row the whole way up - I found this very hard to keep tension with while making the first hat, so it was very cumbersome. So this time around I just knitted the whole way up - done and done :)

I'm really happy with how the hat came out. The only problem - Luke HATES it, lol. He immediately pulls it off if you put it on him and if he can't get it off, he cries. You're welcome, kid. I even brought my nice camera with me to hopefully get a good picture of him wearing the hat for this post and this was as close as I got (and I had to get it with my phone).

He had just gotten a whole packet of sauce from my sister's lunch all over him, so he is wearing her "Bite Me" shirt lol. All the following pictures are of him crying/ripping it off and throwing it on the floor, lol. He does, however, think it's awesome and hilarious when other people wear his hat:

So at least we all had fun with my creation :) Hopefully I can slip it on him in his sleep or something for a cute picture, lol. Oh well, at least it's finished and I can focus on other projects now. Maybe my future children will be better with wearing hats!

New FreshStitches Crochet-A-Long: Halloween Themed!

It's that time again - time for another FreshStitches Crochet-A-Long. This time it's a Halloween-A-Long! Similar to the Tiny-A-Long, you can choose your own pattern from the FreshStitches catalog - it just has to be related to Halloween. All the choices are found here. You can make:

• Igor the Tiny Bat
• Jack the Tiny Pumpkin (this is a free pattern)
• Mitchell the Spider
• Lemuel the Bat
• or ANY monster (there are a ton of free ones here)

The only other requirement is that you have your little Halloweenie finished by October 30th. And to make it even better, there is an awesome prize for the winner!

The winner gets this awesome set of Knitter's Pride Waves Crochet Hooks as well as a Pom Pom Maker! How cool is that?! To enter your cutie for the grand prize, just post a picture to theFreshStitches Facebook Wall or the Halloween-A-Long thread on the FreshStitches Ravelry Group.

I'm super excited to get started, but I just can't decide which pattern to make! Join us for the fun!

Crochet Update: Meet Willis the Wiggly Monster

Well, I finished another one :)

Everyone, meet Willis :) I was a little too late for the Halloween Crochet Along on FreshStitches, but I just loved her free monster patterns so much I had to make one. I made this little guy using the Lark the Monster free pattern. Stacey Trock has 10 monster patterns you can get for for free here. I really liked this guy's little ruffle so I started him a few days ago. I used my extra hour last night to get his whole body done and I just had to do his ruffle this morning.

He was a really simple make and he's just so cute! My family had fun tossing him around when I showed them. He is like a fancy ball :)

You should make one too!