A Harry Potter Halloween

For years I've been planning to do a family theme for Halloween, but haven't actually accomplished this since it was just the husband and me as Richie and Margot Tenenbaum a looooooooooong time ago -- until this year! 

O. decided he wanted to be a Death Eater from Harry Potter, so we determined E. would make a great Hedwig, which left the husband to be Harry, and my hair made me an excellent candidate for Ginny Weasley.

The Death Eater costume started with a blank cardboard mask that we spray-painted silver.  O. then added the details with some pewter paint.  I tried very hard to let him do most of it (I may have a bit of a control problem when it comes to crafting...), and just helped with the spots that had too much paint.

The cloak is sewn from twill, based on this tutorial, sized down.  I rounded the hem at the sides so that it would be even, and also rounded the back neck, and left it unlined.  We were pleasantly surprised that the hood would stay up in a point (for a while) in true Death Eater fashion.

He decided on a striped long-sleeved tee underneath, to look like he had escaped from Azkaban.  It's sewn from the Fishsticks Designs Charlie Tee pattern.

Our little Hedwig's costume started with a quick fleece pullover jumper dress, so I went with my old fallback, the Ottobre 4/08 Nasta Pinafore, which has now been the basis of three out of her four Halloween costumes.  This year I added two inches and flared out the hem a bit more than last year's bee costume. 

Her wings are the Martha Stewart Masked Owl, printed at 450%.  Instead of ironing the pleats, I sewed tucks, since I was using cheapo poly felt rather than wool, and she was going to wear it a few times, so I wanted to be sure that they'd keep their shape.

Her hood is from the now OOP Simplicity 9331, which is a hand-me-down from my sister, who made an adorable leopard costume from it that I think all of her kids wore at least once.  I was happy to put it to good use again.  :)  My original plan was to add ears, until I realized that Hedwig, a snowy owl, doesn't have ear tufts.

For her feet, I made another pair of Super Slouchy Boots.  These are just a single layer of fleece, and I added three rows of shirring at the ankle to help them stay on.  For the talons, I sewed some fleece scraps into a cone shape, and then used liberal amounts of hot glue to attach them to the boots and shape them.

I had originally intended to sew robes for the husband and myself too, but not surprisingly, ran out of time.  Most of our costumes came from our closets and thrift stores, with ties from eBay.  I did hem my pleated skirt, which you can't even see in the group photo, but hey, it's a bit of sewing!

 Happy Halloween!

Jalie 2911: Shawl Collar Pullover

The lonely, unfinished shirt left from KCWC is done!  Please pardon my terrible photos.  It's a rainy day with a sick model -- and I somehow didn't think to use the flash for the pics of just the shirt, and now she's wearing it.  So yeah, they're bad.  My apologies.

However, you're likely not here to read about my lack of photography skills, so onto the sewing content.  E's newest long-sleeved shirt, from Jalie 2911.  I  made her a 98 width/104 length.  The 92/98 combo probably would have fit better right now, but I wanted some extra growing room.  It's made from some teal stretch french terry that I really love.  I'm thinking about making one for myself too (love that Jalie patterns have such a wide size range!) in the same color.  That won't be too geeky if we don't wear them on the same day, right??

It went together pretty easily.  I love sewing with stretch french terry.  The only issue I had was with the collar.  The directions were easy enough to follow and the construction of the collar was similar in some ways to O's fleece pullover, but I never quite get the corners right, so there's puckering.  I mustn't be lining them up correctly. This is my new sewing mission (other than, you know, actually finishing projects without a looming deadline), to figure out how to do this kind of inset thingy without puckering!  I don't think it's too obvious when it's on, at least.

Not remotely representational of the actual color

Crazy hair and sick eyes.  "Thanks for posting such a flattering picture on the internet, Mom."

KCWC Days 6 & 7: Super Slouchy Boots

My primary goal for this week was to finish four projects, since the past two times, I've only managed three. Once again, I've finished three (can I count the shirt that's partially finished and say I have three and a half done?). 

I've been wanting some tallish boots for E. to wear with her skinny jeans, but it seemed silly to buy some for my little non-walker, especially since so many of them seem to have heavy soles and a bit of a heel. When I saw the Super Slouchy Baby Boots pattern, I thought I'd give them a shot. She has small feet for her age, but not that small, so I enlarged it to 110%. It ended up being pretty close, but for the next pair, I'm going to lengthen the toe area. They're a smidge too short, but don't need to be bigger anywhere else, especially the ankle.

The instructions were occasionally unclear, but the pieces fit together perfectly, and they sewed up quickly.  I see several pairs in E's future, once I get the fit just right. 

Now that KCWC is over, Halloween costume time is upon us -- after I finish up the aforementioned shirt.  Go check out all the goodies on the KCWC flickr group too.  There are some amazing clothes!

KCWC Days 4 & 5: "Powder Puff" Raglan

Yesterday and today's project was the "Powder Puff" raglan from Ottobre 6/2008, the shirt version of her birthday dress.  I made a 92 width with a 98 length again and added an additional 2" to the bottom, since she has a long torso and I prefer her to have longer shirts anyway. 

It would have been simple, had I realized ahead of time that the print didn't have nearly enough recovery for a self-fabric neckband.  I was rushing yesterday before O's parent-teacher conference and decided to give it a shot.  It was comically stretched out of shape.  Some quality time with the seam-ripper later, I went with some solid ribbing instead.  I ended up liking it quite a bit better anyway.

KCWC Days 2 & 3: Badger Pullover

Finished project, yay! When O. saw the Badger fleece for his cousin's hoodie, he asked me to make one for him, too.  He, of course, didn't want a simple raglan hoodie, but his preferred quarter-zip pullover, which I have so far just been buying for him.  I knew I had a pattern for it in his size in Kwik Sew's Sewing for Children, so I agreed to it.

In retrospect, I wish I had made one in a solid first.  There are some definite issues, especially with things that almost match up, but don't really, which make me think people may be asking him "Did your mom make that?" and not in a good way.  Ha.  Now that it's finished, though, it looks better than it did about halfway through the process.  It bugs me that the print on the front panel wasn't exactly straight, despite my best efforts, so I had to choose between inserting the zipper at an angle to line up with the print, or having it be straight, but off on the print.  I split the difference.

Not my best zipper attempt.

Overall, though, I think he'll like it, which is the important thing. I made a 7/8 and compared it to a 7x RTW pullover, and it's nearly exactly the same size.  Oh, Kwik Sew, how I love your accurate sizing!

It's still pretty early, so I'm hoping to get a shirt cut out for E. that I can sew up tomorrow.

Badger Hoodie

Today was the first day of KCWC.  I spent all of my time tracing patterns and cutting, so nothing photo-worthy.  I do have an item of kid's clothing to show you, however, as I made a fleece hoodie last week for my nephew's birthday.


It's a size T2 hooded raglan from my old standby, Kwik Sew's Sewing for Toddlers.  It's a basic pattern that I've sewn up a few times before, so other than some fussy cutting to get the logo in strategic spots, there isn't much to say about it.  I thought it turned out pretty cute.