There's nothing like an early holiday event to force an over-planner to 'get down to business.' Yesterday, we had the opportunity to reveal our Halloween costumes early for the annual 3-1 Fall Festival. Despite having to get everything ready nearly a month before Halloween, this was the first Halloween that I wasn't working until the wee hours of the morning and I actually got to relax with Rob the evenings he was home without stressing over what I had to accomplish. This Never happens. Ne-Ver!
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| Red Dragon Ninja |
Maia already had the black leggings and boots. We did purchase the turtleneck from Target and found the Ninja backpack with weapons at Wally World. I made the mask from Jet Set knit from JoAnn's and the kimono and obi belt from brocade at JoAnn's.
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| Lady Liberty |
I really hope she doesn't hate me when she's older for taking advantage of her name yet again. Her dress was made from a flat twin sheet at Wally World. Then, I took a long portion of the same sheet, finished the edges and draped it around the dress and tacked it in several places with hand stitches so I wouldn't have to keep rearranging it on my busy little girl.
The torch was a simple $1 flashlight from Wally World, embellished with craft foam, hot glue and dimensional fabric paint. After I glued the foam bits on the flashlight with a glue gun and embellished with fabric paint, I painted the entire thing with craft paint I found in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby that happened to be the exact color of the dress. Finally, I used tacky glue to add tissue paper flames to finish it off. Unfortunately, I failed to consider that we will need to unscrew the upper portion to change batteries when they run out of juice, so I will either have to get crafty with my exact-o knife or just let it run out when the time comes.
Her crown was made from a plastic dollar store tiara that I cut all the 'princessy' parts off of using my Dremel and then reconfigured a Liberty crown headpiece from Target's 4th of July Dollar section. I cut the the headpiece into three sections to add proper dimension, glued them onto the crown, added dimensional fabric paint around the 'windows' and painted the entire crown with the same paint I used on the torch. Finally, I added black paint to the 'windows.'
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| Lady GaGa and the Butcher |
Rob's butcher costume was probably the easiest, since he wore a pair of brown trousers he already had and my apron. We have an actual meat cleaver, but I thought a $ .97 plastic glow-in-the-dark one from Wally World would be a smarter choice around children. Sadly, this disappointed the butcher. His tunic was from his chef's costume that I made back in
2005.
The only thing I had to make for his costume this year was his cap. I looked at photos online and created a mock cap with tissue paper and poster board to get the right fit. Once the fit was correct, drafted a pattern using the pieces I made for the mock cap. I added piping and a quick little patch using an image of a butcher from the web and added "Bobby D's Tasty Meats" for a pretend logo. I printed the "logo" onto June Tailor printable fabric that I already had to make my life simpler. Originally, I was going to embroider the logo onto the hat...ridiculous, I know. It's just a costume. Then I pressed the heck out of the finished hat with a super hot iron and a Lot of steam.
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| fabric meat |
My costume was the only one where I used a pattern. I made a simple red knit dress from an out-of-print Simplicity pattern (9103) that I used to attach my "meat" onto since the meat was sheer. I cut ragged strips of cheesecloth, approximately 1 1/2 yds long and stretched the strips out onto a plastic dropcloth, leaving some wrinkles. Next, I poured a couple of tablespoons-ish of liquid Rit dye (in "Scarlet") into a spray bottle, added a splash of vinegar and topped it off with hot water from the tap. Then, it was time for fun. I sprayed random streaks up and down the cheesecloth, the adjusted the nozzle on the spray bottle from stream to spray to tone down some of the white, but not all of it to try to recreate a nicely marbleized steak. Once the fabric was dry, I hand-stitched ragged pieces of the meat to the red dress and saved a few scraps to wrap around my shoes. I secured the fabric on my shoes using butcher's/baker's twine.
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| Steak anyone? |
Speaking of steak, the head piece was made from a scrap of the red knit fabric from my dress and a scrap of the "meat." I cut a free-formed "steak" from a piece of felt and hand-stitched the fabric onto the felt. I added a couple of barrettes to the back of the felt to adhere to the wig (found the wig on Amazon).
The "bling" was super easy. I just cut strips of gray fun foam to wrap
around my wrists and neck for a choker and cuffs, added Velcro closures
and glued giant clear jewels onto the strips.
I was happy with how the "meat" turned out, but it wasn't at all figure-flattering. I think the real deal is much more attractive...seriously. Maybe I should have painted pieces of plastic. Cheesecloth is too poofy. I may play with it a bit before Halloween and get some platform wedge booties to pull of the meat shoes better. My little half boots did Not do the trick.
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| C Co. decorated Blackhawk guarded by Red Dragon Ninja |
Now it's time to decorate the house!
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