Hallows Thoughts

It is September and the Children have started school.

I am still not used to the idea of NOT having my boys for 6 hours, my daughter seems bored, and I don't know what to do with my time. I know that with time I will get a good routine down, but right now it just feels odd.

September, so close to October. October = Halloween. Halloween = COSTUMES!!!!

So I find myself asking the children ever so briefly what they would like to be for Halloween. The boys will need some sort costume that they can put on at school for the festivities. (They can't wear the costume all day.) and it wouldn't be fair to leave the girl out so she will need something as well.

I am thinking of finishing up the Rainbow Dash dress I started for her birthday and still haven't finished.

 It is a 3-piece ensemble, dress, jacket with wings, hat. Oh and I made matching shorts as well. It isn't finished because some child mucked with the settings of my serger and I couldn't get it back in synch in time for her B-day.

So I have a plan for one child, even though she keeps saying she wants to be a kitty, and I remind her that she was one last year.

I so far have not gotten an idea out of the boys, and am thinking that once they see their sister is going to be a Pony, they may want to be one too. I think I could convince one to be Doctor Whooves, seeing we are Doctor Who fans of many years (3 is my fave) but I don't really have another male pony that they would want to be and am concerned about sending them dressed as a female character. I will if it is what they want though, and I think they would be cute. Out of all the Mane Six, Rainbow Dash would be the easiest for a little boy to dress up as, but that is already taken in our family. AppleJack would be a good choice too an happens to be one of my boy's favorite Pony.

http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Dr._Hooves

Then *I* want something new and shiny to wear. All this thought of costumes is so much fun I start to feel left out.

But then the cynic in me asks "What is the point?" We will not be trick-or-treating, the children cant eat anything they would get, and I only some of it, my husband less. We are not likely to be invited to any parties, so why should I bother dressing up?

Last year's costumes worked out well, the children have used them as clothing and enjoy their hats very much, it was a win. a bit of a cop-out for a costumer, but a win. I had them finished ahead of when they were needed, they were loved and USED more than once. In fact my daughter is now sporting the shortest hair of my children since she found scissors, so I expect her to be wearing hats quite a bit in the upcoming months as it gets cooler.

Then I think of those UFOs I have. I am especially thinking of the Codex I started when my daugher was a baby (it was nursing friendly no less) but I ran out of time and ended up whipping up a gnome hat and being a gnome with my daughter and husband.

You can see the Codex staff my husband made me is quite shiny! That is my default ren dress by the way, LOVE it!

So Codex has sat in a box for almost 3 years, I should finish it. (Take out the nursing access if I can.) Then I will have something to wear to the local comic and Sci-Fi conventions! Yes that's it.

It is @&$# Halloween, I SHOULD dress up, it is part of the costumer's creed is it not?

Now to get that sewing space back in order.....

Hallows recap

We had a good Halloween here, no part, not even trick or treating, but the Children did get to wear their outfits.

The tails did have issue with coming unsnapped. Surprisingly enough the Kitty tail stayed on the best even though it only has 2 snaps and the Bear and Puppy have 3?

So while I pat myself on the head for having Halloween outfits finished before October 1st, I still feel like a failure. Why?

My children appear to have dietary issues, so we are on a Gluten, Dairy and refined sugar free diet. Thus My School aged chidren were told to only eat what I gave them in their lunch, and nothing else, which they did. I tried my best to make thier lunch more special that normal, and apparently succeeded!

From that small intro intro our diet, I think you can see why we didn't Trick or Treat.
We didn't attend any parties as we have only been here 6 month and haven't made friends yet.

I didn't dress up. I think that is why I feel like a failure. Like many others in the Historical Costuming field, I don't generally wear my historical outfits on Halloween. A lot of that is still in storage from the move too. The only corset that fits is the Corset en X, which isn't very costumy. Even my witches hat is in storage.

My children's outfits, while made by me and USEFUL are not actually costumes, which some class mates pointed out. but My children are all happy with their outfits!

I had several costumes made by my mother growing up, she is the reason why I am interested into Historical Costuming, she even did theme parties at other times of the year. I feel like a failure as a costumer for not doing something for Halloween.

Halloween 2012 Part 3

 This is the Third and last post on Halloween Outfits for My children. See the first post here

And the second post here

This was mainly done just for fun. As it is not a wearable.
I made each of my children a stuffed toy in their animal with the same fleece as their outfits using Simplicity 2387

This is a pattern for a Cat and Puppy, so I needed to make a bear. To make a bear, I just altered the cat ears to be round and the tail to be round as well. I think the Cat ear pattern should be more pointed.  The paws are difficult little pieces due to their size and I don’t think they added much to the foot shape, swinging the front of the leg out, might have done the same thing.

If you choose to make this pattern here are some things I did differently that I think made it easier.
1. Embroider the face before you attach the head front to the head back.
2. Hand sew the paw bottoms on by hand
3. Turn the body right side out and insert it into the head, which is inside out, and then sew the neck.

Each animal got a ribbon around it’s neck and a special button. The Dog has a Red Train, the Bear an Airplane with many colors, the Cat a Green Frog. Each child picked out their buttons.

My Children all love their animals and often carry them around and tuck them in at night. More than any of their other animals since these are specially made by Mama.
Unfortunately the Airplane button on the Bear's ribbon lost it's propeller when the child owning it was banging it against a table. Thus a tantrum followed and once he calmed down a trip to the fabric store to get a new button happened. He now has a green car.

Halloween Part 2

This is the Second post on Halloween Outfits for My children. See the first post here

I had difficulty finding a coat pattern that I liked, I settled on Simplicity 2745
 
Because it was CUTE For my daughter, and came in all the sizes I would need for all my children. I would need to alter the pattern to make it boyish, but that wasn’t hard. Also the pants pattern could come in handy for my children’s first winter in a climate that snows.

To make it for my daughter I decided on using a contrasting color for the godets. I loved the way this looked, but if I was to do it again, I would alter the side seam so that it also had a godet in it, this would not be a hard thing to do.

A word of advice, the godet is 1 size for ALL sizes, it is not graded, and thus will end up starting well below the waist on the larger sizes.  I made the size 3 for my daughter, and the godet starts at the hip.

 To alter it to be boyish, I combined the side front with the front, and the side back with the back, by removing the princess lines and cutting the pattern off at the hip.  I also did not put the collar on.

The boys coats close with zippers. Which means I altered the front to no longer have that overlap the pattern included for the buttons.

The boys got to pick their own buttons.

 Last I sewed and stuffed tails and attached them with snaps to the back of the coat. The snaps add a bit of safety should a tail get pulled or caught.  The pin of the snap is pushed through the fleece from the inside so that they are more hidden. I used large size 2 snaps for the tails, three on the dog and bear, 2 on the cat tail. To the left is what the snaps look like from the outside of the coat, the right is the inside view.




My child's form is a size 3, so the Dog tail is actually attaching bellow the form's base and thus is drooping more than it does on my child.














My daughter got a Bow on her backside that hides the attachment of the tail. Little girls can rock the butt bow way better than us grown-ups!

As far as the coat pattern goes, besides the godet issue, I found the sleeves were rather long. I ended up turning them up 3” on all my children. I also highly recommend a wavy rotary cutter for finishing the edges as it is quicker than sewing and looks very nice, particularly on the collar!

The Third Post can be found Here.

Halloween 2012 Part 1

Halloween outfits for my children 2012.
I was gearing up to make a steampunk costume earlier in September until I realized that Halloween was coming, and how could I call myself a costumer if I don’t make something for my children? Last year they all wore hand-me down store bought costumes, which they were all thrilled with, but I didn’t want to repeat that.
So I thought about what I would make them. I decided not to give them a choice, knowing full well they would take a long time to choose something/choose something complicated/change their minds. (High probability of all three.)
I finally settled on Animal hoodies, each of my children has a “spirit” animal that is their nickname. Puppy, Bear, and Kitten. Hoodies becouse I don't think wew will be doing any trick or treating, but the school aged child will likely need something to wear to school. and warm coats are always useful.
I waited for a pattern sale and went looking for patterns. Simplicity came on sale first, I didn’t find a suitable hooded jacket pattern. I did how ever find a fleece hat pattern and a jacket pattern that would work. I have decided to post their outfits in three posts.

I started with Simplicity 1953 Hats

This pattern has the Cat and (panda) Bear that I needed, it was also in both Child and Adult sizes, designed for fleece. I would just make my own dog ear pattern.

All fleece was found on the remnant table which is why the Bear hat is lined with the lighter brown used for the dog.
The face of the cat is hand embroidered, badly, I will admit. I am still a newbie to embroidery and fleece is stretchy. I was an idiot and didn’t stabilize the area first.

The dog and bear have appliqued sections of black fleece to make their faces.

Here is a scan of my dog ear pattern, it is the children’s size and is attached to the hat going across the seam in a curve rather than along it like the other ears. To make it up, sew around the outside then fold it and sew the darts on each side separately. Play with the position to get the look you want.

The second post is Here.

The third and last post is Here.