My Very Own Little Ponies

My children were Ponies for Halloween.
The boys settled on their characters of Doctor Whooves and Train Engineer a while back and I purchased the necessary fabric.
Daughter did not want to be rainbow dash but instead alternated between Kitty and Fluttershy. I told her that if she wanted to be a kity she could wear last years costume, but if she wanted me to make something new it would be Fluttershy.

So back to the fabric store I went to pick up her fabric.

I ended up altering the coat pattern I used last year, Simplicity 2745 and the hat pattern Simplicity 1953 became a hood.

For the boy's pattern I added on pocket, splitting the front into two sections as shown on my original drawing. I ended up liking how it looked when finished and they are pleased with the pockets. I also lengthened the coat by 2" from last year, so as to fully cover their little rears and give space for cutie marks. I made the boys coats the same size, 1 is skinny, the other a bit on the short side, they are wearing 1 size difference even though they are 2 years apart.

For my daughters I cut the next size larger from last year and left out the godets. There is still enough flare in the coat for it to look girly and work over skirts. I also added in pockets on the front princess lines.

For the ears I put the kitty ear hat on the table next to a pony figure and drew a new pattern. I placed a rubber band around the pony's head to mark where the hat would sit, in the last pic you can see the pins I used to denote where the ear would be sewn to.

Patterning the manes was my favorite part, I am very proud of how they turned out.
Train Engineer is mostly my own design, and fairly flat so as to fit under the hat.

Doctor Whooves is a three dimensional design to give that spiky look without using stuffing.  I have made spines for my dragons using a similar method. I loved the way these came out! Would work for doing a dragon or dinosaur as well. made putting the fez on a bit tricky though.

Fluttershy as fun seaming through use of darts to fit around the head, it is so sweet and stuffing free.

The cutie marks were done in a variety of ways.

Since the Train engineer is never seen outside of the train cab, we made our own cutie mark, taking the image of the train and letting my son pick the colors. I did change the order of the yellow and black on the wheels for visibility sake, and explained to him why. The Train was drawn on to plain cotton with fabric markers, stitched to a second piece of cotton and turned right side out, the machine appliqued on to the coat.

The hour glass was fleece machine appliqued on to the coat.

The butterflies were fleece hand appliqued on, the antennas and bodies were couched yarn.

I did not finish the pants, and was up till 1 am the morning of finishing the boy's coats. I made a small train hat from Aesthetic Nest (printed 2 to a page to reduce scale) and a small fez. I was punch at this point so I give you the following pictures.

Fluttershy's wings are made in two layers with laters of batting between the fleece to give the wings some structure. I decided to sew them on to the coat. This means she can't wear the coat in the car, but she shouldn't anyways for safety.

Now for some pictures ON the children

 And some pictures on the dress form (which is about 2 sizes too small and doesn't have a head.) Since children are so wiggly, and I am not keen on posting pictures of my children

Last, but definitely NOT least, here are the pattern pieces for Ears, Manes, Tails, Wings and the mini Fez. You will need the original Simplicity hat pattern 1953 for the hood, though you may be able to adapt this to another pattern.
The PDF is one 2.4mb file and includes all 8 patterns (Ears, 3 Manes, 2 tails, Wings and Fez) Feel free to share this link, but do not share the file. It took me quite a bit of time to format it all nicely.

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.