A Brief Costume How To!

I had fun making our Halloween costumes this year, I don't know if I will ever be able to top these. I will start with the Mad hatter (who is checking college football scores on his phone)

I got most of his costume from Savers, a local thrift store. His Hat was my first purchase. It was intended for a leprechaun, so I had to unpick a four-leaf clover and add a tag. (which if you are wondering what it means it is the price of the Hat! Ten Shillings and a sixpence.) I just got a piece of card-stock, wrote on it with a marker and used a straight pin to attach it. It worked out great.

I made the bowtie out of some old fabric I had, and the green shirt was also a savers purchase. .99 cents thank you.

Now getting the jacket right was as key as getting a good hat. But, I did NOT want to sew a jacket for an adult man. it just didn't sound fun. So I got this one at savers for .99 cents and SPRAY PAINTED IT!

I went with orange, because I thought it would go better with the Hat and shirt combo I had purchased. I also didn't spray it evenly. I meant to do that. Seriously. I wanted it to be a bit messy, more like the Jonny Depp style Mad Hatter.

I also discovered the best low budget painting tool you could ever purchase. A spray painting gun. You attach it to any bottle of spray paint and shoot it like a gun instead of cramping up your pointer finger. It also helps you to get the paint on evenly. The best part... it cost me $2.89 And it is reusable. I got this one at Lowes.

What kind of spray paint did I use? the kind you get at walmart? I wasn't too picky, but I will say DON'T get the cheap 99 cent spray paint, it does not work as well. Promise. I tried and failed. Although I didn't use special spray paint, I did discover they make FABRIC spray paint. I would like to try it sometime. If you have tried it, let me know what you think.

For the Cat, I used a roll of masking tape to create the stripes. Put the tape on, Spray painted, and when it dried, I removed the tape. It worked REALLY well.

Maybe if I get some of that fabric spray paint I will make a striped shirt this way. Since I LOVE stripes. I think I got away with having the most comfy costume. I made my tail out of an old T-Shirt, and attached some little cat ears to a headband. My girls were concerned that I had no purple stripes, well kids, I couldn't find purple sweats ANYWHERE (or pink ones that I could spray paint purple) So, this cat was pink and white instead!

They dried really fast, or at least faster than I expected. I did these the day of our trunk or treat. I was lucky it was a warm day, which sped up the drying. I hope my neighbors didn't mind my costumes hanging everywhere!

I was SO glad and THANKFUL to my little Liza for wanting to be Alice, since I had already slaved over a costume for her once this year. This picture is from her birthday, but for Halloween she had tights, and I put a pettiskirt underneath to make it nice and puffy. This is a pretty basic dress, with a double layered gathered skirt, and a collar. I love it. So it made me so happy to see her wear it again.

Oh now Addie's Costume.... This one was so much fun to make! I decided to use a pattern, one i already had, and just add a few details to make it my own.

I used this pattern size 3 (which was a bit big and had to be taken in for my small framed girl), I did pattern B, the pink on at the bottom. I decided to do the bodice out of a stretchy fabric so i wouldn't have to put in a zipper. I added the collar and several embellishments and trims to make it queen worthy.

I got in a fight with the collar trying to get it to stand up like the Queen's does, in the end the collar won, and I know how I would fix it if I were to do it again. But I was not about to do it again! The crown and the Wand were GREAT finishing touches. I also had a few trial and errors with the crown, I ended up finding an 8 x 10 sheet of sparkly craft foam which I basically stapled together and slid it onto a headband. It was so easy, I was mad for trying the vinyl and the spray paint, and the cardstock. Duh. Why do I make things so difficult? The wand is similar to THESE but with a heart on top instead.

YES! Your MAJESTY!

(I am hoping to add more detailed pictures soon. we will see if it happens!)

My Family in Wonderland...

More details to come on each costume, but here we are at the Trunk or Treat. I just love Halloween. We won the costume contest for best Family Costume! Woot!

Family Themed Halloween Costumes

I thought I would gather a few family themed Halloween costume ideas, in case some of you were wondering what you could all be for Halloween this year! Some are from the web, and some are my creative family and friends.


Superheroes
(use popular ones, or make up your own)

Star Wars

3 little pigs and the Big Bad Wolf


BLT

The 4 Seasons
Candy Bars
The Flinstones, or the Rubbles

Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Toad
Road Signs (Traffic Light, Stop Sign, Dangerous Curves Ahead, etc.)

The SWAT team

Board Games (Twister, Candy Land, Memory)

Vegetables
(click on the picture for source, unless it is family, I didn't link to their private blogs.)

Halloween Flashback

To get you thinking about what YOU could be this year!

I thought I would share a few pictures from Past Halloween's in the Lewis family...

Little Bo Peep and her Sheep

Little Red Riding Hood, and the Wolf in Grandma's Clothing.

I had to share this one of my Brother in Law. He was "the money you could save with Geico"

Classic Halloween, A witch who wouldn't wear her hat, and a Pumpkin. This year my husband and I were Sarah Palin and John McCain, but I couldn't find a picture!

A little Bumble Bee

(My husband might kill me for sharing this one)
Sharpay and Ryan Evans from High School Musical

This was our First Halloween together, and I was pregnant with Addie. We were Zach Morris and Kelly Kapowski.

Also, I have been gathering ideas for Family Theme Halloween Costumes, which is usually what I try and do, but I might give my husband a break this year... we will see though!

The Dress....

Making her Alice in wonderland dress was so much fun. It was the first time I had made a collar since my beginning sewing class in college, which was 4 years ago!

And No Alice in Wonderland dress would be complete without a giant bow in the back! Also I did bubble sleeves, my favorite kind of sleeve. Maybe one day I will get my act together and do a tutorial on how to make a bubble sleeve!

Try to ignore the wrinkly apron... I washed it and was too lazy to iron it! At least it doesn't have frosting down the front right?


And of course, I had to use the giant ric-rac as trim. I love the scalloped look it gives!

And last but not least the bow, It is all made of felt. The easiest and sweetest headband I have ever made. There will be more of these for sure! Perfect finishing touch.