Skirts!

Okay here’s 2 more projects that I’ve made for Halloween costumes. They’re pretty straightforward, but each one is a little different. Ready? Here’s the one for Thing 2.

First off I cut a bunch petal shapes from different colors of fabric, that I was going for in my costume. I cut 2 for each petal.

Sewed around the curve, leaving the top open

Snipped every 3/4” –ish around the curve to make sure it would lay flat, then turned them right side out.

Ironed them flat, and cut an elastic to the waist measurement. Overlapped it about 1” and sewed it together securely. Then, I pinned the petals onto the elastic, making sure they were nice and loose. Meaning the top of the petal was 5”, and I pinned them so they took up about 3 1/2” of space on the band. And I overlapped the petals about 1” so there wouldn’t be a gap.

Then, sewed it on the machine.

I pulled the elastic tight after sewing 1 end of the petal down, so the elastic would bunch up the petal when it’s relaxed.

It was getting very pretty

I decided to add a 2nd row of petals, so I hand stitched 6 petals to the inside middle of each of the 6 I just put on.

See how you can’t see any gaps?

Then, I added some tulle to the inside. I just cut it to the length I wanted, and just gathered it up as I was sewing.

Voila! The finished product turned out just how I wanted!

I’ve had sick girl so she wants to be in pajamas all day long

Now, for Thing 1’s skirt. This took a bit more brainstorming on my part. She’s being very specific about color. So, I kind of sat there contemplating dyeing something, then realized I had the PERFECT fabric from Miya Design’s sale that I’ve raved about before. It was actually sitting by me on the sewing table because I knew there was a Halloween project waiting for me to discover it. Isn’t it pretty?

It was the perfect color, and it was sparkly, which can’t miss with my princess. So, I cut it to the length I wanted, and then used part of the pantyhose from here and here to make the waistband.

I just cut a strip longer than the waist measurement by a few inches, and then sewed it to the sparkly orange fabric, gathering it up as I went. To make things easier, I pinned both pieces to match in 1/8s, meaning I folded it in half and marked it, then quarters, and then 1/8s.

I just sewed through the waistband folded in half, because I made it big enough for my elastic to go in after.

Then, I added a bunch of layers of tulle in behind the orange fabric in different lengths. Just because I can. I pinned those all on, and then sewed them on the line I already sewed to attach the waistband.

I did a layer of red tulle, a layer of orange (that is more bright than I wanted) and 2 layers of black tulle. Nice and poufy

Next I put my elastic into the waistband casing

Sewed both ends shut, even with the casing.

And then I sewed the orange outer layer together with the casing, to finish the skirt. I did as close to the edge as I could.

And made sure the elastic was nice and secure.

Finished!! She wanted to wear the gloves, antenna, and wings, but I wouldn’t let her wear the wings yet….

Okay, here’s some other things that caught my eye if these skirts don’t do it for you.

This tulle skirt is awesome. I pretty much love it. Word to the wise, don’t think it’s that easy to dye tulle black. You’re better off buying it black. I speak from experience. This skirt is from Etsy.

Again, from Etsy and very similar, but still awesome. I guess it’s actually for a Prom or wedding, but I’d totally be a witch in that!

Here’s a round-up of some awesomely unique costumes. Go look at Catching Fireflies.

Welp, that’s all for now folks! If you want help/ideas, please let me know!

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Playing with Fabric

Okay, this isn’t anything new and mind-shattering, but it may help to have a bunch of tutorials all linked up together. First, here’s what I did for my costumes.

Take your shirt (which I wanted a brighter yellow, but it is what it is. Tape off what you don’t want painted.

Including the sides

I used the ruler to get perfectly space, nice straight lines.

Get your fabric paint (mine is leftover from this shirt)

Put something between your shirt so you don’t get paint on the back, like lots of cereal boxes and envelopes from the recycling

Paint your stripes.

Let dry for 4 hours flat.

Peel up your paint, and voila!

Is anyone really not sure what one of our costumes is? I mean, wings, antenna, and now a black and yellow striped shirt? So, here’s more tips and tricks of different fabric things you can do.

Of course, I have to point you towards my post on how to dye fabric. It’s a keeper. Best thing is you can do any color your heart desires. Rit has a whole color dyeing chart on their site to help too.

My friend IRL Natalie has a great tutorial for bleaching awesome shirts. Do some cross and bones, or ghost for Halloween! We actually did this recently for scouts (bless our hearts we’re Webelos leaders together!) First time using freezer paper, and it won’t be the last! Here’s some more bleach tutorials here and here and here from Lil Blue Boo. Don’t be scared of bleach, like I am . It’s fun and dangerous and makes unpredictable colors!

Let me just interject right here that you don’t have to buy ANYTHING for Halloween costumes. Just reuse or refashion what you have. I have a whole board here for Refashioning if you want some ideas, or check out our Tutorials.

How about some glitter? Pretty sure you guys can dream up lots of ideas with glitter, but here’s some shoes glitterized over at Teen Vogue.

 

I really want to get my hands on some Martha Stewart Craft paint, and think these shoes that Craft Test Dummies showed are perfectly Halloweeny.

What else can you do to make awesome costumes? Let me know what you’ve done or seen!

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Headwear

We interrupt to tell you this awesome deal! Pick Your Plum has iron on, glow in the dark, and chalkboard vinyl today!!!! Woot woot!

Also, Plaid Barn has Fold Over Elastic for only 99 cents a yard!!! Getting me a little somethin something.

Okay, here’s a couple of random tutes for head/hair stuff. I needed antenna, so I got a pack of 3 black elastic headbands, like these:

and some pipe cleaner, pompoms, and black thread and needle. I just wrapped the pipe cleaner around the headband:

and then sewed the pompoms on, not quite at the end of the pipe cleaner:

And then wrapped the pipe cleaner back over itself when the pompom was secure.

Super tricky headband, right?

Okay, now I did another experiment for anyone who wants to use it for Halloween. I got me a few packets of this:

But ignore the Grape flavor. It basically didn’t work. Then, you dump them with some water into a pan and boil it:

And once it’s boiling, you dip your hair in. As much or as little as you want.

Quite the steamy picture, eh?
So this is what my hair looked like before:

And then I dip dyed it in the strawberry koolaid to look like this:

And this:

I kept track so you could see how long it lasted.

If you bleach your hair, or color it a lot, yours will be a lot more vibrant than mine. Plus, my hair is dark. So keep that in mind. I don’t know about dyeing the whole head, but it’s not permanent, but it does take awhile to wash all the way out.

It’s very soft color now, but it’s still pink. So if that helps you do your hair awesome for Halloween, good deal! Here’s some more head/hair ideas for Halloween!

These headbands are just so much fun! Whether it goes with your costume or not, you should make one to wear to work that day. Don’t you think? Over at Sweet Charli.

If you haven’t seen these Rapunzel wigs floating around Pinterest, where were you ? It’s an idea you could use for making your own wig to work with your costumes. Over here at The Weekend Homemaker.

Here’s another take on Rapunzel wig. From Etsy.

This was inspired by the Rapunzel wigs, and looks like a labor of love. From Kyla at Funky Polka Dot Giraffe.
Here’s a bunch of awesome hair ideas for your girls!

Use the rings! Awesome! From Princess Piggies.

A skeleton! Ha! She has tons of hair ideas over at Princess Piggies. Go here to see awesome ones.

Okay, here’s a unique wig. Over at Knitty.com

Yarn wig here


Maybe you have a fairy in your costume line up? How beautiful is a hair flower wreath?
 
Perhaps something more subtle? How about some cute clay clips?

Or these clips from Etsy?

This one didn’t have a link, so apologies. But a very fun bow!

Some more fun bows from an Etsy shop.
Do you remember when I showed you all my pictures from Halloween’s past? I put a bunch of snakes in my hair here for Medusa

Or I sprayed Thing 1’s hair with colored hair spray here:

Go do a search for what you want to make and see if there’s anything out there for you! Hope some of these ideas helped! As always, let me know if there’s something you have a specific question on!

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