Halloween is not my jam. I think I’ve said this before . Somehow it’s made worse because I sew. I could just go to the thrift store and let them pick out whatever they want, but then a cloud of guilt follows me around until November. So I ask them what they want to be, and after all the “I want to be this! No I want to be that!” I put off the costume making. I know I am not alone on this. (more…)
I really thought I could pull off kcw outfit #3 for today, but I almost had a nervous breakdown because of some welt pockets. I thought it best to step away from the machine.
So instead I have some semi-homemade Halloween costumes to show you. I’m not Halloween’s biggest fan. There’s the costume decision and then the costume decision flip-flopping. Then the staying up late on a school night and bingeing on barf inducing candy. Not to mention the sugar hangover the next day and the fights about said candy the weeks that follow.
Yeah, not my jam. But this year, my kids actually let me off easy: they nailed down their costume decisions early and there wasn’t an enormous amount bizarro sewing to be done. For each costume I had to sew a few little bits and we either had or bought the rest at the thrift store.
I might even say I had fun sewing Halloween costumes this year. I’ve become more finicky the more I sew. I used to be able to slap stuff together on a whim, but now I prefer to measure and pin and iron until everything is just right (well, pretty much right). So going down in my studio and totally winging it was freeing.
In the space of about an hour (probably even less) I made Abe Lincoln’s beard and bow tie; Perry the Platypus’ feet, beak, and quilted tail; and a ninja balaclava that ties in the back.
We fashioned some cardboard into a top hat and a ninja thing. Really I’m not sure what those things are but they look cool and ninja-y, right?
We are all set to binge on barf inducing candy and go to school the next day with headaches! Happy Halloween!
This idea came about when Abbey from Aesthetic Outburst threw a fabulous birthday party with a “hand-stitched/granny chic theme” and as one of the decorations she painted a cross stitch design on a pumpkin. The whole party was beautiful, but this idea was extra awesome and I thought maybe I could cross stitch for real on a fake pumpkin. The project turned out even better than I hoped and so I’m sharing it with you. I know there are only 5 days until Halloween, but this is a quick-ish project and the pumpkins will last forever.
1.) First you need to choose a design. I found some great, simple Halloween cross stitch patterns here, but feel free to design your own. It’s easier than you think, I made a bat and a boo! by playing around with Xs in my sketch book (go ahead and copy mine if you like). Just remember, simple is better for this project and try not to put any of the design near the hole on the bottom of the pumpkin because it’s very hard to stitch there.
2.) Next, transfer the design to the pumpkin. To do this, I looked at the pattern and then with a pencil I made very light dots for where the ends of the Xs go (see photo above). I thought about coming up with some complicated way to get your pattern perfectly onto the pumpkin, but really I love the look of free hand cross stitch and I don’t think it needs to be perfect. If you want, you can lightly draw all the Xs on the pumpkin because the yarn will cover them up anyway.
3.) Now you need to poke all those holes. Take the bamboo skewer and poke straight down into the pumpkin.
4.) Ok, time to cross stitch. All I know about cross stitch I learned five minutes before I started this project! Thread your yarn needle with a piece of yarn no longer than your arm, no need to tie a knot. Stick you hand in the pumpkin (if you hand doesn’t fit or it’s a squeeze, do yourself a favor and make the hole a little bigger) and insert your needle into one of the holes you’ve made. It can be difficult to find the right hole. To help, take your skewer in your other hand (the one not holding the needle in the pumpkin) and stick it in the correct hole, then by feeling for the skewer on the inside you can find it and draw your needle through. I started sewing at the bottom of my design and Xed my way around until I was done. It’s fastest to sew with both hands: one staying in the pumpkin and one out.
And that’s it. I think this project could go so many ways. A ghost done on a black pumpkin with some super fuzzy white mohair would look super cool. You don’t need to stick with cross stitch–any simple embroidered design would work. Go crazy with it and if you do be sure to add it to the elsie marley flickr group so we can all see! Happy Halloween!
My mother didn’t care for halloween, to put it mildly, and really I don’t blame her: whining for expensive costumes that last for one night, demanding different ones at the last minute, coming home with a pillowcase full of candy and then belly aches and sugar melt downs for days. I can feel the hate for halloween in my genes, but I try to fight it. As long as I treat halloween costumes as quick and dirty projects then I’m not mad when they are rejected or ripped or ugly or whatever. A lot of people love halloween though and thank goodness because they make awesome costumes for us to ogle.
1. Baby Woodpecker, 2. Devil(ed) Egg, 3. Jedi Robe, 4. lace crown, 5. Star wars birthday courtesy of oliver and s and ottobre, 6. angry/suprised owl, 7. Infant Elvis Costume, 8. week 9.2, 9. in lieu
This is just a small selection of the fantastic tutorials out there for kids’ halloween costumes. The creativity and the construction of these costumes blows me away. If you know of any good tutorials (or have made some yourself) please leave a comment linking to it. And get ready because the challenge starts on Monday!
1. strong man 2. freezer paper skeleton costume 3. sock monkey 4. pukka costume 5. care bear costume 6. frankenstein 7. happy mutant three armed baby 8. last minute kids owl costume 9. daisy costume
It’s a little late for halloween pictures, but I had to take these after halloween. The costumes were made in the eleventh hour and there was just no time for pictures, plus it was weirdly hot here so wearing wool wasn’t really that fun. I used the Purl Bee pattern for the bunny hat and just changed the ears to make a cat and dog. The kitty tail I just made up as I went along and as I went along I noticed I didn’t have any velcro, so I had to steal some off a bag. I used wool felt for the doggie and mostly fleece for the kitty and though the wool is wonderful and natural the fleece actually worked better. It was a little harder to sew, but stands up better to kid life. These hats are great for dress up, but I think next time I would use some elastic instead of the ribbon ties, or nothing (because really they’ll stay on just fine). Otherwise you’ll be tying and untying and freaking out that someone is going to strangle themselves. This was actually the first time I made my kid’s costumes–I do think halloween should be a homemade holiday, but it can be a royal pain in the butt when your children want to be something different every other day. Somehow my 3 year old decided what everyone should be and stuck with it for a week (I was to be a fairy and I did make the wings, but wire hangers are a lot harder to bend then you would think and I looked like a smashed fairy). So even though they hardly wore the costumes on halloween, they are getting plenty of use these days.
