DIY Vampire & Skeleton Costumes

It's days before Halloween and I'm not scrambling to find a costume.  Hurray!!!  This year was relatively easier than last year.  How?  I mixed and matched this year to get a costume that worked for both kids.

#1 wanted to be a vampire and I already had the shirt, amulet, and pants.  All I had to do was buy some Halloween Satin at Fabricland for his vampire cape ($8).  #2 wanted to be a skeleton again like last year.  Unfortunately, his shirt was too small.  So I went to H&M to buy a basic black shirt and found a skeleton shirt for $6.  I was able to re-use the pants. Yay!!!

We went to two Halloween events this weekend. On Saturday, we went to the safety village.  It was chilly, so their costumes were covered by hats, gloves, jackets and rain boots.  Kinda ruins the effect but I'd rather have a covered skeleton than a sick skeleton.

The village has the right about of "spookiness".  It is an event designed for little kids so you won't find people hiding in corners just to scare you. 

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't excited to see the McDonald's truck.  I'll take a double double please!

On Sunday, we went to the museum and trick or treated amongst the historic homes.  Swoosh goes the cape!

Love seeing olden time tools

My favourite is the general store.  It's so cute!

The kids liked the Blacksmith the best... something about the horns and fire.

After the weekend, #2 asked, "are we going to go trick or treating for a third time tomorrow?".   It's so fun to be a kid!!

Happy Halloween!

DIY Knight Costume - Part 2

Last year, I made Joshie a templar knight costume.  It was a little too big last year but it fits perfectly now.  He agreed to wear it again since none of the kids at his new school have seen it yet.  I was starting to get worried that I'd be making something last minute.

We put on his costume and practiced trick-or-treating over on main street.  It was cold and so most of his costume was hidden under a bulky jacket and gloves.  Then I realized, he needs a cape/cloak!!!

So I made him a cape which took no more than 30 min and we are now set.  Maybe it'll rain again this year, or maybe it'll snow.  Either way, he'll look like he's wearing a costume.

Here's a side by side.  I used some old fabric that I had in my stash that was originally intended for me.

My model was at school so the mannequin had to stand in.

Here's how I did it.

First I folded my fabric in half.  If I made the cape shorter, then I would have cut it out (like in pic 1) and continued on.  However, my fabric wasn't long enough so I had to join some more fabric to complete the arc (pic 2)

This is what the joined fabric looked like.  

After I cut out the arcs, the rest was just finishing touches.

I did a rolled hem with my serger around the entire cape (except for the neckline).

Then I used some bias tape to bind up the neckline

Easy peasy!  Maybe I need one too...