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!

Halloween Costumes: Easy Skeleton DIY and Obi-Wan

We get pretty excited about Halloween over here for a couple of reasons:  1) dress up time!  and 2) it's getting closer to Joshie's birthday. 

For Obi Wan - It was really easy to put together his costume.  Unfortunately I didn't make a tutorial because part of this costume was made this past February.  Both kids were invited to a Star Wars themed party and I made him a raglan sleeve Obi-Wan robe.  While I might have grumbled a bit (a lot!) while sewing Josh his robe, I am so thankful now that I didn't have to sew as much.   All I had to do was make a vest and a sash to go over the vest.  This costume is great because it can go under his winter coat, or over it!

I wanted Teo to be a knight so I could re-use this costume.  But, he wears hand me downs all the time and Halloween is his chance to decide what to wear.  For months, he said he wanted to be a vampire and he ran around the house wearing last year's bat cape.  Then he decided he wanted to be a skeleton. Yay!  We had everything at home to make his costume except for pants which I ended up buying at Walmart for $6.

So here's how to make it.

You need:

• Long sleeve black t shirt
• Long pants 
• White jersey scraps
• Heat n bond

Before you start, find your inspiration.  This was mine.

 
Make a template for the bones.  Then draw your bones into the heat 'n bond paper.  Remember that you need to draw the picture on the inverse as you will fuse the paper to the back of your jersey.  I forgot, so I had to redraw some of the bones.  Make sure you keep the template in a ziploc bag in case you need to make another costume. Once you have the bones drawn, fuse the heat 'n bond to the back side of your jersey fabric.  Cut out your pieces.

Layout is important so peel off the heat 'n bond paper and line up your bones on the shirt and pants.

Make sure that the "arm" bones go on top of the arm vs on the side.

If it all looks good, iron it on.  You don't have to sew on the bones.  As the hip bones are close to the opening, I used a straight stitch to sew around the bones for added strength.

Now we have a skeleton to go with our front yard's graveyard.

The kids have worn their costumes 3 times already.  Once to their grandparents, and twice for pre-Halloween trick or treating at Bruce's Mill and the Museum.  Hey Batman!!

We went to the mall yesterday and Josh pointed out this costume at H&M.  Sigh...  Although I have this thing where I have to make the costumes, I have to remind myself that it's ok to buy one once in a while.

Happy Halloween - I hope you have your costumes ready!

DIY Knight Costume

When Joshie was little, he was superbaby, then a police man, and then batman. This year we decided that it might be time for someone that wasn't a superhero.  So when I asked him what he wanted to be, he said "Wolverine".  Yikes... I really had no idea how I was going to make that happen.  Lucky for me, we had a book about knights at home and he liked the idea about being a knight.

I found this tutorial in Dutch on making a knight's costume.  It was hard to follow since google translate wasn't doing a great job translating from Dutch to English.  So I ended up making my own pattern.

Materials Used:
1M of gaberdine (not the best choice for a kid's costume but it's what I had)
Approx 5M of bias tape for the trim and belt loops
Scrap black fabric for the waist band
White and red jersey scrap fabric
Two snap buttons

Heat n Bond

Measure measure measure your child.   The most important parts to measure are:  head circumference for the neck and shoulder circumference since this is a pull over costume.  Length can be whatever you want it to be. 

As of this posting, I did not make him a hood because he said he wouldn't wear it. I'm sure if I chose something other than gaberdine, he would have been ok.  Memo to me for future costumes:  only use 100% cotton!

By the time I sorted out my fabric, he was sleeping so I couldn't measure him.  I used Bear Bear's head as a guide.

When I was finally able to get him to try it on, this is what it looked like.  Eek!  Too big!

I solved that problem by adding two snap buttons on each side about 2" above the waist band.

The applique was fused on using fusible web and I stitched the white crest down using a large straight stitch.  I didn't bother stitching down the templar cross.  It was fused well enough that I didn't bother.  After all, this will be worn 3 times at most and then maybe Baby Bunny will wear it later on when he's big enough.  I considered using our family's coat of arms but it was really detailed.

Here's a detail shot.  This would have been a great opportunity to try mitred corners using bias tape but I just folded the tape over and sewed it down.

Here's a front/back shot

Here we are trying it on outside.  He's using a stick in place of his sword since we forgot it inside the house.  Hubby made a "Samara" from the movie "The Ring".  He used Batman's head from last year's costume, thrifted shirt/nightdress from the Salvation Army, two left hands from the Dollarama, a wig, and a bunch of plastic bags to make this creepy scene.

And another back shot on on our neighbour's driveway.   He's looking for the bunny that hopped over the yard.

Can't wait for trick or treating!