Halloween Costumes

This year, I made the girls' costumes. Because I'm crazy.

I made a purple and black dress for The Bean, from Simplicity 2569 and a "wady-buggy" costume from Simplicity 2788 for The Belly.

The dress was made out of satin, crushed velvet and tulle--3 fabrics I had never sewn with before. The satin and velvet are really slippery, which made cutting them out somewhat tricky. I had to re-cut a few pieces before I got a bodice I was happy with. And have you ever tried to rip stitches out of tulle? It's nigh impossible.

However, the final product was a huge success. After a switch of witch hat for wings, and antenna from bumpy chenille stems and a headband, a beautiful butterfly was born.

The ladybug costume was easier to make, but had its own challenges. The body is lined with fleece, gathered at the bottom with elastic and the wings and shoulders are attached with velcro. The dots are just ironed on with strong fusible webbing.

The elastic casing on the bottom was a little hard to sew, just because of the fabric thickness. I also made a change to the wings. The pattern calls for 2 layers of felt to be fused together with webbing, but they were too floppy for my taste. So, I put stabilizer between the felt and sewed around the edges, using double-fold bias tape as trim. The pattern also includes a jumpsuit, made from velour, but I decided The Bean could wear a black shirt and pants and save myself some sewing.

She wasn't a fan of the antenna hat, so she went without, but was still incredibly cute.