My Little Pony Costumes

For some reason, I really wanted the girls to be characters from My Little Pony this year for Halloween. I was stuck, however, on the whole mane and crown thing. Do I get a wig and dye it? Do I buy a bunch of yarn?  I wanted something cute and easy but not insanely expensive. I was stuck.

I did some web searches and found lots of cool cosplay outfits. One, in particular, fit exactly what I wanted. It was a fleece hoody vest with fleece mane, wings, horn and crown. It's perfect for Colorado Halloweens, where it can be sunny or snowing. And the whole thing was pretty easy.

Supplies

• Hoodie sweatshirt with matching pants (I got mine at WalMart and Hanes.com)
• Fleece, 1/4 to 1/2 yard per color, depending how how many colors you need. Princess Celestia has 4 colors, Princess Luna has 2
• Regular felt for crown, necklace, horn and cutie mark
• Stiff felt for the wings
• Glitter paint for fabric
• Velcro
• Tracing paper
• Craft/fabric glue
• Needle, thread

The first step is to sketch the pattern for the mane and tail. I traced around the hood and then drew my pattern pieces on that.

  

I drew my pieces on tracing paper individually, then cut them out of the fleece.

Then, I pinned the pieces to the sweatshirt and sewed them. I decided the mane looked a little anemic with only one layer, so I cut and sewed a couple more layers.

For the wings, I drew patterns on tracing paper, then cut them out of extra-stiff felt.  The horn was cut out of a piece of regular felt and glued shut.  To give them a little more shine, I added some detail with glitter fabric paint.

The next step was to attach the wings and horn. Since this is a kid's costume, I want to be able to wash it. The extra-stiff felt isn't washable, I didn't want to permanently attach the wings. I decided to sew the hook side of a velcro strip to the back of the sweatshirt. The felt will stick easily to it, but if you wanted, you could glue the matching loop side to the back of the wings.  I hand-sewed the horn to the top of the mane, after sewing down the top of the mane so nothing would flop around.

Next, I cut out and glued the "cutie mark" to the bottom left of the hoodie.

I cut the crown and necklace out of regular felt and added a glitter fabric paint jewel.

I hand-stitched the crown to the hoodie, behind the horn. Since the hoodie's have a zip front, I sewed two pieces of velcro on the shoulder seams so the necklace can be taken on and off easily.

And that's it! I think they look so cute and unique. With coupons at JoAnns and getting the sweatsuits at a good price, I don't think cost more than a store-bought outfit. 

The Bean loves hers, just look at that face!

The Belly decided she didn't want to be Princess Luna but wanted to be a ladybug again. Since I still have her costume from last year, I didn't really mind. Here's what the Luna costume looks like, minus a model.

That's it! Happy Halloween!

Pull-Apart Cinnamon Apple Bread

Since the apple pie and cake were so successful, I wanted to find another way to use the apples from our tree.  Luckily, I get the email newsletters from King Arthur Flour and one had a link to a delicious-looking Pull-Apart Cinnamon Apple Bread.

This is an amazing recipe to make on a nice fall day.  The filling, with apples, cinnamon and brown sugar, fills the house with an amazing aroma.  It's a yeast bread, so there's a few hours where the dough has to rise, so plan accordingly.  And be ready to make a bit of a mess.  The filling is a little syrup-y and will ooze when you cut and stack the bread.  It might look like a hot mess and you'll doubt this will work, but never fear. After rising and then baking, it will all turn out okay.

It is definitely amazing warm with butter on it, but I'm wondering what other toppings would be delicious.

Spiderweb Skirt

Halloween is around the corner and it's time to start thinking about costumes. I usually don't both with anything, maybe an embelleshed shirt at most. But this year, I saw a really cute spiderweb skirt in a catalogue and thought, "I can make that!"

 

It was really easy. The original was an appliqué, but I didn't feel like all the cutting and sewing.  I didn't have enough heat transfer vinyl in white and also figured there would be too much matching and ironing (and cursing) if I went that route. Finally, I decided on white fabric paint.

I got some black bottom-weight fabric 1.5 the width of my hips. I used my tailor's chalk and a yardstick to draw the web. I drew the longer strands out from the center and randomly drew connecting segments. I painted over the chalk with my fabric paint.

For the spiders, I downloaded a spider design from Silhouette, cut it out of card stock, and used it as a stencil. 

Then, I hemmed the bottom, sewed up the side, and made an casing for an elastic waist.  It was really easy and quick. It took longer for the paint to dry than any of the other steps.

I'm going to wear it with a black shirt, black-and-white striped stockings, black shoes and a witch hat. Not a costumey costume, but enough to get me in the, erm, "spirit".