Happy Halloween!

I thought I'd leave the nieces' Halloween outfits until tonight to post, but with hindsight I'd probably have been better off posting sooner.  Ah well.

First up, Katie.  She knew that she wanted to be a vampire.  To start with we thought we'd get away with letting her wear Charlotte's old vampire costume.

It fitted alright, but Katie doesn't like things rough on her skin.  She didn't like the velcro attaching the collar or the spider web tulle sleeves.  We should have known better.  I remember when she was a toddler hunting around for seamless socks for her!  We couldn't find a design that she was totally happy with.  I was hoping that we could persuade her into some kind of Goth get-up.  We did find a picture of a 'grown up' vampire, with a very short ruffled skirt.  We liked the ruffles, but the rest of the outfit was not appropriate for a seven year old.  I drew a beautiful (I'm sure you'll agree!) picture of what I had in mind.  I was thinking Victorian/Goth, with really long sleeves and a big collar.

I used the basic bodice from Simplicity 2569 (the infamous witches dresses)

With the sleeves from Simplicity 5520 (Merida and Elsa).  

For the skirt I drafted a basic A-line skirt and added lots of layers of ruffles.  I was very sick of gathering layers of fabric by the end.  Actually that's a lie, I was sick of gathering by the end of the first layer.  The collar I drafted myself, and may one day do a tutorial for it.  I know, you just can't wait, can you?  To eliminate the problem with the scratchy velcro, I put buttonholes in the back of the dress and sewed buttons onto the collar itself, so that the buttons would point outwards.  I will give credit where credit is due at this point, that bit was Other Half's idea.

While making this dress, the ruffles did look a bit unfortunate.  That is to say, it looked like something a barmaid in the Wild West would wear, or, as my Mam said, Nancy from Oliver.  I think it looks better finished, so here you are, one Victorian/Goth/Lady of the Night Halloween costume!

  

And from the back

I have to say, I think this is one of my favourite dresses I've made.

On to Charlotte.  Charlotte wanted to be a witch.  We trawled the internet looking for inspiration.  Nothing was right.  Until we found a picture of a GOOD witch.  It turns out she wanted to be Glinda from 'Oz The Great And Powerful'.

Oh dear.  It's got a crown!  Which was, of course, vital to the outfit.  In a reversal of Katie's costume, I used the dress from Simplicity 5520 and sleeves from Simplicity 2569.  The sleeves and front panel were made from a two-tone chiffon, decorated with some glitter glue.  The crown I made with gold painted corrugated card and a clear plastic hairband.  I know, so hi-tech!

During the making of Charlotte's outfit, I did look suspiciously like a nightie, although now it's done, I actually really like it.

Poor bairn did spend a lot of time at the school Halloween disco explaining who she was!  She seems to have learnt from this experience though.  When I asked her last week if she wanted a princess dress for Christmas she said she would like to be...

"With the horns and wings please Auntie Sandra."  Oh dear!

Back to the beginning...

Way back in about September of 2010 it was decided I should make Halloween costumes for the two nieces.   I can't remember how it came about.  I've obviously blocked it out.  Witches dresses were decided on.  I found and ordered a pattern.

Sizing on the pattern goes from 4 to 8.  Great, I thought, Charlotte was aged 6 1/2 and Katie was aged 3 1/2.  I thought I would make Katie size 4 as it was the smallest and Charlotte somewhere in the middle of the pattern sizes.  Seemed reasonable to me.  Oh how innocent I was!  I then measured the girls.  Turns out the pattern was too big for either of them.  It was one of my first "real" projects and I was scared about altering the pattern (I would soon learn!) so I think I made just the straight sizes.  I might have made Charlotte's slightly bigger than Katie's but I can't remember.  I think it says something about either the sizing of the pattern or the sizing of the children that they both still fit into them today!  In fact, they're probably nearer the correct size now 3 1/2 years later.

Back to the pattern.  I could just imagine them running around in two little versions of view D.  I had visions of Charlotte in a green and black version and Katie in orange and black.  Unfortunately they didn't agree.  I don't know why I gave them the choice really, but I still use green and orange when colour coding patterns for them.  Charlotte decided she wanted red and Katie wanted purple.  I used crepe backed satin, tulle and crushed velvet.  I couldn't get tulle the same colour as the satin for Katie's, but I quite like the two-toned effect.  I also used some black ribbon and some trim which I only remembered about when I started looking through the old photos.  I get completely lost when doing that.  I can't believe how young they look.  Anyway, here's some photos.  Please bear in mind that I hadn't really sewn anything but quilts until this point.

I particularly like how the dresses are supposed to be knee length if you look at the pattern picture!  I also like how the dresses hang off the poor bairns' shoulders.  I promise, I have got better at making the dresses fit them.  At least they were young enough not to be bothered by my mistakes.  The extra length makes twirling much more fun though.

I think the photo above shows just how much too big Katie's dress is.  It also shows the dresses were made pre me being brave enough to try sewing in invisible zips.  Once I tried I don't know why I was so scared.  They're awesome!

That's their proud faces.  Bless them.  Unfortunately for me this was just the beginning.  Every birthday and Christmas since they've had dress up outfits made.  I think this year we're due another Halloween outfit each too.  Watch this space!