That time of year again... Halloween.

It's that time of year again, when people find out you sew and start asking you to make costumes for them... (To which my response is, it's cheaper to buy commercial than to hire me, and my costume sewing is limited to pint-sized kids who look at me with big, sad eyes and beg!) I don't always make costumes for the kids. It's usually about every other year. By the time Grace was three, she'd figured out that if she wanted something, I could make it for her. And that was the beginning of... unusual costume requests. That year, it was a vampire pumpkin. This year, it was a creepy possessed, broken doll. So I went into the stash... and came up with a 1990s Simplicity Daisy Kingdom pattern. Luckily, the crinoline I made her last year still fit, so I didn't have to make one, and I had almost all the materials in my stash. Total cost? $1.75 because I didn't have a yellow 12" zipper. I drafted the pocket later, after Grace decided that the doll had a pet voodoo doll and we needed someplace for it to sit.

I used a gingerbread cookie cutter for the shape and partially modeled it after Lilo's doll, Squidge, from Lilo and Stitch. She's made from scrap and things I had laying around. Somehow, I think that the young women leaders who taught cross stitch and basic sewing every thought it'd be used for this! Apparently, said pet had to be chained to Grace, so I aged a bit of chain I had by pouring toilet bowl cleaner on it and letting it sit for 30 minutes. Hello, dolly!



To complete the look, Grace needed a really, really big bow...Ten inches here and made with wired ribbon so that it would stand up on top of her head. I figured out how to make basic bows when she was a toddler simply because of how expensive they are.



And then pantaloons. Which are from an out-of-print McCall's Ruffles and Lace pattern. I used leftover fabric from her baptism dress and ended up putting red ribbons on the outside of the legs and on the front of the waistband. The rest was all makeup.

Well, and a lot of attitude. The heart on the front says, "Hug Me," and she's covered in cracks that have been "stitched" back together.

The heart will be removed next week, because she's decided that she wants to wear the dress to church. No objections because without the pantaloons and heart, it's just a really pretty dress!

And next to who started it all.... Nicole wanted to be Jigglypuff. But with Jigglypuff costumes at $36, that just wasn't going to happen. I was staring at a picture, and realized that it was really fairly simple to make; after all, I've made pumpkin costumes before! That's right. Pumpkin costumes. But so we weren't wasting money, I made the under part out of Peekaboo Pattern Shop's Alex and Anna Winter pajamas. The hat is an out-of-print McCall's, with self-drafted ears and hair curl. And the shoe covers are from Simplicity's toddler Wizard of Oz pattern. 



But, well, according to the Pokemon experts at my house, Jigglypuff has a microphone. So I got my sister to crochet half a ball and got to work on a toilet paper tube...  And we have a recognizable Jigglypuff.

Little brother Alex wanted to be a Squirtle. So I repeated the process for him, only self-drafted a tail, used different colors for the front and back of his turtle shell, quilted in lines, and then went over them with black fabric paint. He loves it! Actually, at my congregation's Halloween party today, the tail ended up coming unsewn from the top, so I had to do some quick repair work for Monday.







It's whip stitched on top, you see, and he managed to pull it out. The white line is a matter of recycling. See, I'd decided that the hem of Grace's baptism dress needed some lightweight chain in it to make sure it wouldn't float up. And I put it in a white tube to make sure nothing showed through. Well... it made the dress not hang right, so I removed it. The chain became part of her Halloween costume, and the tube part of Alex's.

Here's a better view of the jammies. He's on the line of needing a 4, so that's what I made and they're a little baggy. But hey, they'll still fit next year!  What was really cute was a little boy dressed as a Pokemon trainer decided he had to "capture" the wild Squirtle and spent several minutes and many different attempts with styrofoam pokeballs trying to do it. And then he moved on to our Jigglypuff!





Total cost for the little ones was about $11 each and that included jammies to wear later. Usually, sewing is about the same for making it as buying it. But just not so this year for Halloween costumes. The kids look great, and I got to make them something that was either too expensive or unavailable that can be reused later. So, do y'all think it was worth the effort?

A special dress for a special day

In my church, we baptize at eight years old at the earliest. Grace has just turned eight, and thus needed an all-white dress. My grandmother made mine thirty years ago. She was an amazing seamstress, and compared to her, I'm a baby beginner! Because white fabric is see-through when wet, I started with a white cami and panties. Thus far, the cami is unhemmed and will remain so until next week. That way, I'm sure it's long enough! I used Peekaboo Pattern Shop's Classic Panties and Camisole pattern. The fit is excellent, and the pattern is sooo addictive! I made 36 pairs of panties from this pattern last year, and 14 camis.

With the first layer taken care of, I moved on to a slip. Next up was an out-of-print McCall's pattern, McCall's 4505, combined with the embroidery from a vintage Simplicity pattern. (Simplicity 2558)

I made the a-line slip, lengthened it by 3.5 inches (well, 5, but I shortened it later because it hung below the dress!) and embroidered it using the embroidery from the Simplicity pattern.




I know slips are kinda old-fashioned these days. You can't really buy them anymore, but well, transparent when wet!  Thirty years ago, my grandmothers and my mother would have had a heart attack if I wore a dress without one, but these days it's standard. Grace has declared that this will be her new nightgown after the fact.






And on to the main event! Vogue 7664 from 2002 was already in my stash and kinda what I wanted. I made a few changes to the pattern, by fully lining it and adding embroidery to the middle panel. I kinda mixed the two views together because I wanted the bodice and collar from the long sleeved version and short sleeves. I also lengthened it because 6X wasn't at knee length for her. I made a six and added three inches. I used the sash embroider from View B in the center panel as well.

 Here is a detail of the embroidery that I stole from the apron pattern and put on the dress. I also featherstitiched the hems, including the skirt lining, because I'm nuts.

 The collar is embroidered as well, and I'm very, very tired of bullion roses! There were 42 just on the skirt, and I haven't counted the ones on the bodice and sash.

 I can't get the dang thing to rotate, so I'm afraid they're on their side. Here's the whole dress. It's made from sheermist cotton/poly batiste from Hobby Lobby. Cotton batiste would be more traditional, but it's well out of my budget. Last time I looked 100% cotton batiste was $25/yard. I can buy silk for less! Now that the blood stains from pricking my fingers are gone, it's all white, which is important for occasions such as this.


So was it worth the three weeks I spent on it?