So I know I already put the pictures up on facebook, but our costumes need to be immortalized on the blog as well ;) And I’ll tell you how I made them too!
We actually decided on our costumes last month, which is a good thing, because I’m not gonna lie, these were a lot of work, and my progress came in spurts with a crazy napper little man.
Nathan was the cutest penguin EVER (if not the most excited…) and I used the tutorial found HERE and resized it to fit my 5 1/2 month old (hers was for her 9 month old). It was super easy and relatively quick to put together. I managed to get it done in a day – but that was because my in-laws were visiting and Grandma could keep the little man occupied while I sewed! ;) Thanks again Grandma!
John’s Bert costume was also pretty easy. John went and found a khaki colored suit jacket at the thrift store for like $8 or something and I painted the stripes on. I just used painters and masking tape to get the stripes (relatively) straight. His bow tie was made using the tutorial HERE (can you tell I love her stuff?!) and we just folded up the leftover fabric for the pocket square (though I don’t think Bert has a pocket square in the movie…I just thought it looked nice). His cane was put together by my father-in-law when they were in town. I had purchased an old umbrella at the thrift store, because it had a sweet curve-shaped handle. My father-in-law detached the handle from the umbrella (he sawed it off), bought a dowel with a similar thickness, and attached the two using a peg and wood glue. John stained it later and it ended up being pretty close to the color of the handle. John wore a white button up shirt under the jacket and some white pants. I also scored some white shoes at the thrift store to complete the look. I love our thrift store!
Bert is also supposed to have a hat. I ordered a sweet boater’s hat at the beginning of the month and on the 2nd I got an email telling me it had been shipped. It did not come in time. Our party was on the 23rd. The month is almost over. I’m highly annoyed. I ordered my hat at the same time, and it was shipping from Hong Kong and I got it within the week. Not pleased, my friends. Not pleased. Okay. Rant over.
Okay, my costume. It is not actually a dress. I was not ready to conquer the world of dress making with my crazy little man robbing me of long stretches of time, and I’m not that skilled a seamstress, so the ‘dress’ is in parts. My inspiration came from HERE (surprised? Aren’t they so cute?!). I sewed the skirt with two layers each of costume satin and chiffon to make it nice and full and I just finished the top with a really wide elastic. I also used her tutorial for the cummerbund. Piping is tricky. The ‘bodice’ is just a dress shirt – from the thrift store – that I dressed up. It was actually huge on me (there was no where for me to try it on before I bought it) and so I had to take in the sides. Then it fit perfectly! I took off the original sleeves and made smaller lace ones that fit the smaller arm holes (they got smaller once I took in the side seams). Then I added ruffles and lace to the front! I ordered a white wide brimmed hat off amazon and wrapped tulle around the base and and added my little chin-tie thing. I made some flowers with leftover red satin from my cummerbund and put those on one side. My parasol was actually another old umbrella from the thrift store that I remade using the tutorial HERE. I also got the tutorial on my boot covers there too. Whew! And that was it!
I’m really, really pleased with the way it all turned out. We got lots of rave reviews at our ward’s trunk or treat!
So is it bad that I already know what I want to do for next year? ;)
1 comment:
Super cute costumes!
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