The Post-Halloween Post

Ahh, Halloween. My favorite holiday. There is nothing I don't love about it.

I try to make our costumes every year and have been pretty successful with making most of them (except for the few years when my middle son wanted store-bought super hero costumes and couldn't be persuaded on anything else.)  BUT to be honest, the last few years the self-made costumes have been sort of halfassed and thrown together on halloween morning. (As an example - one year, I ran some yarn though some faux fur scraps I had and made my man wear it as a loin cloth and go as a cave man......he felt more then a little exposed and cold that year. :) 

This year was the first year that I really felt accomplished and satisfied with how everything turned out........I think the key was starting early. Who knew? LOL!  At the beginning of the month I started bugging my family to decide what they wanted to be. The nine year old wanted scary, the two year old wanted candy, the man wanted coverage.......I wanted to be able to finish before there were trick or treaters at the door. Still it took two more weeks of pestering to get some firm decisions out of them. I was thrilled when it was decided and I could go to work. Since I had four costumes to make, I decided that I would be a little thrifty with fabric and went cheap. Too cheap. BIG, HUGE MISTAKE! 


I went to the local big-box store and got an arm full of their cheapest costume satin. I had figured that these costumes would be worn for a couple hours and then put away in a box for memories sake. I wrongfully assumed that even cheap-o fabric would be okay for such an easy job. No washing, no daily wear........just look good for a few hours and retirement. 

Well I started on my older son's costume. He wanted to be the Grim Reaper. I used McCall's 5952 for his robe. The problems started immediately. I needed about 6 yards of black satin. I started cutting and the fabric just disintegrated. I don't mean it was fraying. I mean it fell apart. No tugging or pulling necessary. It just fell apart. I tried to double stitch it.....and it wouldn't hold a stitch. It would just fall out.....no ripping sound, nothing........the fabric just refused to stay together. I have never seen anything like it. Yet I refused to give up. I just kept trimming and pinking and working it.  In the end, I did manage to get the robe together but it is just a total eyesore on the inside. THANKFULLY, he didn't notice and loved it. I added a couple layers of shear fabric inside the hood with the bottom neck area left open so that he could cover his face for the blacked out look and still keep it removable so he could see. We also made a homemade scythe. 

On to The Man's costume.......he didn't want to feel quite so exposed this year (I wonder why?) So we decided on a full body costume for him. One 1980's sweater pattern, six yards of red felt, and another yard of neon yellow felt and he was transformed into the ever cool.....ALVIN! 

I think it turned out awesome. I basically wasn't able to use the pattern other then to look at the way they did the turtle neck since I found it in a thrift store and it was a ladies small. After the horrible experience with the black satin, I was THRILLED to work with the felt. Oh sweet felt! No fraying, no slipping, no cussing. It was great. I laid it out on the kitchen floor and made him lay on top of it. I then cut around his body in the general shape. I then stitched it together and made  him slip it on so I could cut the top around his neck and shoulders to fit. I only stabbed him with my scissors once or twice before he started to flinch too much and I had to do the rest by guessing and estimating. LOL! I used one of his hats to make the necessary red ball cap. Only I have never sewn a ball cap before and it turned out a little bit small on him. (Which I found deeply amusing to see him in the itty bitty ball cap - him, not so much) I used the same red felt as the rest of his costume and cut up a cereal box to make the brim. We layed the yellow felt on top of the red cut out front section and eyeballed the placement and size. After the "A" was cut - I quick stitched it on without turning in the edges - because every once in a while......I just don't care to care. ;) All in all, the Alvin costume was the quickest and easiest to make. (Good thing since I did wind up making it on Halloween morning.) It took just a couple hours or so and even though it wasn't the straightest or most carefully done, I really enjoyed it and it got big reactions the whole night. He was covered and warm and his only complaint was that he felt really conspicuous in it as people would see him and yell "ALVIN!!!"  


And The baby.....My little Count Dracula. This was my most labored over costume. It was four pieces; shirt, pants, vest, cape and I wanted it to be perfect. I had a mental image in my mind and wanted to see it come  to life. As a Count, I wanted  him to be smashingly dressed.

I started with the pants. I used McCalls 6222 and a black polyester material (again from the cheap-o section) and red satin to make the pockets. The red satin seemed to hold up slightly better then the black but not a whole lot. It would at least stay in one piece during the cutting and sewing. I choose to go with the straight leg version of the pants sans cargo pocket. (I figured that the Count wouldn't have cargo pockets and I was wanting a dress pant look.
Now I don't know about other people's two year olds........but mine isn't the easiest to get to stand still for fittings and measurements....So I did manage to get the pants on him  once before the big day but it was while he was trying to kick them off......so I just estimated the hem length and hoped for the best (which is really how I do most sewing anyway, hope for the best and expect the worst. LOL!)

Next was the Vest. I used the red satin for the front again, and the hated black satin for the back. It wasn't quite the nightmare as the large robe was but it still wasn't pleasant. I won't lie, I cussed still..........but you can't really use that as a gage, since I'm known for my cussing skills.

I used McCalls 4290 for the vest in view A but elected to only use two buttons since three bats seemed one bat too many. I used the red satin for the tie in the back as an accent. 

I went back to McCalls 6222 for the white shirt. I used the long sleeve version but made a few changes, I didn't but cuffs on the shirt but kept the darts. I also didn't create the opening that would traditionally go in between the darts on the cuff. Instead, I replaced it with small bat buttons to go with our theme. I also didn't use buttons to close up the front. I was working on this shirt the night before and decided that the buttons would be under the vest anyway....so I stitched the front closed about three quarters of the way up from the bottom leaving enough of an opening around the neck to slip it over his huge head of curls and placed a larger bat button at the neck line for a closure. 

I also added ruffles to both sides of the front of the shirt by taking small rectangles of the same fabric and straight stitching five even rows next to each other, I then pulled on the bobbin thread creating a ruching effect. I then stitched the ruched rectangles onto the shirt. I was happy with the look. 

Lastly, The Count's Cape. I didn't have a pattern for this one and made it up as I went along.I really, REALLY wanted the inside to have that coffin-ish feel with the red satin ruched. 

  I used the black satin again....I know, I know.......it didn't fail to disappoint me this time either. Maybe I like the pain a little, but I was determined to use what I had. I basically made a triangle with a curved bottom and a curved neck out of the black to use as my size guide. I then cut the red satin slightly wider and about a foot longer then the black. I used the same ruching technique of  pulling on the bobbin thread. Only this time I did double rows of stitching in case one thread broke. I had to sit and work the fabric down the thread from both ends to get the satin to bunch up over the whole length of the cape. I used interfacing on both sides of the pointed collar to get it to stand up a little more.......I wish I would have used heavier interfacing or a third fabric so it would stand up perfectly, but all in all - I was thrilled with how it turned out. I used a length of black velvet trim I had in my stash for the tie around the neck. It gave it that final fancy touch.

In the end it took me about two weeks to get through every ones costumes and I was sewing right up until about an hour before we had to leave but I felt really good about it. I did run out of time for my costume, so I went as MOM this year...........yelling things like "look both ways before you cross the street" and "let me see that before you eat it" etc. 

 So tell me about your Halloween costume adventures..........