Halloween.

Confession, I still don't love sewing for Halloween.  I should, because my kids get so excited about it.  And the twins are still wearing their Elsa and Anna from last year, so I shouldn't mind putting a lot of effort in to something that will be well loved, but I just can't... 

This year the twins knew immediately what they wanted to be.  Georgia wanted to be a witch, then I suggested maybe Izzy should be a kitty (the witch's kitty).  It stuck and they never changed their minds.  I will be sad someday when they end up without coordinating costumes. 

For Georgia, we had borrowed a costume from Grandma but managed to misplace it, so I talked her in to using her recently made Fairy Tale dress with some cute tights.  

She wanted a green face 'cause that's what witches have' but with the stipulation that she 'was still a nice witch'.  

Elizabeth the kitty has an Oliver and S School Bus T-shirt in a size 4 with length added to the sleeves.  I used a RTW pair of leggings and a kitty kit from the Halloween aisle. 

They make an adorable pair, I think.

 Abby went easy on me and chose a Ninja Turtle, the mask from the kit was too small, so she used a scrap piece of knit to make the eye band.

The kids were on their way to a church activity and they requested no masks at the party, so Jack used one of his old costumes from a few years ago.  At the time we had to roll up his pants and safety pin them.  So glad I didn't cut them off like Ben suggested!

He really wanted to be a Lego man, so for our family party and his school parade that is what he went as.  He will do the skeleton for trick-or-treating as he can't see out of the head when it is dark outside, plus it would have been hard to go door to door in.

Dear Pinterest, thank you.  I saw this idea popping up early in October and decided to give it a go.  He is my only baby to love the pacifier for this long.  Iz took one until about 6 months, but none of the other kids did.  He depends on it, it's bad.  I try to keep it limited to nap/bed time, but sometimes if he is crazy bad in public I give in, it calms him immediately.

Anyways, I used the O+S  Field Trip Raglan, size 18 months, and the O+S Playtime leggings, size 18 months.  I found this rad french terry that has a bit of a sheen to it, I knew it would be perfect for looking like a wet suit.

I couldn't find a pair of black socks in or around his size, so while I was at the dollar store today picking up the black tape and yellow gloves for Jack I spied a pair of toddler sized mittens.  Perfect!  I just sewed the thumb hole shut and cut it off, it worked out great.

He didn't love when we strapped the 'tank' to him, which is why it is so low on him, but quickly stopped trying to take it off.

Happy Halloween!

Monochrome Fairy Tale dresses.

Ever since I heard about the monochrome project I have had this specific dress in my head.  I wanted to make a thick striped, pleated Fairy Tale, and a white with black block printed Fairy Tale.  Well, one of those came together in time.  Then I saw a gorgeous Cotton and Steel black and white print at my local shop, then spotted a pretty black lace and knew it was fate.  

The girls were so excited when they saw the dresses.

I can't believe I've never made a sleeveless version of this dress, I love it.  In retrospect, I should have had white at the top of the skirt, oh well.

I pieced together the black and white fabrics, then cut out the dress.  I found it oddly satisfying.

I made the underskirt the same length as the over skirt and added lace to it, but it wasn't like I had imagined.  In my mind, you'd be able to see it peeking out at all times, but that didn't quite work.  So I also added some to the outer skirt.

I also left the darts off both dresses.

George loves this one.  I tried to put the stripes on her, and she said she wanted 'the pretty one'.

And Iz was just excited to get a new dress.

Princesses.

 Tomorrow these two princesses turn four, I almost can't believe it!  Jack turned seven the end of May, Sam turns one next week and Abby ten the week after- then we're done with birthday season 'round these parts!

For their birthday, Grandma wants to take them to a princess show tonight at our local outdoor theater- wish us luck, ha!  Not only is it at 8:45 pm, it's blazing hot.  Hopefully it cools off once the sun goes down.

So, I decided they needed princess dresses to go to the show, and in true me fashion I finished them up at the last minute.  To be fair, I only knew for about two weeks and Sam was super sick all last week, so I didn't have a ton of time.

I figured the easiest way to go was with the Fairy Tale Dress, I have used it before for a Cinderella and an Anna.  I wanted them to last, but not be crazy big, so I only went one size up (well, probably two for George), using a size 5.  I also used the Library Dress sleeves with some added width and an added band.

Georgia has long been obsessed with Rapunzel, I don't know if it's because she looks like her (blonde hair and green eyes) or she loves the color purple, but I knew she'd flip over this one.  And I was right, she was soooo excited when she saw it!

Elizabeth was harder to choose for, and since it was a surprise I didn't ask ahead of time.  She isn't *as* thrilled, but she does like it.  She still loves her Anna dress, but I figured it would be too hot with the long sleeves and guessing she'd insist on the cape too.

Now my mind is spinning with ideas for more ways to customize this pattern for princesses, though I don't recommend making two Fairy Tale dresses in two days, ha!

The Frozen crew.

The twinsies decided really early on they just *had* to be Elsa + Anna for Halloween, like I am sure many, many other girls will also be.  They couldn't be talked out of it and insisted Jack be Olaf, well, Jack wasn't interested so Sam stepped up and took one for the team.  

Since I didn't want to be like every other under 10yo girl, I decided to do more of an 'inspired by' set of costumes. 

He looks thrilled, right? HA! He really doesn't mind the costume, he just didn't like them holding him.

I used the free tutorial/pattern for Olaf found on the Peek-a-boo pattern blog, it was super easy to follow.

I bought a hat and hand sewed the face on.  The eyes are felt, the nose is fleece and the hair is pipe cleaners.

Under his costume is his football onesie.  It's looking like it will be a warm one, but if it gets too cold I have a pair of pants to add.

Next, my little Anna.  How lucky am I that they each picked one and didn't fight over Elsa.

True story, I have never seen Frozen.  I had to google the characters, ha!  The kids watch it at their grandparent's house, but I am thinking we might need to get it for Christmas.

The dress was inspired by this one in the O+S flickr group.

The dress is the Oliver + S Fairy Tale Dress, size 4 minus the darts.  The sleeves are from the Library Dress, the skirt was lengthened with added width and the front was painted on.

For the cape I used the School Bus Tee as a base.

She loves it soooo much.  It was a little tricky because she didn't want to stand still once she realized it had a great twirl factor.

I tried a new brand of paint this time and am really hoping it holds up, I can see this one getting a lot of wear, they wore them for most of the afternoon though I made them take the dresses off to eat.  We have 4 Halloween parties starting Friday, hopefully nothing too bad happens to them before Halloween!

On to Elsa, though if you only say 'Elsa' to George she corrects you and says she's 'Elsa the snow queen'.

I was inspired by this one in the flickr group.

I used the Oliver + S Hide + Seek dress, size 3 with length.

The cape is just a 1 yard piece of fabric sewn to a ribbon, heat sealed on the bottom with selvages left on to not need to seal them.

There is currently glitter all.over.my.house.

I did french seams throughout, though this fabric was a beast to press.  No matter the heat setting I couldn't get it to hold, not the best choice for french seams.

She is very happy with it and declared 'My dreams came true when you made me my Elsa the snow queen dress!'.  That makes it all worth it, right?

They spent the afternoon playing out scenes and singing all the songs, each only singing their characters lines, of course.

Happy Halloween!

A fairy tale for fun.

I have been thinking about making another Fairy tale dress for a month or so now.  I made one last fall for halloween, but it was a PITA because I was working with satin.  I *thought* this time around would be much easier.  Well, it was as far as the fabric went, but I made some really stupid mistakes.  For some reason I couldn't for the life of me figure out the invisible zipper.  I unpicked it four times... I think... I lost count.  Then I just abandoned the instructions and did my own thing and it worked the first time.  Then, I attached the skirt lining wrong so the tulle would have been touching skin.  Blah.  I didn't want to unpick all of that so Ben suggested just sewing another skirt to it.  So that's what I did. 

 

Plus, I only had half a yard of what I wanted to use for the skirt, so I had to adjust the pattern to make it less full.  I made a size 18m and added two layers of pettiskirt netting. 

 

 

One benefit of having twins?

 

 

When one baby doesn't cooperate... just walk home and grab the other!  I thought Izzy would be happy this afternoon, but she wasn't.  Too bad, because the dress actually fits her best since she is bigger.

George was more than willing to stand extra still for me.  Not willing to smile, but that's okay.  The bodice is a pale pink, I thought it would add interest to the dress (the birds are cream).

She was obsessed with the bow. 

I originally wanted to do sleeveless, but when I got frustrated trying to bind the arm holes I decided to add the sleeves.  Plus, isn't the tulip sleeve just adorable?

I love the insides.  Plus, with the two layers of pettiskirt netting and two skirt linings (oops) it helped make up for the fullness I lost when having to adjust my pattern pieces.

I was lazy and chose to utilize a decorative stitch on my machine instead of hemming by hand since this is more of a casual dress. 

Mistakes and all, I want to make another one fairly soon, I have a few things on my list first.  I love the shape of the dress and the look of it on the girls, so cute!

Halloween.

So, I have this problem, once I get an idea in my head I am obsessed and think about it all.the.time. until I do it.  I knew I wanted the twins to be Cinderella (George) and Gus Gus (Iz) this year because it will likely be Elizabeth's last year with a giant belly.  Plus, they may finally start talking by next year and have an opinion on what they want to be.  We'll see.   Since we have been remodeling I hadn't really had time to do anything about the costumes, then I got an e-mail from Oliver + S with a sale I couldn't pass up and purchased the fairy tale (among others).  It was supposed to arrive Thursday, or so said the tracking number.  But it didn't, so I got started late Friday night and finished it oh, about thirty minutes before the party.  I was slightly stressed.  My MIL had a size 2-4 disney costume that she said I could cut up and make smaller, but I KNEW I wanted it to be the fairy tale.  This is where the obsession comes in, I knew I would be dissappointed if I didn't go with my plan and think about how I should have just done it.  Sooo glad I made it!  It is exactly how I imagined it.

 

 



 

I thought about possibly making puff sleeves instead of the tulip sleeves, but I am so happy with the look of the tulip sleeves.

I added a peplum and an extra layer of tulle, otherwise everything is exactly as the pattern says.  I always learn SO much with Oliver + S patterns, this is my first zipper.  Pretty proud of myself considering it was on costume satin, that stuff is a PITA to work with!!

For Gus Gus aka big twin, I made the field trip raglan with shortened sleeves and overall length. Then a simple beanie that I just winged. It does fold over to the front, but tends to go all over the place.  I couldn't get a great photo of the cute belly though. 

I also used her pj pants I made a while back.  Wow, they faded a ton!

Abby picked a witch costume from Grandma's box, and Jack just HAD to be a skeleton- again.  Though, Abby has now been a witch 3 of 7 times.  One of these years I want to talk them all in to being things that coordinate, good luck with that!