Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Some Ghosts of Costumes Past.


I'm madly behind this Halloween, but I've been sewing like crazy, among other random, unrelated things, hopefully I'll have something post-worthy by week's end.  In the meantime here is a glimpse into the costumes of Halloweens past...
 
Year 1: Cutest, chubbiest cowboys.
Some felt for chaps (pinned on with safety pins and decorated with silver brads and puffy paint)
A wooden oval (written on with puffy paint then spray-painted the entire thing silver)
I think I love the "boots" most - I decorated socks with puffy paint.
Year 2: Pirates
Two sashes of shiny material for a comfy hat and belt (no sewing, just knots) The boys picked the colours, I picked the socks. Black sweat pants and a white button-up shirt, untucked. A little mascara goes a long way for a beard and we practised our pirate growl "ARRGGH1".  Pirates were chosen because we loved (still do) the book, "How I Became a Pirate" and the boys loved to dress-up in my bandannas.
Year 3: Super E and Super C
A simple applique sewn on that included their special power. C's was hot lava (aka fire and if the C looks familiar to all you hockey fans, yes definitely inspired by the Calgary Flames). E's was lightning and the power to control the weather.   Oh yes and even superheros need jackets sometimes.
Year 4: Knights in Shining Armour
A store-bought knight with gray sweats and a sash to hold the sword - recognize the sash from Year 2?
 Year 5: A Burglar and an Alien
Last Halloween: The Bat and the Spider.  
E's arms are stuffed tights (with black garbage bags so you couldn't see white through the stockings). I took apart the sides of the shirt to sew in the tights. The tights are connected with thread, so when he moved his arms all his arms move. A toque with googly eyes glued on capped off the costume.  The bat details are here.

How are your costumes going? handmade? I've got a ninja and a sea monster in progress...wish me luck...

7 comments:

chicklegirl said...

Like you, I'm behind the 8-ball. I've got two costumes (Tinkerbell and Peter Pan) already sewn, but we're ALL dressing up, so I still have Captain Hook and Wendy to crank out in the next two days. I'd wish you luck, but I think I better hang on to all I've got! ;)

Diane said...

You can really track how they have grown up through those pictures!

You are so creative.

Joanna said...

Awe! so fun to see the past costumes! Can't wait to see this year :)

Burbs said...

Oh Kristen!! Thanks for sharing. I love the costumes and the ones dressed up in them!! I made a rapunzel costume, a batman costume, and bought a parrot to finish off a pirate costume. I found a cute mermaid costume @ amazon cause it looked a little too complicated to whip up and bought leopard ears and tail for little miss P. I love the whole costume and dress up thing. What fun!

Rainy Day Farm said...

What a great mom you are. Such creative and cute costumes. Love the pirates, everyone is so adorable. Hope things are going well for you up north!

Lahni said...

Isaiah's going as Harry Potter which I bought and Denver wanted to be a lego-guy. We really tried to talk him out of that one but he wouldn't be swayed. So we got an ice cream bucket with a sour cream container on top and covered it with yellow duct tape for the head and cut arm holes in a box and covered it with red duct tape for the body. It's actually pretty cute. I bought a strawberry costume for Emma that I can't wait to put on her - it's soooo cute!
Your boys always have such cute costumes, I can't wait to see them this year!

ade said...

Love looking at these pictures...thanks for sharing:)