Halloween 2016: The boy

This is a few days late...Oops!  Oh well! Halloween was a blast and my kids got lots of candy.  I'd like to think that's because they looked so cute.  I've already shipped the chocolate off to work with my husband so I don't get fatter because DAMN.  Anyway, I spotlighted my daughter's costume a few days ago and now it's my son's turn!  He was SUPER on point this year.  He knew what he wanted and made darn sure it was exactly what he wanted no matter how many details he had to add along the way. He's such a turd nugget.  Here's my little Horsey!

The details that he was INSISTENT on were as follows:

White Horse
Brown Hair

Hooves

Brown Belly (last minute addition)

What you have to understand here is that this was the most random thing he could have asked for.  We are not horse people.  He does not have any horse toys.  We don't watch horse shows.  We live in the city.  I don't understand.  But I guess my job isn't to understand- its to sew.  So I had to just accept my task and move the hell on.  Haha!

The bodysuit is a Jalie footed pajamas pattern.  I added a hood and the mane and tail.  The mane was made with chunky yarn pulled apart to make that lovely crimped and fabulous coif.  The tail was the same.  And its has quite the swish...

"Shake Your Booty" was indeed being sung here.

The mask is by one of my favorite pattern designers, Oxeye Daisey on Etsy.  Her patterns are fantastic.  I used her dragon mask pattern last year for the boy's costume.  They are the perfect finishing touch for any costume and they for sure turn heads.  LOVE HER!!!  

The hooves are just some felt sewn up...stray threads not included.  Seriously those threads in that picture make me twitch.  GAH.  Speaking of things that make me twitch...the addition of that belly after the whole body suit was sewn up really threw off my white zipper choice.  It's fine.  It's fine. No really, it's fine.  I'm still not actually convinced it's fine. TWITCH.  But he loved it.  I mean, look at this face..

Also, in case you were wondering, this horse costume has the ability to turn the wearer into an Earth bender...apparently

I hope you all had a great Halloween!  If you're anything like me, you're looking forward to next year's costumes while getting the Christmas tree out and listening to Christmas carols.  Only a few months to get that Christmas sewing done!

Stop Horsin' around y'all!

-Crystal-  

Halloween 2016: The Girl

Well, Halloween is pretty much here and I just got done with costumes!  Cutting it close, but at least I'm done before they go around the neighborhood begging for candy from strangers.  This year my kids were very specific and particular about what they wanted to be, which totally bummed me out because I had my own idea.  But Noooooooo.  They weren't having any of my brilliance.  So here I am, a slave to my children once again.  But at least they're happy....blah blah blah.  First up is the costume my girl picked. Hold your breath!

This little munchkin LOVES Monster High and I'm not even gonna pretend like I don't love it too.  I pretty much figured she'd pick her favorite character, Cleo Denile, but she surprised me with wanting to be MY favorite character.  I offered her chances to change her mind many times, but nope!  Lagoona Blue was THE costume.  And boy is she happy!

Lagoona has a really cool look with the fins and sparkle and scales.  And she's from Dee-yown Unduh as a salt water monster.  (Did you say that like Steve Irwin?  Do it). We'll add some blue to her hair for Halloween, but it would just be too messy before then.  Also, Lagoona likes to wear platform flip flops, but my 7 year old does not need platform anything.  Her Monster High tennies and striped socks work much better for trick or treating!

Halloween is the ONLY time this child is EVER allowed to wear makeup, so she is just soaking it up while I cringe a little.  This too shall pass.  This too shall pass.  

The patterns I used for this were the Ballet Basics From Jalie Patterns for her leotard, Dana Made It's Shorts pattern, and the vest was a heavily modified frankenpattern experience.  I made the head fins and the leg fins out of craft foam, glue, and GLITTER.  I flipping love glitter.  They're sort of flopping around all crazy like, but at this point, I'm just glad she has fins.  Technically, she's supposed to have arm fins as well, but to be quite frank, I just didn't effing want to do them.  I have done enough. I shall be compensated no doubt in the form of chocolate candies, But I will subtract a twix for the missing fins.  Never let it be said that I am unfair.

Well, that's it.  I hate for Halloween to be over.  It's my favorite holiday!  Halloween is my favorite time to sew bar-none 100%  FO SHO.  There's just so much creativity to be had.  I'll have the boy's costume up soon.  He was a weirdo this year...you'll see.

Happy Halloween,Ya'll!

-Crystal-

Project Run and Play Week 3: Halloween Costumes

Ya'll know I love me some costumes.  I LOVE ME SOME COSTUMES.  When I saw this challenge I was super excited...and then super bummed.  I don't start Halloween costumes until the first week of October as a rule.  My kids change their minds, have growth spurts and whatever else that would end up making starting any sooner a complete waste of time. I do have my plans.  And they are super exciting.  But I'm just not starting quite yet.  With that said, I have PLENTY to share from Halloweens past and my link-up is from my most favorite and most recent costume, THE DRAGON.

This was the costume I made my son last year and is BY FAR my most favorite costume to date.  I put a million hours into it and just plain kicked ass.  You can read all about the details HERE and there's more pics, too!

That same year, I made a Snow White for my girl. I went a bit renaissance because Snow White has such a simple dress and I wanted to add some flair...I always love a little flair. You can read about that one HERE.

Now I'm going to take you on a trip down memory lane since this is a costume post and I'm gonna give you costumes.  Hold on tight, we're headed to 2014.

Everyone loves a little Elsa and Brawn-na ;) Post available HERE

That same year, I made a few more costumes for a few more things.  Different blog posts here and there that made me free to get a bit theatrical. 

^^See this Post ^^

^^See This Post ^^

^^See this Post^^

If you can't tell who they are, then I didn't do my job :)

In 2013, I paired up my little cuties as one of the best Disney Duos there is, in my opinion.

OFF, with their heads!

And for their very first time as a Halloween Pair, they rocked it as characters from one of my favorite 80's cartoons ever. I was new to sewing and wasn't blogging then, so I don't have details,but I DO have pictures (not very good ones, but eh)! I hope you get sucker punched by nostalgia.  

I even had time that year to make a little something for myself!

I hope you've enjoyed this little costume post and I hope you've been inspired, yourself!  If you're sewing along as well, I truly can't wait to see what you've come up with.  As for me, I'll be working on 2016's costumes in a few weeks.

-Crystal-

Project Run & Play Week 2: I'm an Autumn

Week 2!  Project Run & Play has Autumn on the mind and I couldn't be more on board with cooler weather and cinnamon EVERYTHING.  Nom nom nom.  This theme is met by using the color pallet of Autumn as your inspiration.  Autumn, itself, is super inspirational, so I was excited to get started.  Here's my little Autumn Fairtytale look.

Normal colors of fall include the reds, oranges, yellows and browns that we've all come to know and love.  But while I was looking for the perfect set of Autumn hues, I came across this picture and had an AHA moment.  It spoke to me and I had to answer back.  So deep of me, I know.  I'm still far from the Earth's core though...

I started with the top.  I've had this fabric for a couple of years now and finally got the cajones to cut into it.  It's just perfect for fall and my girl really loves it.

I used Create Kids Couture's Loretta's for the top.  It's cute, simple and comfortable.  PERFECT!  Sleeveless works until November here, so it IS a fall look for my weather.  Maybe you'd freeze your tush off, but no sleeves is awesome in my home.

I did NOT make those jeans.  In fact I did make a pair of pants but the fabric just didn't flow in the end- just too much print. i wanted solid brown corduroy, but no one had any ANYWHERE.  What the ever loving crap, people!?!?!?  Since that's all I was willing to shell out money for and it wasn't gonna happen, I just slapped some jeans on her and called it done.  Haha!

Now on to the COAT!  This coat is my favorite part.  It took a million hours to make (roughly), but it was worth every nanosecond. 

I used a vintage Butterick pattern that purchased on Etsy.  I ADORE vintage patterns...mainly the way they smell.  But I always feel cooler when I sew one up, too.  Like "Hey, I can sew like they did when shiz was more difficult.  10 points to me!"

The length is what drew me in and clearly it had a dramatic affect on my daughter, too.

The coat is fully lined and includes a separating zipper, princess seams, and faux fur trim.  The trim took about 6 hours to hand-sew on and my fingers were bloodied by the time I had finished.  I should invest in a thimble.  

Since the pants were a no-go this time around, I wanted to make sure I made SOMETHING else...a flower crown it was!  There's nothing I love more than some pretty theatrics, so I just grabbed that glue gun and played Mother Nature for a while.  

Well, that's it, people!  I hope you like what I created this week.  We do!

I can't wait to see what you all sew along with and what the competitors TURN out.

Har har har...Got the puns going on ON POINT.

Happy Autumn, Y'all!

-Crystal-

Project Run & Play Week One: Pokemon!

Its that time again!  I'm so super excited that PR&P is back with a new season and a new set of themes.  I always like to sew along and since my SewJo came back, I dove right into these themes.  Let's get on with it...week one: Pokemon!

We love Pokemon around here. Well, we love the show.  We haven't had a chance to play Pokemon Go because our phone is old and can't support it...we're soooooo out of touch.  But the cartoon is a big hit in my home.  When trying to pick the perfect character, I tried to incorporate my sewing style and personality with my daughter's favorite color and there you have it!  Slurpuff!  To see this Pokemon in action, get your tush to the TV, turn on Netflix, select Pokemon XY and get to episode 27.  Its a fun one FO SHO.

Slurpuff is a fairy Pokemon that resembles something you'd find in a sweets shop-meringue!  They have very keen senses of smell and a body of puff.

For the patterns I used the Maggie Mae dress by Shwin and altered it to what I wanted.  I contoured the bodice at the waist, added an invisible zipper to accommodate that, added some lace overlay and ricrac and added a full double skirt with pretty scallops to make it all Slurpuffy.

When she's in the dress alone, she's more like Swirlix- Slurpuff before it's first evolution.  Pretty super geeky of me, no?

I also added a little sash because sashes are awesome.  Dresses love sashes.  Give that dress a sash.

I wanted to add a little bright pink bolero because I love the bubble shape Slurpuff has.  Its playful and another way for me to incorporate the retro style that I love so much.

And the PINK.  Oh my gosh the pink.  Slurpuff is a pink poofball of PaPOW.  This pokemon was just the perfect inspiration for me AND my girl and we're both super happy with the outcome.  

Thanks for reading!  If you're sewing along, make sure to link up so everyone can see and get inspired.  I choose YOU, y'all!

-Crystal-