GLORIOUS CREATIONS: October 2010

Friday, October 22, 2010

HALLOWEEN RE-CYCLED/RE-USED

Normally I only have two costumes to make each year for the grands. This year I had a requests for 2 more. Thank goodness I have a big stash and I am a collector. I am one of these people that saves a sardine can if it is an unusual shape, just in case I find a great use for it. (this example was sitting right here. I just bought some and the tin was really neat. I think maybe I will try out making a pin cushion with them.)

My first request was from a young lady who recently turned 11. She wanted to be a gypsy. She sent a picture email of what she wanted to look like. I searched the stash for appropriate fabrics for the skirt and blouse. I wasn't having much luck. If I found the right fabric then it was to small a piece to work. I knew I'd probably have to run to the resell shop to find something. Later that day I had to go down to the barn for something and went in the storage room. There was the metal utility closet. We had found it in the basement of the building my husbands office is in. I had totally forgotten about it and it's contents. Inside it is stuffed full of Square dance costumes. One of them was black. It was perfect. The trim, which is silver, looks like it has Greek designs. There were several several blouses with lace trim, one of them was perfect size and looks. I wouldn't have to alter it at all.

This is her gypsy outfit:

The belt and jewelry were from a box I fill with junk stuff to use if I need beads and rhinestones for beading on things. The gold necklace is a belt. she has pierced ears and I found the blue light weight hoops in the box. The rose holding the skirt is a barrette of mine(remember the 80's with the big bows and such). I just sewed the skirt to the waist band and clamped the rose around it.

The scarf came from the stash (picture color is bad it is royal purple). It was actually fabric from a costume I made years ago. I just made a cuff on the long side of the triangle. That way she could tie it with out it unrolling on her. The fabric originally was used to make the pants of this Captain Hook costume:

There is a slip for under the black skirt, it has ruffles which show where the skirt is hiked. It used to be a table cloth from about 15 years ago. I forgot to take a pix while it was on the dress form.

I'll have to wait till she tries it on to get a pix showing the entire costume.

I will say this was the easiest costume I ever put together.

THE FORTH AND LAST COSTUME FOR 2010

My next request came from her nine year old brother. He wanted to be "PIT". This is a picture of "PIT"

His mom bought his wings and is making the boot tops, sword, and head dress. This one was quite a challenge for me. I didn't have a pattern, and I didn't have the child to fit it on but I did have measurements. Scrounging through the boxes I found some white chiffon type fabric, it looked like there was enough to make a tunic. The challenge was in how do you drape a boy so it doesn't slide off as he's running from house to house trick or treating.

I knew there was a belt wrapping it, but that wouldn't hold the slippery outfit on. I decided it would have to be sewn to some kind of sturdy base. Further search of the stash revealed a light weight piece of double knit. It would be great for constructing a one shouldered undershirt. I cut it out and hung it on the manikin. Then cut a length of the chiffon type fabric (enough to drape over the shoulder to mid hip on the back and front). I laid it on the shoulder and realized I would have to attach it, for the moment I grabbed a shoe lace and tied it on at the shoulder.

I decided to make a band (like an epaulet) to wrap around the shoulder seam. I used some gold ribbon to top it with. I attached it to the collar edge and the arm hole edge. Then I pulled the fabric through the strap, pinned pleats in it, and then sewed them in. Replacing the fabric in the strap I took the top edge of the loose fabric and pinned it the entire length of the diagonal cut that went across the body. This made the fabric drape in folds and when it was tucked in the waist band of the bottom toga and pulled up, it bloused convincingly like it was one piece of fabric to the hem of the bottom toga. I think I should post a pix so you can see what I am talking about. This is the finished toga:

The bottom half of the toga is made like a skirt. It has a casing in the top and wide elastic is laced through it. I did not permanently install the elastic because I didn't know if it was tight enough or loose enough. I figured Mommy could adjust it till it was just perfect for him.

In the pix you can see white showing through the skirt. It is the tail of the undershirt. When it gets to the recipient they can trim it to a length it won't show. It's double knit so it won't fray.

The trim on the skirt tail and the belt is not recycled. It was 1/4 inch gold ribbon from Walmart. I used two spools. They were 97 cents each and held 10 yards each. I used every bit of the ribbon. The black underneath the ribbon is a rayon like fabric that I had in the recycle pile. It was taken off an old bridesmaid dress. I did not use any inter facing under it because I wanted it to be as soft hanging as possible. I did cut the strip on the bias.

Next was fashioning the scarf. I used 18" wide chiffon strips.

I made sure one edge still had the selvage on it.

The chiffon was a 4 yard piece I had bought at the re-sellit shop years ago for 50 cents.

With the selvage I only had to roll hem one edge.

I wrapped the scarf around the manikin where it should be. I then proceeded to fold pleats in it at the back of the neck and pinned them. Stitched them tight and put the scarf back on the manikin. The reason I stitched them down was so the scarf wouldn't slide around on his neck as much as it would if it was loose (hope my theory works..lol).

The belt is the rayon fabric covering a very thick, stiff interfacing. Sorry I can't say what kind. It was the left overs from purse making I did several years ago. The belt is wide.

If the 9 year old wants it thinner all he has to do is fold in to the width he wants.

Making the arm guards was just a matter of converting the dimensions of wrist measurement, fattest part of fore arm measurement, and the length of the forearm from wrist to the inner elbow minus one inch. I needed to add approximately 1 inch to either side for over lap. I used the same heavy interfacing which I used in the belt. I covered both sides with felt (I think covering one side would have been enough). I used some bright gold cotton fabric to put bands on to simulate the metal bands on the picture's guards. There is a shield on the left hand guard. I couldn't tell the design on it so I made one up.

I used velcro on the overlaps to close the guards.

When I was in the dollar store I found glow in the dark bracelets that mimic the ones in the pix.

With a pattern and left overs anyone can make great costumes, albeit you will have to take the time. You will have frustrations when something doesn't turn out the way you expect. Try to remember these are for children, this is for one day use, and it is supposed to be a fun day. You are making the costume to please your children. Also remember these words of wisdom come from a person who has trouble remembering her own advice. Thank you for stopping by to check out what I am creating.

New Article on my blog:

http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-mystery-in-making.html

"A MYSTERY IN THE MAKING"

A mystery quilt designed with the novice in mind

Other blog sites by me:

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Where I have stories of my cats and other pets

a blog about my courtship with my husband,

and a blog about my most embarrassing moment.

A "Soap box" blog where I do air my opinions.

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/

blogs about the wildflowers on our farm

Organic methods we use, some cooking and some poetry,

blogs about Seed sprouting, insects, and garden pictures

Blog about an endangered beneficial beetle

New Blog:

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2013/08/blackberries-kitchen-aid.html

All recipes, pictures, and writings are my own.

I give credit for items which belong to other people in my blogs .

Please do not copy without permission

Friday, October 15, 2010

HALLOWEEN HOMEMADE

I have been gone from here too long. The garden has kept me away. In these economics I have not been able to afford additional help. This made for a summer of dawn to dusk dirt digging by yours truly. I have taken a hiatus the last two weeks (the garden is on the wane).
I am making Halloween costumes for the grands.

You can see some of the previous costumes :

http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2008/09/recycle-those-bridesmaid-dresses.html

I am very big into recycle/reuse. This year is no exception. I love making costumes for the kids, but it is a challenge with them in Florida and me in the St. Louis area. First, getting them to decide what they want to be in plenty of time to construct a costume is the hardest. When that is accomplished getting our daughter to send the measurements via email is another obstacle.
I will say, this year mine did an excellent job of responding.

My grandson, who is 9, wanted to be a scary person (along the lines of Freddie Krueger). I told my Dd she could get something together with the sports stuff they have laying around and real clothes. While I was working on the granddaughter's costume it occurred to me he would be a little miffed if she got a homemade costume and he didn't. That evening, while we were having dinner, there was an advertisement on the history channel for the new show "Swamp People". It's light bulb time. A swamp monster (person) would fit the bill as a scary person. I had the perfect material in my stash to make the basic costume.
It is camouflage flannel fabric.

The next problem I had to tackle was finding an appropriate pattern. It would have to have a hood.
Since I don't have the child to fit and construct it on I did need a pattern.

A trip to wally world solved the problem. I picked out this penguin pattern.

http://www.simplicity.com/p-1955-costumes.aspx

Here is my version of a "Swamp Monster":

The manikin is topped with a rolled up towel for a head. Besides the pattern I had to purchase plastic bugs. The only place I found real looking bugs was at a local "Dollar General Store". They had black widow spiders and roaches. You can't really see the roaches because they blend in with the camo cloth (in person you can see them). The only other place I could find real looking creepy bugs was

the bait and tackle shops and that was horrendously expensive.

The mask (nose) was made with a paper dust mask that you use when spraying or in conditions that are extremely dusty. I just winged it when cutting out the nose and stuffed it with junk batting. The nose looks like that character named Alph (sp) that was on a 70's sitcom. Since the mask is a paper/cloth kind it was very easy to hand stitch the nose on. I probably could have use the machine to do it,

but I wanted to be able to add stuffing as I went.

The scraggly stuff that is supposed to look like moss and grungy water vegetation hanging from the clothes (as if he rose up out of the creek) is made from any fabric I could find that I could shred when I ripped it. I used illusions, nylons and even double knits. As you can see I used the wings on the penguin pattern.

The base of the costume I made trailing (no leg openings), it drags on the ground like a wizards robe.

The idea is that it would look like he was just rising out of the ground.

Grandson is a man of few words, upon seeing his costume it was, "Cool".

"I WANT TO BE A DOG! OR A SCARY PERSON."

This is the answer to the question I asked my 8 year old granddaughter. Which I followed with, "Do you want to be scary or do you want to be a sweet little puppy dog that everyone wants to give treats too?" She answered the dog. Then I asked her what kind of dog. She didn't know so I asked, "Do you want standing up ears are long floppy ears." She said long floppy. I went trolling on google for floppy eared dogs and the first image to pop up was basset hounds. This was very appropriate because her Uncle had 4 basset hounds. I sent her the picture and she emailed me back that that was cool.

The first necessity was a pattern; something with a separate hood and a onesie pajama type construction.

I found this pattern at Walmart:

http://www.simplicity.com/p-1771-adult-costumes.aspx

The second necessity was the basic fabric for the dog. It needed to be light and drapey. It needed to have a nap. Nothing filled the bill so it was a trip to the fabric store. There I found a cloth with no name. I think it is a sueded nylon/rayon. It was like a silky flannel.

I had to re engineer ears for it. I kept referring to the picture of the basset I found through google.

This is the dog I used for my model:

http://www.freewebs.com/kennelauringonkukka1/Basset.jpg

and yes, I used poetic license to interpret the picture. I used the same technique for the nose that I used in the swamp monster. I had to make my own pattern for the ears and had to stuff them as I attached them.

Recycling: Yes I bought the basic fabric for the dog (that's the tan ) but everything else is recycled or from stash. The ears are the winter lining to an old trench coat from the 50's. The black on the nose is a fur collar. The jowls were added as an after thought when I completed the costume. The white is a bed pad to keep people from getting bed sores. It had out lived its usefullnes in that capacity.

The lining in the hood is lining fabric taken from the slip of an old wool skirt.

The black on the back is theinsulated liner from another old winter coat which had long ago left this earth.

All the fur pieces were put on in small sections and laced together. They had to be strips cut to the curve of the body or they would have been to stiff to hang correctly when the suit was put on. Due to the difference in fabrics they had to be stitched on by hand. It was tedious work. The tail is stuffed really tight and the fur was added after it was stuffed. I did not put elastic in the wrists and ankles because I wanted it to give the effect of the naural appendages, not to look like clothes.

The Zipper in the front was recycled from a man's cotton overalls. It was 30 inches long.

I had Hunny take tin snips and cut it off at 20 inches and then I bar tacked by hand the base of it.

This is the finished Basset hound. Hunny said it reminded him of Huckleberry hound, LOL.

Grandaughter has received the dog, and she said it was perfect. Mom says the nose is too heavy for the elastic that came with it so she will have to get some quarter inch elastic and attach it.

I will have to say adios for this installment. I need to return to making two more costumes.

Thank you for peeking in.

The following is the two more costuumes I made:
http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2010/10/halloween-re-cycledre-used.html

This is the costume from 2011:
http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween-ninja.html