Halloween Time!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Halloween time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Halloween, like any good seamstress. It is a time to express your creativity with out the limitations of ever day dress. Costumes are to sewing as surrealism is to painting. I love coming up with fun ideas for costumes and being different and original. This is why I sew my costumes. Store bought rtw costumes are essentially a sin. First off, everybody is buying the same costumes. Who wants to show up to a party dressed the same as 5 other people? Second, store bought costumes seem to be mostly poorly made with horrible fabrics. I understand that this may be an outfit worn just once, but you want it to last through the night right? So in the spirit of a handmade Halloween, let's talk costumes!!! First I will let you know what I am making for my children and then I will discuss costumes for us grown up children. I would like to start a series to share costume ideas that I have planned out and hopefully will help some of you girls to create the costume of your dreams!!! I would like to talk to you about vintage inspired costumes that you can make to celebrate the holiday and then turn around and incorporate into your everyday wardrobe. So let's begin!

First we will talk about what I am making for my daughter. She is the fun one to sew for after all. My boys are all going to be little ghoulish things, that I will also be making and I will definitely post the finished results. That being said, they are pretty run of the mill ghoulish things, but hey, what can you do about it. So my daughter and I decided that she was going to be a lalaloopsy doll. The one pictured above too be exact. Her name is Tippy Tumblelina and she is fabulous!!! I love these dolls, they are not rag dolls, obviously but they are made to look like rag dolls and each comes with a story about the fabric that they were "sewn" with. Too cute right? Well of course this year there is a rtw lalaloopsy costume on the market. However the rtw version is for different dolls so Missy Xiu does not have to worry about having the same costume as anybody else. For this costume I will be combining  patterns from regular dresses that I already have and drafting a bit here and there. I will be using a gathered circle skirt made out of colorful netting to get this tutu look. It is a pretty simple costume to construct, but done in the right fabrics, will pack a big punch! I will not be using a wig for her, oh no, the only real way to go is to curl her hair and spray it hot pink! You can buy hair color spray at Sally's of course.

Now to get started on our retro inspired costumes!!! The first one is Frenchy from Grease!!! This is actually what I am going to dress up as this year. I had a hard time deciding what I was going to be this year, so my daughter helped me settle on this one, the pink hair was the clincher I believe!!!

This costume is a simple one to make since essentially it is just an outfit! You can use simplicity 5259 for the skirt or any pencil skirt pattern that you prefer. There are a bunch out there that you can use, or you can draft your own. You would want to do your skirt in a light pink fabric, maybe something with some stretch.

Next you will need a blouse. I have this pattern already so it will be the one that I use. It is new look 6598 and I will do mine in a pink fabric that matches the skirt fabric as closely as possible.

Now to the jacket. This is the most important part of the actual costume since it will identify you as a pink lady.  I found this pattern on Burdastyle and it is what I am going to use for the jacket. I will use a darker pink, like bubble gum pink as opposed to the baby pink for the outfit. You can get iron on letters at any fabric and craft store and just iron on "Pink Ladies" on the back. In smaller letters you can put Frenchy on the front. You want a medium weight fabric for the jacket. The jacket in this costume is great because we tend to have some chilly Halloween nights here in Colorado. I will spray my hair pink for this look as well, after all, I truly am a beauty school drop out!

You can also use the same patterns for a Rizzo costume. Just do the skirt and blouse in black and make sure to bring your sassy smile to the party!!!!!

Next up we will discuss the patterns you would use to be Sandy in her Rydell high cheer leading costume, Marilyn Monroe of course, and Rosie the Riveter!!!!!!!! So look out for that and get working on your creative Halloween costumes!!!!!!

Besos!!!!!!!!!!