Halloween is the best worst holiday. Parents making themselves crazy over an outfit their kid will wear once. It's stupid, and I love it. I remember my mom at the sewing machine late into the night before trick-or-treat sewing 5 handmade fantasies. In 7th grade she made me the most amazing Captain Hook costume, it had a red 3/4 jacket, and a hook made with a coat hanger, duct tape, and the bottom of a 2 liter bottle of soda (remember those?). All pure mom imagination without the benefit of craft blogs or pinterest. I tend to go overboard on Halloween, but I just don't care. Childhood is fleeting, the image of L at 8:30 this morning walking through Target in this costume as if she were the queen of South Philadelphia will sustain me well into old age. I hope she thinks of it when she is panic buying Halloween supplies for her own kids.
The skirt is an improvised tutu. I bought 15 yards of black matte tulle at Joann, divided it into 5 layers, so each layer was 3 yards around. I gathered that into a 36" waistband, then used elastic to gather it down to L's waist size. The daisy tulle is a vintage fabric from my MIL's stash that followed L home the last time she visited. It's a nice bit of detail in the sea of black.
I made L a witch hat years ago, and I share the pattern HERE. This is more or less the same process but I sized up for a big kid sized head. The whole thing is sewn from acrylic felt with black ric rac around the brim. The pointed crown is a single layer of felt that I reinforced with fusible interfacing, the brim is two layers with a circle of thick reinforcing sewn in between to keep the brim from flopping. We used left over tulle from the skirt to decorate the hat with some spiders are the spoils of past Halloweens and a vintage button from L's collection.
Lydia took charge of the accessories. She made the broom herself months ago. She cut down a little black walnut tree, scrapped most of the bark off of it with her pocket knife, and wrote "fire bolt" on the end with a sharpie. For the bristles she used the spine of the walnut leaves that she tied on with yarn. She also made the choker from a scrap of the shirt fabric.
Top Pattern:Janie Dress/Peplum by Mouse House Creations
Top Fabric: Stretch Panne Velvet Velour in Black from Fabric.com*
Dress Pattern: Improvised
Dress Top Fabric: Vintage
Dress Under Fabric: Black Matte Tulle from Joann Fabric
Hat Pattern: Improvised
Hat Fabric: Acrylic Felt from Joann Fabrics
*Fabric.com links are affiliate links.
Super cool! This is what Halloween dreams are made of. : ) My very petite mom would refashion old bridesmaid dresses she had had to wear to make Belle, witch, or fairy tale characters for me and my sister. At last a reason to buy a poofy yellow bridesmaid dress!
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