If you’re me, you come away with a sewing project.

The only Costume Proper in the store that particularly interested me was only available in Small, and that ain’t me. So I went back to the car…but the gears started turning. There had been a green velvet cloak that I might have bought to wear over the unavailable costume, and maybe it was worth buying… I can’t reconstruct how I got there, but on the strength of that cloak and the fact that I owned suede ankle boots and a leaf pin I’d only kept because it was reminiscent of the ones the hobbits get in Lothlorien in the movies, I concocted a plan to be a wood elf.

I went back in and got the cloak; there were elf ears but they were the kind that’s a big production to put on and were also a sickly yellow color so I passed. That evening and the next day I accumulated brown tights, an antler headband (since I didn’t have ears), plus two yards of tan faux suede (found in clearance!), a remnant of sage green heavy slightly-stretch cotton, and a large skein of brown cotton yarn.

Tuesday night I set to sewing. I made a coordinating face mask from stash elastic and fabric (a brown leaf-patterned batik and unbleached muslin), cut out and started sewing two drawstring belt pouches, and cut the entire 190 yards of yarn into 4-yard lengths. I tied the lengths of yarn into a bundle at one end, combed them out into equal 3 sections, and braided them, tying them off at the opposite end afterward.

I also set the headband to stretch a bit since one-size-fits-all headbands tend to give me a headache.

Wednesday I started the tunic dress. Some poking around online for “simple tunic pattern” had reminded me of the scheme of 4 tall rectangles, sewn into a cylinder for the lower stretch, and with the top edges sewn to make shoulder seams. The unsewn upper part of the rectangles becomes a sharp V neck and the armholes.

The width of the fabric went around me quite comfortably so I measured and cut what seemed like a suitably generous length, and cut it in quarters the other way. My approach to making sure it worked out was to sew the seams only far enough that I knew they would work, then try it on and extend them as needed. I did the center front and back and the shoulder seams first, and decided after sewing about an inch near the bottom of the armholes that I would insert a narrow panel in each side seam. With no stretch to the fabric at all, I thought an additional couple of inches around from the waist down would help my mobility a lot.

I cut those side panels that night, but the rest of the sewing happened Friday, when I was off work.

When I tried the tunic on after assembly I thought, well, it’s really bulky and unflattering but it will do. After that I sewed all the seam allowances flat and hemmed the armholes and bottom (I’d done the neck already), and threw it in the wash.

Then I turned my attention to the drawstring pouches. I finished them as planned and hung them from my braided “rope belt” by their drawstrings – to realize that would have them banging into my thighs every time I took a step. Not enjoyable. Also, they would be much more out of reach. So I cut two strips of the fabric and folded them in thirds, then made a loop out of them to sew to the pouches for hanging. That worked well. I had to thread them onto the belt before putting it on but that wasn’t as awkward as I expected.

Once those pouches were done, I was done. And rather amazed I’d made it in time for our big Friday night Halloween event!

When the tunic dress came out of the dryer I was pleasantly surprised at how well it draped, given that it has less shaping than a paper bag and no stretch to the fabric at all. Stitching down the seam allowances and washing it had somehow made it much less bulky. I did wish that I’d turned more fabric under at the shoulder end of the neck opening, but I’d already done an inch there tapering to the half-inch seam allowance at the center front, and I don’t know if non-stretchy fabric could do much bigger of a taper easily.

I accessorized with green and metallic eyeshadow and a tiger eye pendant, and the hubs and I went to a park by the river to take photos in the late afternoon.

That night I added a tree-patterned shawl secured with my leaf pin, and of course my face mask. I actually liked the face mask as a costume component because it kind of looked like I was going into battle. I had my phone in one belt pouch, and my keys and a pair of gloves in the other.

Suitably geared up for the Friday night festivities! No one had any idea who I was. In reality, or in costume. Such is life.

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The original plan was a shearling coat, a hat with lamb ears, mittens, and face paint for my nose. I was lucky enough to find a remnant of faux shearling that matched the lining of an on-sale coat – though not so lucky that the coat had lined sleeves. I had to create and attach sleeves, which was simple but somewhat time-consuming: cut sleeve-shaped pieces and make them into tubes, then pin and sew by hand to the coat (by hand partially because it seemed easier and less visible, and partially because once I’m through with this costume I’ll take them back off and wear the coat for real!). Not my tidiest sewing job, but… it’s a Halloween costume.

For the hat, I took the general game plan from a dinosaur hat tutorial by Stitched by Crystal and a reversible fleece hat video tutorial by The Crafty Gemini: four rounded triangles and a band below. I decided to make a folded band instead of two pieces since my material was already thicker than theirs, and created ears to insert as low in the side seams as possible. The final hat is bigger around than necessary and a bit shallow for a real winter hat, but if I want to make myself a real hat it will be a good starting point.

I made an incomplete muslin and a complete muslin, plus one muslin ear. In my pattern piece photo below, the ear isn’t quite the final version – I rounded out the middle, so it not only tapered toward the point, but a bit toward the base as well.

The mittens were a lucky find that I expect to get a lot of use out of. The bell was a late addition when I worried (based on my hat muslin) that people might think I was a bunny. The bell was originally a Christmas bell with a handle, which unscrewed easily. The internet agreed that lambs wear their bells on red ribbons, so that’s what I used. It rang lightly with every step I took and really added to the costume. Though I had to move it out of the way when hugging people lest someone end up with a bruised sternum.

The lack of nose paint was a completely last minute change – I had applied it, and wiped it off with a napkin in the car on the way to the party because it just didn’t look right. Perhaps it just accentuated that my face was otherwise completely human?

In the photo at top, the straw caught in my fleece (so authentic!) was from a hayride I took at the party. (Though I may have patted some onto spots where it didn’t get naturally…)

One bonus shot: Earlier this month I made a couple of candy corns out of Petals to Picots’ crochet candy corn pattern. Easy and good! For the hanging loop, I folded a separate length of yarn in half, tied a bulky knot, and slid it into the magic ring before tightening. The knot keeps it from coming out, and if I decide I don’t want it I can push it inside or cut it off.

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Thanks to my mother-in-law for the only photos I have of us wearing them! At that party my sister-in-law made a Christmas request, so I’ve actually made three of these now. The costumes started life as three sweat suits, three separating zippers (22-26″ depending on recipient’s height), a couple of yards of gold sweatshirt fleece, and a little batting and stuffing.

I’m not going to give really specific directions, just a general procedure, but hopefully enough to be helpful if you want to make a similar costume for yourself. Start by pulling out the hood’s drawstring, picking the stitching out to remove the front pocket, cutting off both waistbands right at their edges, and trimming about 4″ off the bottom of the shirt. Pictured above is the removed material from one suit (plus the oval where the belly goes, minus a bit of that oval that I’d cut out for who knows what).

Size and height considerations: I used XL sweats for my 5’11” husband and my 5’6″ self; they were probably a size or two up from what we would get if we were going to just wear the sweats as sweats. For my long-backed hubby I ended up stitching the top and bottom together at only 1/4″ to allow a bit of extra torso length; my short-waisted self could probably have lost another three inches at the waist and been fine. I used S sweats for my 5’1″ sister-in-law (she could probably wear XS but might choose S anyway), and 4″ off the waist was perfect.

Make and install the belly: Sew the shirt and pants together across the front, center side to center side. Using the dimensions of that area as a guide, cut out two tall, thin half-ovals of your contrast fleece, including a half-inch seam allowance down the center. Baste them together and install a centered zipper between them, with any excess zipper at the top. Topstitch oval to front of body all around with zigzag; fold ends of zipper tape under at top to hide them. Carefully trim body fabric out from under belly fabric, keeping it whole for accessory creation.

Sew shirt to pants across back, using unzipped belly for access.

If your sweats are like ours you’ll need to applique a shape over the logo – for us, covering the logo was the easiest way to lose it without losing the pockets. This is a good time to do that but I recommend cutting out all your accessories before cutting out the shape, so you don’t run out of fabric. I used a leaf, a star, and a musical note.

We each had wings, horns, and ears. We thought about back spikes and tails, but ultimately the desire to sit down comfortably won out. I padded the ears with a thin layer of batting, as well as my wings but not the other wings – I had bird-type wings on my back, and my husband and his sister had flying squirrel/bat wings. The horns were stuffed with batting.

I was very pleased with how the big wings came out. They were the only fully machine-sewn accessory – I hand-sewed the others on to the sweats, but with the big wings I butted them up against the sleeve and side and made a wide zigzag through both, backstitching frequently to protect against popped stitches.

We all had different horns – mine were the stubby horns pictured above, the hubs’ were curved, and my sister-in-law’s were long, thin, and wound with embroidery floss (with a backstitch at each seam crossing) to make them look spiraled like a unicorn horn. I seem to be missing a lot of the photos I took (all of the ones from my sister-in-law’s costume, in particular) so I just have one shot of making the curved horns. There were three pieces each: two curved ones and one tapering but straight one.

The straight horns were made from three pieces apiece, shaped as curved-edge triangles.

Now we can be dragons all the time!

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But look at that grody symmetry and those heinous sagging shoulders. This dress needed some help.

A probably-unreasonable amount of time later….

Yes! Savory.

What I did:
Installed a strip of gathered tulle into each sleeve cap to puff it up (sewn to the armhole seam allowance facing into the sleeve).
Added large shoulder pads VERY loosely based on Sew Retro Rose’s shoulder-pad-making tutorial. I tacked them at the shoulder seam on each end.
Undid my mother’s hacky size adjustment and replaced it with my own hackier size adjustment.
Re-hemmed it to a slant, losing 7+ inches on one side and keeping it as long as possible on the other.
Added ruffles down one side of the neckline and across to the opposite waist, chosen to point at the top of the hem rather than be semi-parallel to it.

The ruffles don’t hold up to inspection if you look too closely at them – I was running out of time before the night I wanted to wear the dress, so I had to be hacky again. I took three wide strips of crepe-backed satin, folded them lengthwise so the satin was out, pressed, folded the ends in and topstitched, and zig-zagged twice to hold and bind the edge. Then I gathered each about 3/8″ from the edge and secured it with more stitching. I stacked them together starting with the topmost ruffle, seam allowance to the right, then the bottom ruffle (which was slightly wider), seam allowance to the left and barely overlapping the top ruffle, and finally the middle ruffle, seam allowance to the left and mostly overlapping the top ruffle. After they were all together and sewn to the dress, shoulder seam to side seam, I folded the top ruffle over and secured it with hand-stitching.

My original design inspiration was the television series Dynasty, with help from my Bangles albums. I had to buy the makeup for this because I don’t think I’ve worn blush in twenty years. Special thanks to my sister for inspiring the slant hem with her aesthetic advice to try to look like “an unstable stack of geometric shapes” and to my mother for suggesting the ruffles.

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I went looking for trio costumes for Hugs, Stumpy, and Cirrus, and this one leapt out to all of us. Hugs insisted on being bacon and Cirrus said it only made sense for her to be the tomato, which left Stumpy as lettuce. It might not have been his choice, but as they say, it’s not easy being green.

Only the Hug Monster can make a frying pan look like a hot tub.

On second thought, a ride in the salad spinner was not so good of an idea.

I thought this one was a bit morbid, but Cirrus insisted it was the only thing that made sense to do. She’s the artist!

The intersection of times with good natural light and times I had available for photos this week was just about empty, but (with an assist from my nice bright lights) I think we did okay. Happy Halloween!

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Once there were three little pigs whose mother could not afford their keep, so she sent them out into the world.

In looking for materials to build a home, the first pig met a man selling bales of straw. The second met a man selling bundles of sticks, and the third pig met a man selling loads of bricks. Each built a home and lived happily, for a time.

Eventually a wolf came to town and approached the first little pig’s house of straw. “Little pig, little pig, let me come in!” he called. “Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!” the pig called back. “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!”

And he did. The pig ran off to the house of wood, but the next day the wolf came calling there. “Little pig, little pig, let me come in!” he called. “Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!” the pig called back. “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!”

And he did. Both pigs ran off to the house of brick, where the wolf came calling the day after. “Little pig, little pig, let me come in!” he called. “Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!” the pig called back. “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!”

And he huffed, and he puffed, but he could not blow the house in. He called out again, “Could I come in, little pigs? My allergies are killing me out here. I’ll order a pizza!”

That sounded good to the little pigs, so they let the wolf in. Indoors he soon stopped huffing and puffing, and they all ate pizza.

In brief, the credits from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice are to Stumpy and Cirrus Monster, D.L. Ashliman, CopyCatFilms, and Dieter Steffman.

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The sorcerer’s apprentice was left alone with instructions to have the floor clean before the sorcerer’s return.

The sorcerer’s apprentice felt rather put upon to constantly be mopping the floor, and although he’d been explicitly instructed not to try magic, he decided to use a spell he’d seen the sorcerer use, and bring the broom to life to mop for him.

It worked! The broom began industriously mopping the floor.

…too industriously. Water began to collect. “Stop! Stop!” cried the sorcerer’s apprentice. He racked his brain for the magic word to change the broom back to an inanimate object, but it would not come to him.

Finally he resorted to an axe. He chopped the broom in half and was relieved to see the pieces fall to the floor.

His relief lasted but a moment, however, as the broken pieces sprang to life as two full brooms and began again to mop.

The apprentice had decided to run away and hide forever when the sorcerer appeared at the door. With one word the brooms were stopped. The apprentice turned to the sorcerer. “About all that water….”

D.L. Ashliman is a professor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh with an extensive index of folktales and mythology. It was very helpful in picking stories to retell, and I recommend the page for casual reading as well.

CopyCatFilms generously provided a blank intertitle card to the interwebs, which I’ve used to begin and end this story.

Dieter Steffman designed the font I used on the title cards, Chelsea, and many other wonderful fonts available without charge.

Edit: There’s more of this nonsense now.

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They were Ashur and Ishtar, important ancient Assyrian deities. Something I read said they were husband and wife, but I never found that piece of trivia again so I suspect it was suspect.

I got advice from my friend Eleanore (“Fringe. Lots of fringe.”) and a page on Assyrian costumes. Getting an appropriate geometric pattern with (relatively) accurate colors required dyeing fabric (before and after shown above, though unfortunately not in the same lighting – that’s the same fringed trim in each shot). I scaled the shawl measurements in the Fashion Era link by 1/9, cut them from muslin, and then adjusted the proportions, since after all monsters are not humans.

Fortunately, monsters are fairly patient and easy-going, because we had some long fitting sessions. The tunics I had to design from scratch and they are far from historically accurate, but I had to adjust for the fact that humans are proportionally smaller front to back and also have necks that are quite a bit smaller front to back than their chests. The tunics have a front and back panel (really two in the back), with insets along the shoulders and down the sides under the arms. I was glad I made a muslin first because it was a wee bit snug.

And let’s not forget their accessories! This is unlikely to be the last time you see them in wigs.

The picture up top was taken during a long outing by the river. When they got home and out of costume they needed a good brushing, both for fluffiness and for removal of bits of the great outdoors. More photos will shortly be posted on Stumpy’s Facebook page.

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I was a clothesline! It was a lot less elaborate than last year and three years ago. I sewed, but a total of no more than 90 minutes. On me you can see a tank top, towel, and pair of socks (though they would not even fit baby feet; they just look sock-shaped). There’s also a bird clipped into my hair. I made everything from scratch, freehand, though I did use rulers and aim for symmetry. There were two pieces that didn’t make it onto the line in the moment:

The skirt is out of leftover fabric from the slip of my paper doll costume and the tank top is tie dye left from my bird shirt remodel; the rest is stash fabric that hasn’t been seen here.

The pictures above also hold a lesson in freehanding: Yes, a pants piece is basically a tapered rectangle with a half a U cut out, curve of the U at the crotch. BUT the half-U has to have its top at the waist. If you cut it with the top of the U at the cuff you get some seriously bandy-legged pants!

Matt’s costume was hard for people to guess. Imagine him making a goofy face and telling you jokes. (I like to say, he went as himself.)

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Anyway, here’s my paper doll.

And here are some pictures of the making!

I went on a remnant rampage, buying material off the bolt only for the slip. It gave me an excuse to buy the fun cityscape material.

I basically freehanded everything, using elastic to pull in the slip at the waist and top. You can see above that I was a little overoptimistic about my ability to just stretch the elastic into the correct alignment for sewing. The picture below is the slip finished but for two things: the straps are not sewn at the back, and there is no velcro yet to attach the doll clothes.

So I wouldn’t freeze, and for modesty’s sake, I bought a long-sleeved leotard to wear under the slip (I tried to find similarly-colored heavy tights or leggings, but struck out on anything under $40, so I wore nylons). I didn’t want to have to completely undress to use the restroom, though, so with some snaps that came with my eyelet pliers and some extra “skin-color” fabric, I made the leotard snap-crotch. For the outdoor event we went to I also wore a camisole under my slip.

The final touches were to draw fringe on the flapper dress side, and add velcro tabs to the shoulder straps. I’d added the side tabs before sewing the two halves together (down each side and in the neck opening), but the shoulders were not wide enough to accommodate the remaining tab. I made two small pleats in each and tucked them in, and then topstitched all around the dress, except for a little bit where the “skin” showed through on the hippie side but the flapper side had red fabric.

To my surprise, it was a really difficult costume for people to guess. Next year I’m going to find a less labor-intensive costume to construct!

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