Look at those halloween cuties! The boys were so excited about their costumes, they insisted on putting them on about three hours before trick or treating time and playing in the house with them on. They just couldn't wait!

B's costume came out awesome. It was a ton of bits and parts (mask, hood, belt, boot covers...), but, man, does it all come together.

He was the happiest bat you've ever seen. After about a half hour of trick or treating, he started giving me his basket to hold so he could run down the sidewalk flapping his big wings.

S's shark was a huge success in the neighborhood. We turned the first big corner and a young boy practically shouted, 'ohh, it's a shark!' Good review.

I love the side view too - it's a sort of kinder, gentler side of the shark.

And wee one loved her tutu. She was all ready to go out with the boys in just her orange shirt (yes, hubby, it did end up being part of her costume!). Then I told her she needed to put on her tutu. She looked up at it and smiled, did a little excited dance and said "ooo-ooo". So cute!

I topped off her pumpkin tutu with one of the pumpkin hats I knitted for the boys for their very first Halloween. She was greeted at every house with "awwwww"s. What more could a crafty mom ask for?!

... but , the boys don't look anything like a shark and a batman.

Oh yeah, that's because they're not. Not yet. This was how they dressed for school today. The boys' school doesn't officially allow kids to wear Halloween costumes to school. (I'm guessing they're probably worried that 150 big kids in "Scream" masks might scare the pre-schoolers.) The teachers, however, have been real creative in coming up with backdoor ways for the kids to dress up. In kindergarten, they made Halloween "black and orange dress-up day". Last year, they organized a trip for the first graders to visit a local senior center in their costumes - what's cuter than sixty six year-olds in Halloween costumes?! And this year, the second grade teachers invited kids to dress up as their favorite book character.

So, take another look. Who are they?

 
you may have to be or have a second grade boy to get the second one!

Here's a clue:

It's Asterix and Fluffy!

Hubby reads the Asterix and Obelix cartoons to the boys in German and they love them, so when I started looking around at their books to find a costume idea, S jumped at the chance to be Asterix. And we already had the perfect hat: it's wee one's viking baby hat from last Halloween minus the blonde braids! If you know some of the Asterix stories, you'll appreciate the fact that one of the other kids in his class actually came dressed as Julius Caesar! S has his magic potion hanging from his belt and is ready for him.

B insisted that he had to be Fluffy. Insisted. I suggested maybe he'd like to be Obelix - he's got some blue and white striped pajama pants that would be perfect. Or maybe Stink - all he needed was stinky sneakers and some gel to make his hair spiky. But no. Fluffy is "soooo funny" he said; he had to be Fluffy. My make-shift Fluffy costume - with an old fuzzy Banana Republic sweater - isn't perfect, he told me, but it's "fine". (I think he looks adorable!) Fluffy's hat is a hat I knit for myself ages ago. I sewed up some little pink ears, following strict design instructions from B, and stitched them on the sides. I think it's pretty cute. It's certainly fluffy. And B can do the funny, no problem.

So those are the first costumes of the day. Half way there! Pics of the boys' "real" costumes to come tomorrow. Here's hoping everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!

Shark fin. Ooooh, scary!

Shark jaws. Yikes, terrifying!

Shark eye (not yet sewn on). Uh, almost creepy.

Shark pillow (not yet stuffed). Um, what?

The pillow is the last thing left for me to make for S's shark costume. It will sit inside the costume on top of S's head to keep the top of the costume, the shark nose, nice and pointy and keep the mouth opening right in front of S's face so he can see. I've been resizing this pattern as I go, since the only version of the now out-of-print pattern that I could get online was the adult size. It's been tricky getting everything in the right spot. With the original sizing, the fin would have been coming out of his butt! To get it all right, I've resewn the body about four times, each time bringing things up and in. We've finally got it to where it'll work with the mouth in front of his face, the fin on his back, and the sleeves near his arms, but it all depends on that pillow keeping the nose up. No pressure.

For now, the costumes await their final touches and trimmings: a batwing here, a shark mouth there, and a whole lot of tulle. Tomorrow, they come to life!

B's bat hood is totally cool! I'm so proud of myself for making it, with its inner lining, the pointed little pleated ears, and the elastic in the back to get the fit just right.

There's some darn good sewing in there. When I showed it to B, he said, "Cool. But I don't have to wear the hood the whole time." Uh, you mean the like "whole" forty-five minutes of trick-or-treating? Oh yes you do, buddy! Mommy spent twice that much time making you this kick-ass bat hood and you will be wearing it. Seriously though, it really does top off the entire look to have the sleek black bat head and ears thing going on. And once B tried it on and looked at himself in the mirror, he was convinced too. He liked it so much, he couldn't resist that little grin when I took his picture. Being a bat is cool.

Wee one had a kiddie Halloween party to go to this weekend, so I put her brothers' costumes aside for a night and put hers together for its debut.

My big, fluffy pumpkin girl! After seeing a similar costume for sale on etsy.com, I was inspired to make her a pumpkin tutu. I practiced by making her a little pink play tutu last month. Since she seemed to enjoy that one, I went ahead and cut longer tulle strips in pumpkin-y colors for the real deal. I tied on all the long orange pieces, added a few short green bits at the front for the stem and she wore it like a genuine Halloween fairy! I was worried that the tickly tulle or the sheer girth of the costume might bother her, but after walking around with her arms straight out at her sides for about three minutes, she got over it and had no problem walking and crawling and climbing around in it.

Here she is showing us the back with the long green "stem" that ties into a bow at the neck. I was trying to snap some pictures and she kept turning around and squatting down to get herself some more popcorn from our plate on the floor. Just showing off her costume at the best angle, I'm sure! She spent the rest of the party climbing up onto chairs and sliding down out of them on her slippery tulle bottom. Silly girl!

He loves the teeth! Tonight, I sew in the shark fin and then he can really start looking cute, um, I mean scary.

(his shirt says "Red Sox" in Japanese - Dice-K is pitching tonight!)

He loves the bat wings! Now to sew them into the jumpsuit. And get started on that shark...

It's about time for me to get cracking on those Halloween costumes! This weekend, I started with the jumpsuit part of B's batman-style costume. And yesterday, we were ready for the first fitting.

see my tiny sewing corner?

He's excited about it, although he's discovered that fittings aren't quite as cool as he thought they'd be. I think he'll change his tune when I sew up the next part: the sleeves with those giant bat wings.

I, however, am thrilled that the thing fits. I've never made a jumpsuit before and got wee bit worried about how to adjust things if it was too short in the torso. Luckily, there did end up being enough room for all his little boy parts, if you know what I mean.

I keep expecting Michael Kors to burst in and say:
"That crotch is insane!"

It's a little wrinkly here and there and the the two sides of the zipper are about a millimeter off up at the top, but for a Halloween costume that'll get one wear - and in the dark! - it rocks! Seriously, I'm convinced this is the way to learn to sew: just make Halloween costumes for a few years. There's lots of practice of all kinds of fiddly stuff, and none of it has to be perfect. Even if it's a little off or a little wonky, it's still a batman (or a Spongebob or a pumpkin)!

shaaaark!

After a whole night of cutting, I've got all the black pieces of the Halloween costumes cut out. (That was five yards of black fabric!) That means B's batman jumpsuit is all cut out, along with the backside of S's shark (including the fun fin!). It's only half the shark, but man, can you ever tell what it's supposed to be. Tonight it's shark belly, teeth and mouth.

Duh - nuh, dun - nuh, duh - nuh....

This October is gonna be great! The leaves are changing, the baseball playoffs are beginning (which means the Sox still have a chance to win it all!), I'll be taking a fun quilt class, there's Rhinebeck, and of course, Halloween.

To celebrate the start of this month packed full o' fun, I cut out the funnest pieces of B's batman costume. That's the wings (awesome!), the mask, the boot covers and the fab belt with bat applique. This evening I get to cut out shark teeth and fins! October rules.

I thought I wasn't a girly girl. I thought I wasn't going to have one of those girly girls. And yet, my daughter went to drop off her brothers at school this morning wearing her pink emli bonnet and her sparkly pink bolero. And then, she came home and put on this little number I just made for her.

Oh yeah, it's a tutu. A year and a half and I'm already at pink tulle. Oh my. This was actually just practice for her Halloween costume, which will involve a longer tutu. I'd read a few how-to's and tutorials that suggested that these things were easy to make, so I thought I'd give it a trial run. My girl could always use a pink tutu. I bought a couple of rolls of pink tulle online, cut up my strips while the boys were brushing their teeth for bed, then turned on Top Gear (cause that's the kinda girl I am) and made a tutu. I knotted and knotted and it transformed itself into this perfectly frilly pink thing of beauty.

Can you see wee one's hand caressing it? I'm not sure she even knew what it was at first, but she knew she liked it. I asked her if she wanted to put it on and she jumped right in.

Yes, she was a natural.

So, it was a huge success. I have succeeded in making a tutu (Halloween plans still on) and the forces of nature have succeeded in turning me into a girly girl (gender stereotypes will out).

It's Hansel Halloween parts!

The tooth and the bat mask belong to the boys. They've asked me every day since Saturday if I've finished anything for their costumes yet. I finally forced myself to sit down yesterday and cut out the pattern pieces so I could actually show them something. Oh, the motivating power of children's unrestrained enthusiasm! When they heard that I'd cut out stuff, S wanted to see his funny shark tooth piece and B pulled on his bat mask pattern with glee. Hooray!

The wings, however, are mine.

I am still giggling over my Rebecca sweater's Liberty-Bell-sized bell sleeves. Ding dong, these babies are gonna be awesome! It's all so orange and over the top that I think I'm gonna have to wear this sweater out with the kids on Halloween night.

And the supplies for wee one's (no-sew, no-knit) costume should be winging themselves to me as we speak! More on that next week....

Over five yards of black fabric, a couple of yards of red felt, and a couple yards of shiny gray fabric and I'm just about ready to start making the boys' Halloween costumes! (Wee one's costume is still in the planning stages for now.) I started asking the boys in August what they wanted to be this year so I had time to get past the fickle first choices and get down to the real contenders but the boys stayed pretty true to their first ideas. B wanted to be a vampire (eeek!) and S wanted to be a shark (cool!). I asked again a week later and then a week later and they seemed so sure that I started looking for sewing patterns. After showing them all the various options I found online, they chose these:

B will be a Batman style superhero. This costume was just way cooler than the standard vampire cape-and-collar thing. He's so psyched about those huge wings! And I'm relieved that he'll be more of a superhero than a villain. I found several shark patterns that were all quite different, but S liked this one the best with the little hole in the mouth for him to peek through. He thinks the teeth are so funny and is amused by the fact that I have to make him a pillow that sits on his head to keep the nose pointy on top.

The boys insisted on coming with me to Jo-Anns to pick out the fabrics. There's a lot of fabric in these two costumes! And a lot of sewing. But they are so excited about the whole thing that I remember why I wanted to make their costumes every year. They're just that much more special when they can help plan them and watch and help me put them together. Halloween ends up lasting a month at least, with planning and sewing and trying things on. Getting the candy is only the bonus at the end.

Only 46 sewing days left!