Halloween Costumes

I think all sewists with families both anticipate and dread Halloween. It’s a chance to get pushed outside our regular boxes, but also a lot of pressure! This year, I left costume choice for our whole family up to my five year old. Continuing with her princess theme, she chose Cinderella. Her dad was Prince Charming, I was the Fairy Godmother, and the two littles were mice, Jaq and Gus Gus.

Unfortunately, it was so cold in Indiana (wind chill in the 30s) that everyone (except me!) needed coats over their costumes. Sad face. I was able to bulk up underneath my costume with two wool tops, wool pants AND jeans! I did have a wand, but I lost it almost immediately while trying to carry Gus Gus. The wand was made with silver washi tape wrapped around a toy lightsaber (a small one). Pretty clever, I thought, so I'm totally bummed I lost it.

For future reference, and if anyone needs inspiration, I've given the details of the costumes below. There are lots of tutorials on Pinterest but I kind of made everything up as I went along. The Prince was kept as close to the movie as possible, which ended up being a lot more simple than you'd think. Anything I sewed to hist top was done lightly, by hand, so it can be removed later and the shirt still used.

I tried to turn my hair white with cornstarch. I do not recommend this method!

Cinderella's skirt was puffed up with the crinoline I made two years ago with her Belle dress, plus this tulle skirt, plus another RTW skirt we had on hand. SUPER poofy! Even though it was cold and dreary, I was so excited to have us all in a family costume for the first time. My oldest daughter loves her Cinderella dress and I know it's going to have a heavy rotation as dress-up piece for years to come.

Cinderella
Pattern:
Practical Princess (affiliate link) with lengthened skirt
Self-drafted bustles which are a separate skirt attached to an elastic waistband
Fabric and supplies:
Main Fabric is cotton/poly interlock from Jo-Ann’s
Silver knit from a mystery bundle from Fabric Mart (stash)
Glitter elastic and headband from Jo-Ann’s
Choker is black elastic
Hair donut from Amazon
Gloves from Amazon (these were too big for my five year old but worked fine for a costume)
Glass slippers from local swap group

Prince Charming
Pattern:
Pants made from the free Pajama Pants pattern from 5 out of 4 Patterns
RTW button up shirt
Fabric and supplies:
Epaulets, belt, and neckband made from yellow felt and gold trim, from Jo-Ann’s
Gold cording from Jo-Ann's
Yellow ribbon (on pants) from Target

Fairy Godmother
Pattern:
Self-drafted jacket (started with my Anthro cardi knock off and altered from that)
Hood from Hey June Lane Raglan
RTW tshirt
Skirt is just a long rectangle with an elastic waistband
Self-drafted bow
Fabric and supplies:
Blue cotton/poly interlock from Jo-Ann's (same as Cinderella's)
Pink cotton ponte from Mood (stash)--this needed to have a lot of body to stand up properly, which is also why I lined the hood with it!

Jaq
Pattern:
Jacket hacked from PABPS Winter PJs (affiliate link) top
RTW red shirt
Wool pants from Sloomb
Self-drafted hat and ears
Fabric and supplies:
Red poly knit (stash)
Hat is lined (to make it stand up) with jacquard knit from Urban Rag Trader (stash)
Ears are brown felt and pink rib knit (stash)
Grey yarn tucked into pants for tail

Gus Gus
Pattern:
Yellow shirt hacked from PABPS Winter PJs top (link above)
Brown shirt is RTW
Wool pants from Sloomb (link above)
Self-drafted hat and ears
Fabric and supplies:
Green wool knit (stash)
Hat is lined (to make it stand up) with jacquard knit from Urban Rag Trader (stash)
Ears are brown felt and pink rib knit (stash)
Yellow cotton/lycra knit (stash)
Grey yarn tucked into pants for tail