Our Halloween

 Hello everyone!  I know I promised pictures of the Halloween costumes I have been so busy sewing. 

As some of you may know I have identical twin daughters.  I generally like to dress them differently.  There are some days where they choose the same clothes at the store, or they choose the same clothes out of their closets though.  I try to be only picky about them wearing something appropriate for the weather and appropriate to what they will be doing.  I also am kinda picky about then wearing clothes that cover the parts that should be covered.  (I'm kinda old fashioned like that.)

We started talking about what they wanted to be for Halloween awhile back. Theresa kept saying she wanted to be Hermione from the Harry Potter books and movies.  I was planning to order a costume and wand off of the Internet.  Sarah kept waffling on what she wanted to be. Then she finally decided that she wanted to be Princess Daisy from the Super Mario games by Nintendo. I have to admit, when she told me she wanted to be Princess Daisy I was at a loss.  I had no idea who this character was.  I had to Google her.  We don't have a game with this Princess in it so I had no idea how Sarah even knew who she was.  She said someone showed her a picture last year and she remembered her.  ( Wow!!  How do kids do that? )  Once Sarah decided on Princess Daisy, Theresa said she had to be Princess Peach. She loves that character and she wanted to match with Sarah.  OK!!  So then I had to figure it out. There are Princess Peach costumes for sale on the Internet, but they aren't very well done, and they are kinda pricey.  We saw lots of costumes online, but not one of them was for Princess Daisy.  So I decided that if I was going to make one costume I was going to get some use out of the pattern and make both. 

For those of you who may not know the characters here are some pictures I found on Google that I used for reference as I made the costumes.  The first is Princess Peach.

This one is the illustrious Princess Daisy.  I guess she is Princess Peach's sister.  ???  Seriously, I don't know what game she is from, or what she does in the game.  I'm assuming she gets kidnapped and rescued like Princess Peach. (That is what a little boy at their school told me.)

OK, so the costumes online were made of some cheap, creepy, shiny polyester satiny material.  I decided that when I found the right pattern I would just use plain, solid colored broad cloth.  I searched around a bit in stores and couldn't find a pattern I liked.  I searched online and found one by Kwik Sew that was the same shape as the Nintendo Princess' dresses.  I found a store locally, that I don't often go to, that sold it.  I bought it for 50% off with a coupon I found online.  That made it about $8.00.  That is $4.00 per kid.  Awesome!

As you can see it doesn't have the matching color ruffle. No problem!  I just made my own.  All you have to do is not hem the bottom of the skirt., add a super long strip of cloth that you have pressed in half , gather it, and then sew it on.  That part was easy.  It's sewing the rest that is hard for me.  I took sewing classes as a teenager, so I can follow a pattern.  It is the, trying not to accidentally sew the sleeves on inside out, that is hard for me.  I am also a slow sewer. I have to sometimes read the instructions a couple of times, for certain steps, before I get it.  I would like to say that this brand of pattern was very nice.  It was printed on a great weight of white paper.  (Not that cheesy tissue paper some are made of.)  The instructions are easy to follow and there are good graphics printed on the instructions to show what comes next.  I have tried a couple of other brands of patterns in the past for other projects.  This brand was pretty nice!!  I would buy from them again, now that I know where to get them.  I also like that this particular pattern included a pattern for a doll dress.  My daughters do have some dolls that I could make these for.  Will I do it?  That remains to be seen.

Well here is Theresa as Princess Peach.  I found some buttons in the findings department that looked just like Princess Peach's turquoise colored jewels.  I also found some clip on earring parts at Hobby Lobby in the jewelry making department.  So I made clip on earrings, a fake broach and had extra jewels left over.  I found the gloves at Target for $2.99.  Yay!  Here she is a few days before hand.

Here is Sarah as Princess Daisy.  Now I know you are going to notice right away that there is only one ruffle on Sarah's dress and two on the Nintendo Princess' dress.  This was a point of contention between Sarah and I.  I ran out of orange fabric and didn't have enough for another ruffle.  I had purchased the fabric a month ago with a coupon and didn't want to spend any more. She was mad and kept telling me to add another one. Honestly I wasn't sure how to add another ruffle to the cloth of the skirt without it looking weird.  I won the argument. :-)  I used a piece of pre-made trim that is lace to make the collar.  I just added it to the dress once it was all done.

Yay!  I love cheap.

The crowns kept giving me fits.  I kept thinking I would have to make them out of chip board and cover them with embossing powder or paper.  Then my husband had a genius idea.  (He is not just a pretty face.)  We had some margarine and cottage cheese containers in our recycling bin. 

Oh, yeah! I love free!  We cut off the rim with a box cutter. Then we marked where we would have the four peaks of the crown. 

Then I used my freakishly big kitchen scissors.  I cut the plastic and it turned out perfectly.  I cut slits in the bottom of the dishes to be able to have a way to attach them with bobby pins later.

We didn't have any paper that would reach all the way around.  We decided that the heat gun would melt the dishes, so embossing powder was out.  Duane went and got spray paint and transformed the dishes into crowns. I used one of the extra turquoise gems for Theresa's crown. We made a paper daisy with a glittery center for Sarah's crown.  I attached them with glue dots.  It was so perfect and so cheap I am still excited about them.  The spray paint did cost $4, but we are so crafty we will probably use it again for something. 

Here is Princess Peach.  She was so happy. 

Here is Princess Daisy. She was so happy to have some clip on earrings.  She says she will wear them forever. :-)

I found some little Super Mario mushrooms with candy inside.  I bought them and surprised them with them yesterday.  Hee!  One up!

The girls were thrilled.  We saved a little $$.  I did have some arguments with the sewing machine that resulted in a couple of swear words.  I also spent a lot of time doing this.  I am fortunate that I don't work outside the home right now.  I was able to spend my time making a memory for them. 

I do have to also say that I made a few mistakes making them.  I see them, even if no one else does.  I know I need to just let it go.  I have to point out though that I wish I would have been able to make some petticoats or some kind of hoop skirt for the dresses.  The skirts just hung limp and it would have been more fun to have them be full and poufy.  I learned a lot making these dresses and that is what really counts.  I don't sew often, but when I do, I teach myself a little something that I carry with me to the next project.  That is definitely worth my time.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at my projects. I also want to thank those of you who subscribe to my blog. I would like to say that I plan on blogging more often in the near future. I have more projects for the kids and the Holidays that I am planning.  Thanks for sticking with me and please stop by again soon.