Halloween Costumes 2014 - Lego Friends Olivia and Stephanie

I made simple costumes/clothes for Halloween this year.  As a family we don't really celebrate Halloween but there is a Storybook Character Day at school so the girls ''need'' a costume for that day.  I stumbled upon an idea online (thank you) where someone painted shirts to look like the shirts the Lego Friends wear.  I nonchalantly asked the girls if they wanted to be Lego Friends for Halloween and they were immediately sold on the idea.  No surprise whatsoever.  :)

It wasn't until AFTER I had haphazardly suggested the idea that I realized how truly fabulous an idea it really was.  The costumes were incredibly simple to make and the millisecond they were home from school on Storybook Character Day the outfits went straight into their regular school clothes rotation.  Lego Friends wear ruffly skirts and t-shirts - regular clothes, not 'costumes'.  I love it when sewing turns out high-yield, often-worn items.

So, without further ado, here are Olivia and Stephanie.  I'll include a picture of the minifigures themselves just in case you are not up to speed on your Lego Friends characters.

This is Olivia, our eight year old's favorite character:  

And this is Stephanie, our six year old's favorite:  

The skirts were really easy to make.  I had been looking for an excuse to use this pre-ruffled fabric for quite some time and this was finally the perfect application.  I found it at Hobby Lobby but I think its available elsewhere as well.  The skirts are self-drafted but they are basically a rectangle with very slight tapering on the sides attached to an elastic casing waistband.  Easy peasy - I probably made both skirts in an hour or two.  The ruffly fabric is a bit of a trick to cut and sew, but not too terrible as long as you think ahead about where you want the ruffles to be.  I used 1/4 inch quilting tape (skinny masking tape) to tape the ruffles down along the seamlines.  That worked wonderfully for keeping the ruffles all pointed in the proper direction under the presser foot.  The skirts are lined with some knit from my stash because the ruffly fabric is pretty sheer.  That same lining knit was used for the waistband.  (As a side note, it was fascinating to me to find out that my girls have almost exactly the same size waist right now - the younger one is actually a tad bigger around.  The older girl is the same size around, just much taller.  I see much sharing of clothes in our future.)

The shirts are fabric appliques on store-bought shirts.  I used double sided fusible web to attach the shapes that I had drawn on paper.  I sketched the shapes for the fronts and then found a Lego Friends logo online to trace for the back of the shirts for an extra bit of fun.  I was pretty pleased with how they turned out and was even more pleased when I showed them to the girls and Leah blurted out,  "Mom!  They're... like... perfect!  How did you do it?!"   :)   I started out with the heaviest weight fusible web and that held up for Storybook Character Day, but ended up stitching around the appliques later to make sure they stayed through the wash.

The costumes were well received at school and the different pieces and parts have already been worn to school a few times.  I'd say Halloween 2014 was a total sewing success!

P.S.  I am also really thankful that I did NOT end up sewing intricate Elsa and Anna costumes like so many other poor crafty moms this year...  Just sayin'.  :)