Halloween Costume 2016 - DIY DC Superhero High Harley Quinn

My younger daughter was Batgirl last year.  She was in a big DC Comics phase, which then faded in favor of all things Star Wars.  However, late this summer she discovered the new SuperHero High series/books/action figures, so DC Comics came back into favor.  I'm okay with that because this request for (an age appropriate) Harley Quinn was easier to make happen than her favorite Star Wars Clone Wars character Ahsoka Tano.  I'd rather make goofy shorts-over-leggings than togruta head tails any day!

So, here is our 8.5 year old Harley Quinn from SuperHero High!

Because not everyone knows who Harley Quinn is (I didn't) and because there are tons of inappropriate adult version of Harley Quinn out there, here is the look we were going for...

... and here is how we did!

Not bad, huh?  Grace is pretty pleased.  

This costume was a mix of freshly made items of clothing plus clothing we had in a drawer already.  First, we needed a pair of leggings with one black leg and one red leg.  I made them from fleece - its late October in Wisconsin and I'm a mom.  :)

Then a pair of blue shorts to go over those.  (I tried to get her to skip those because I just don't understand the whole current shorts-over-leggings fashion trend but Grace wouldn't budge.)  So, blue shorts it is.  More fleece. 

The shirt was a fun remake.  I took a white long sleeved shirt we already had and an old black turtleneck of Keith's that had the collar all worn but the rest of the shirt was usable black jersey knit and did a mash up.  I removed the white shirt's collar and added a black mandarin collar.  I took off the white long sleeves and added black puffed short sleeves (Grace is determined she's going to wear this in summer and it HAD to match the action figure. For now, she's wearing a long sleeve black shirt underneath.)  The diamonds were cut from fleece, fused, and then stitched on to the shirt.  A black band around the bottom to mimic the action figure's belt, six black buttons stitched down the middle and viola - a Harley Quinn shirt!  

The whole shirt remake only took a few hours over one weekend.  It was definitely more of a hack-and-sew mash up than a properly drafted shirt but I'm fine with that.  It started a bit large so that it could fit over a long sleeve shirt for warmth and its a costume for pete's sake.  Mash ups are fine.    

The mask was next.  It has two layers stitched together... fleece for smoothness/softness against the skin and felt for sturdiness, with an elastic band around the head.  

We tied ribbons around hair ties for the colored hair.  I did that wipe-in hair dye last year for WyldStyle... never again.  I let Grace make the rules on most of this costume (blue shorts... short sleeves...etc) but I put my foot down on hair dye.  That stuff is nasty. 

We skipped the mallet that Harley Quinn carries around.  Too impractical for school parades and trick or treating...

And here is our Harley Quinn!  

Check out this post for her sister Princess Leia.  

Halloween Costume 2016 - DIY Princess Leia

Its Halloween time already!  How did that happen?!

Two years ago we had Lego Friends.  

Last year we had the Lego Movie and Batgirl.  

This year we have one Star Wars character and another DC Comics superhero.

First up is Princess Leia for my 10.5 year old.

We used a few ideas from Pinterest and made up the rest. 

 I used white fleece for both warmth and ease of sewing. 

Here you can see the basic shape of the tunic.

I laid the fleece on the floor (with a fold along where the shoulders/arms go), had Leah lay on top of it, pinned a rough outline and then we tweaked it from there.  A hole for her head, a collar for that neck hole, a long hood, and a wide sleeve.   I was able to cut the hood and collar from the fabric that had been cut away from the underarm area.  I bought 3 yards of fleece and used just about every scrap.

The belt is made from some shiny silver dancewear fabric I found at Hobby Lobby with sturdy fabric and batting on the inside for structure.  Leah designed the shape of the belt and the stitching, including a request for the 'L'.  Apparently it stands for Leia on Halloween and Leah on all other days.  :)   It closes with velcro in the back.

The buns are yarn on an earmuff frame.  I bought a cheap pair of earmuffs and cut off the store bought covering, leaving just the plastic frame.   Then I cut a piece of craft felt roughly larger than the earpiece to use as a base, braided some long lengths of super bulky brown yarn and hot-glued the braids to the felt base.  Using another piece of craft felt I made a sandwich of felt, plastic earmuff piece, and then braid-covered felt and hand stitched around the sandwich to hold it all in place.  The buns were a bit flat so I ended up hot gluing another braid on top to make them puffier.  Another strand of yarn was wrapped and hot glued around the headband part of the frame - it looked too goofy with the white plastic part showing.  Although, really, its all relative... some might say yarn-buns-on-earmuffs are goofy enough to begin with!  Leah likes them so that's all that really matters.  

The entire costume (tunic, belt, earmuff buns) cost about $30 in supplies.  (We had the wooden blaster pistol already from a previous wood shop experiment and she already owns black boots.)  It was 3 yards of fleece, the silver fabric (1/2 yard?), earmuffs, and yarn.  Considering you can pay $30 for a costume in the store made from cheap scratchy plastic that'll fall apart in one day, I'd say that's not too bad!  Leah is already looking forward to wearing the tunic as a bathrobe after Halloween because its just one big body wrap of snuggly-ness.  :)  

 This weekend, though, it'll be all about Princess Leia saving the republic.  

  

Denim Skirt... not quite right but still wearable

It is time to catch up on a bit of sewing project news.  I made this skirt at the end of summer and it has taken until now to get pictures of it...

I'd give this skirt a B-/C+.  Unfortunately I didn't draft it quite right and so I'm not in love with it.  Actually, it's drafted correctly, but the draft is not a good fit for this fabric.  The exact same draft in a soft flowy fabric would be perfect.  No so much with denim.  It's an easy mistake to make, but still a little frustrating.  Also, the buttons aren't quite evenly spaced. I don't know how that happened but it drives my perfectionist side crazy.

I do like the faux wrap part of the design with off center buttons, though.  That part was successful.  If I make another one I'll just draft it with back darts instead and not quite so much flare.  After looking at the pictures I think it actually looks better than it feels when I'm wearing it.

All in all, its still a wearable skirt and it goes with just about anything.  This year is supposed to be about sewing wardrobe staples for myself and this fits the requirements.  

Crochet Purple Baby Blanket

I have a friend having a baby girl any day now and made her this baby blanket over the course of the late summer/early fall.

It was a pleasant crochet project to have sitting by the couch for TV time.  The pattern is simple - just rows of double crochet alternating with rows of single crochet, all the rows done through the front loop only.  I've used this stitch pattern before and its easy and gives the project cool texture.  I used an acrylic yarn from Hobby Lobby that I've used a few times before - I like the sheen it has and it makes the projects super snuggly.

At the end I embellished it with a few flowers.  I tried hearts first but they kept turning out lopsided so I switched to flowers.

Blessings on your Baby, Friend!

Miscellaneous September.... leggings, Star Wars shirt, piano book bag, oven mitts...

Fall has begun with school schedules and music lessons up and running.  It has been great to have a more structured routine... for the most part.  It sure makes lazy Saturdays seem like a treat.  :)  In the sewing world, I am back to part-time work at the costume shop working on a fun show with projects that have been amazingly smooth and without difficulty or drama.  At home, then, I have just been puttering.  I've been tackling little projects I've been meaning to do or that have popped up, all of which can be started and finished in a day or two.  They're nothing fancy or even all that exciting so I'm going to squeeze them all in one post just for the sake of cataloging them as finished projects.

First up was a batch of leggings.  Both girls wear leggings almost daily so we go through them pretty quickly.  I definitely buy store bought leggings, but this year I thought I'd make some too.  The white ones are for church to be fake tights since neither girls can stand the top part of tights anymore.

The second project was rescuing an adult sized Star Wars shirt from the donation pile.  Leah bought it for Keith last year for his birthday but I forgot to check the tag - it was 100% polyester fabric.  That's a no-go for Keith so the shirt wasn't getting much wear and Leah was sad to see it being neglected.  So, it was granted a second life as a child's size raglan shirt.  It was a pretty smooth project.

The stripe shirt was a wearable mockup of the raglan pattern to make sure it was going to fit before cutting up the Star Wars shirt.

We have a beginner piano student in the house so I couldn't resist a little bag to carry her piano books on Thursday afternoons.  I cut it too close and it could have been made a little wider but as it only carries two little books it'll do.

Last but not least, I finally used up a bit of fun baking themed print I've had in my stash for a while.  I tried Insulbright batting (two layers per each side of the mitt) and it seems to be working great.  I made two mitts, using my old nasty dirty ones for a template, and then used up the rest of the Insulbright to get a rectangular hotpad and then a little mug rug.  The excess worked out just right that I used up all the fabric and all the Insulbright with very little waste.  They all went straight into the kitchen drawer to be used and I immediately threw in the trash two old mitts and four hotpads that had lived a long and dirty life.

That is what has been keeping me busy in September!  I am in the planning stages of a big quilt project and also brainstorming a new crochet project so I'm looking forward to starting those projects.