Most Creative Halloween Costume Nominee!!

Last Halloween I made William & Kate Wedding day costumes for Hubby & me. 

 

Well today, I found out that our costumes were nominated for the "Most creative Halloween  costume" award on allfancydress.com which is a UK based costume retailer.  I was so surprised!

 

 

 

 

Check out the other nominees and winner (a hamburgler costume) here!

 

 

Halloween 2011 - William & Kate costumes COMPLETE!

Here are some pics of our William and Kate Halloween costumes!



William & Kate Royal Wedding Halloween costumes



Kate Middleton Wedding gown Halloween costume



Ideally I would have had the lace closer together at the buttons but I ran out of time (and trying to fit this on myself would have taken forever), since it's only a Halloween costume, I was OK with leaving this as is.

Check out these posts to see how I made the satin and lace parts of the bodice, the skirt, and how it was sewn together.

I also have a list of key accessories for the costume as well as tutorials on making the bouquet and petticoat.



Prince William Wedding day Halloween costume

Check out this post for details on the pattern I used to make the Prince William costume. (I didn't have time to make the black pants I cut out) You can also see how I sewed the top and bottom part of the coat as well as the details on the sleeves. Later, I sewed some patches onto the uniform and made a sash. Hubby helped make the belt.

Since I messed up my sewing machine before finishing our costumes, there are a few details I didn't get around to adding to the costumes. If we wear them again I'll add them, if not, oh well!

Halloween 2011 - Royal Wedding final touches

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

It's official. My sewing machine is in for repairs. With the unexpected loss of my machine the day before our costumes needed to be done I had a lot of hand sewing ahead of me. (for several reasons, I opted to not use my spare)

Unfortunately that meant that I couldn't do all of the details I planned on for our costumes. At least not in time. I also didn't have Hubby's pants made by that point, so he wore a pair of black dress pants instead.

Some of the details couldn't be skipped though, such as adding the buttons on the back of the wedding gown, since that closure was necessary for the lace above the zipper. (of course I added them over the zipper too so it didn't look weird) The picture below shows the buttons and loops being added before sewing the lace in place.

I have no idea if I did the buttons "correctly" but it works, and I used what I had on hand.

Anyways, the pictures Hubby & I took in our costumes all turned out blurry for some reason. So, we'll probably take a few more tomorrow, which I will post soon!

To check out more posts (lots of details) about how I made our costumes, click on the "William and Kate" tab on the side of my blog, or "Wedding gown" if you're just interested in Kate's dress.

Halloween 2011 - Royal Wedding - Lace on bodice

My wedding day Kate Middleton Halloween costume is well under way! Here's a recap on the making of the petticoat, satin part of the bodice, and skirt.

Now, lets take a look at how the lace part of the top was made.

I based the lace layer of the bodice off of McCalls pattern 6120 instead of attempting it on my own, to prevent damage to the lace from unnecessary alterations.

To do this, I traced the McCalls pattern onto a large piece of paper and made these adjustments:
1) Made the front into 1 piece (a v-neck cut on the fold)
2) Made the back come up higher
3) Lengthened the sleeves
4) Pointed the sleeves at the wrists
5) Cut the back into 2 panels, as it will be buttoned instead

Below is a look at some of the pattern pieces:
(the sleeve pattern is on front)

Here's the front and back panels pinned on the dress form:

Once everything was sewn together (with a zig-zag stitch), I turned the lace inside out and lined it up on the dress form. Then, I pinned 2 darts on the front, making it more fitted.

I sewed the darts in place, then moved on to the sleeves.

The sleeves needed to be taken in a lot:

Fitting a sleeve on yourself is a time consuming task. But, with the sleeves inside out, I slowly pinned where they needed to be taken in.

Here the sleeve fits nicer, but there is still more room than I'd like at the wrist. So, I will likely be adding buttons there later to make it more fitted... we'll see.

Once everything was fitting right I trimmed the fabric close to the seams, and flipped it right side out. I pinned the lace layer over the satin bodice on my dress form and tacked them together at the seams.

Halloween 2011 - Royal Wedding - Sewing the dress together

Now that the satin part of the bodice and skirt are done for my Royal wedding Halloween costume, it's time to sew them together.

I lined the pieces up on my dress form to see how everything looked (with the help of my feline assistant). Then, tried it on to make sure the placement worked on me before getting started.





I ended up fixing the pleats on the back of the skirt since the photo above was taken. They just weren't laying right.

On the picture below, I've got the bodice pinned to the skirt. (remember, for this dress, the shiny side of the fabric is the "wrong side")

Here it is sewn together:

Then, I added an ivory, invisible zipper in the back and pinned the bottom of the dress where I thought the hem should go.

I tried everything on and made some adjustments and was ready to move on to the lace!

Halloween 2011 - Royal Wedding - skirt

You've now seen how I made the petticoat and satin layer of the bodice for my Kate Middleton Halloween costume.


Now, lets take a look at the skirt.




First off, I bought 8 yards of extra wide ivory satin, a whopping 118" wide (it was on a big sale). The fabric is SUPER SHINY, which I'm not in love with. So, I used the "wrong side" of the fabric as my "right side", problem solved.


Since my fabric was so wide, I just had a front and a back panel to my skirt. I made measurements a few inches above the waist to the floor (accounting for the petticoat filling out the dress) and left an extra 10-12" for a wide hem.

With the measured length at hand, I cut 2 rectangles. Then, I cut those so the waist wasn't as wide, but still had plenty of extra fabric for pleats (as shown below).

I measured what the new width of the fabric at the waist was, and my actual waist measurement plus a couple of inches for seam allowance.

Next, I decided how many pleats to make and figured out how far apart (and how deep) they needed to be to end up making the waistline fit my actual measurement plus the seam allowance.

*If you want to add pockets, do so before sewing the sides of the skirt together* (I forgot to, and will probably go back and add them in)

Using a fabric pencil, I marked my fabric where all the box pleats should go. Then I sewed the sides of the skirt together, and finally sewed in the pleats.

For ideas on how to accessorize the Royal wedding day look, click here.

Halloween 2011 - Royal Wedding - bodice (take 2)

When I scrapped the bodice discussed in the previous post, I decided to use an actual pattern to get quicker results for my Kate Middleton wedding day Halloween costume.

Luckily, I found McCalls 3635, which is for a 2 piece dress (top and skirt) and was nearly perfect for this costume. The top had the princess seams and zippered back that I was looking for, but the neckline had to be changed, no big deal.

I went straight to my satin to make the top from view A. Since the fabric frayed so easily, I ran fray check around the perimeter of each piece before sewing it together.

McCalls 3635 view A

I left the neckline the way the pattern showed until I had my lace layer figured out for the bodice.

For a quick link to the first post on making the dress click here.

For ideas on how to accessorize the Royal wedding day look, click here.

Halloween 2011 - Royal Wedding - bodice (take 1)

As I said before, the process of making my Halloween costume was interesting. I knew right away that I wanted Hubby & I to be William and Kate on their wedding day. I somehow had this brilliant idea that I'd make my own pattern...

I did. And it was time consuming, but worked out alright... until I got rid of the wrong set of pattern pieces that I made for the bodice (that'll happen when you should be sleeping, not sewing) and somehow couldn't revive the muslin I made to make a new pattern.



Here's the bodice I made, before it met it's fate as a scrap piece of fabric:

I made a ton of measurements and cut some muslin for the bodice. Then, I sewed the bodice together & added a zipper.

I tried it on, and using grey thread, basted the muslin in areas that needed to be taken in so I could quickly make adjustments. (I also wrote all over my paper pattern & muslin making notes for additional length, etc.)

Then, I cut the pattern in the lining material & added boning. (not sure if I did it right, never used it before)



I'm not sure exactly what happened, but somehow the above bodice didn't make the cut. Since I couldn't find my pattern again, I pulled out my trusty real pattern stash and found one that could be modified to work.

See how the next bodice was made soon!

For a quick link to the first post on making the dress click here.

For ideas on how to accessorize the Royal wedding day look, click here.

Halloween 2011 - William & Kate, Royal wedding style

I've loved Prince William for as long as I can remember. When he and Kate Middleton announced their engagement last year, I was extremely excited (only slightly jealous), for the Royal wedding. They're such a cute couple.

Another thing I love besides the Royal couple is Halloween. So, it only seemed natural to try to replicate William and Kate's wedding attire for the festivities. Luckily, I have a Hubby who (slightly resembles the prince... coincidence?) puts up with me and agreed to go as Prince William for Halloween if I made his costume.

My version of Kate Middleton's wedding dress has been an interesting process. I'll start from the beginning and will have multiple blog posts to show it (posts on the process of the Prince William costume will be in the future too).

First off I made a Bridal petticoat (with tutorial) for super cheap. This was important to have ready when determining how many yards of satin to buy.

Then, I bought 10 yards of muslin to make my pattern for the dress. (I ended up using less)

Armed with my favorite magazines featuring the Royal wedding, and my sewing scissors that I hide from Hubby, I got to work.

Here's where the dress is now (it still needs trim and other touches):

Kate Middleton's wedding dress for Halloween costume

More posts to come on how the dress was made, in case you want to be Kate Middleton for Halloween too!

Here are some key accessories to consider when dressing as the Duchess of Cambridge

Look into the future... here is how I made the satin part of the bodice, the skirt, and how it was sewn together

Bridal Petticoat tutorial - 9 simple steps

I finished making a bridal petticoat (for my Halloween costume)! I know just how expensive petticoats are to buy (or even rent) so, I'll show you how I made mine in 9 simple steps and for really cheap.

Quick & easy petticoat tutorial for bridal gown:
(total cost about $8 which is really cheap compared to store bought)

Supplies:
Fabric of choice to make lining (about the size of a full length skirt)
Elastic for waistband
10 yards of netting

1. Choose a fabric to be the base lining of the petticoat (which will basically be the size of a full length skirt) I used muslin, because it was cheap and I had some on hand.

2. Cut fabric to roughly the shape shown below. Keep in mind, the length should be roughly that of a full length skirt on you, and the waist should be cut wide enough to be able to slip the petticoat on.

3. Sew the sides of fabric together & sew the bottom hem

4. Cut an elastic band at a comfortable yet secure length to fit around your waist and sew it to the waist of your skirt lining



5. Mark 3 horizontal lines across the fabric lining (front & back) as shown below in the diagram by the blue dotted lines. These will be the lines you will sew the netting to.



6. Prepare your netting: (mine was 54" wide to begin with)

a) Cut 3 lengths of netting: 2 yards, 4yards, and 4yards.

b) Starting with one piece, fold netting in half length wise (this is usually already done for you, if it is straight from the bolt)

c) Fold that netting in half again, length wise (essentially dividing the fabric into fourths)

d) Baste all 4 layers of the netting together lengthwise about 1" from the folded edges

e) Repeat with the other two lengths of netting


7. Attaching the netting:

a) Mark the front and back center points on your skirt lining at each of the three horizontal lines you previously marked for the netting attachment sites

b) Divide the netting pieces into fourths width wise and mark those points

c) Starting with the bottom of the skirt, match the markings on the netting with the centers and seam markings on the skirt and pin in place at those points

d) Gather the netting to fit around the skirt at that location

e) Sew in place following the lines

f) Repeat the netting attachment steps for the middle and upper horizontal netting attachment lines, using the other 4 yard piece of netting for the middle row and the 2 yard piece for the top row.

** It is much easier to attach the netting from bottom to top **

** Make sure the rows of netting overlap each other a bit. Ex: The middle row overlaps the bottom row a few inches and the top row overlaps the middle row a few inches. **

8. On the bottom edges of all three rows of netting (not the part sewn onto the skirt lining) there will be one folded edge left over, instead of a raw edge. Cut the folded fabric apart creating two raw edges in place of the fold.

9. Fluff out the netting layers

Your petticoat is complete!

**Note, you may want to stagger where the ends of the netting meet up while attaching them to the skirt lining to create a smoother look**

Bridal Couture

We're at the beginning of wedding season again, which is perfect timing to keep the excitement going for my somewhat large sewing project. I'm sewing a wedding gown!

Who on Earth would trust me to sew such an important dress, you ask? Well, it's actually for me... for Halloween... so it's really not a big deal at all hehe.


Good thing, because I will be the first to admit that I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm going to be totally winging this. (I'll probably get a pattern for Hubby's costume, we'll see though)

But, to help out with making the gown I purchased the book Bridal Couture by Susan Khalje. I'd read several outstanding reviews on it. So far it has been extremely helpful to me too. Unfortunately, at this point in time the book is out of print... so look around hard to find the best deal if you do decide to purchase it.