from lioness to lion... almost

The lion pattern (McCalls M6106) I used to make hubby's Halloween costume called for the use of longer fake fur fabric for the mane of the lion. When we purchased our supplies to make the costume, the store was out of it... and, since we live pretty far away from a decent fabric store, we didn't want to go back. So, we decided to look around for a substitute.

That's when we found tan/brown boas. We bought 3 of them, and instead of using the long fake fur in the pattern, I used the same material for the entire costume (fleece) with the plan of hand sewing the boas on for the lions mane.



Here is our lovely TV antenna modeling the mane. Obviously, there is still some work to do. This is what it looks like with 1 boa sewn on.

Besides the boas, I still have to add the dreaded elastic to the ankles of the costume. In the hopes to make hubby look "cooler" (ie, not wearing sweatpants) I did sew it without the elastic at first, but thought it would actually look better gathered, so the elastic is back in the picture.

To see earlier stages of this years halloween costume making process click the following links:

Picking out Dorothy & Lion costume patterns and fabric

Finding Dorothy's ruby red shoes (for cheap!)

Sewing the skirt to bodice for Dorothy costume

I'm melting! melting!

Ok not the Wicked Witch, this time it's Dorothy!

I'm almost done with the Dorothy costume, but this is a picture from when I was gathering the skirt to sew it to the bodice :) That was A LOT more fabric than I'm used to.

Hubby's lion costume is almost done too... but I made it a little too GIANT, and will be cutting off oooooh, about 10 inches from the legs. Better too long than not long enough?

Halloween ghost how-to

How to make a ghost out of cloth:

Supplies:



Scrap white fabric cut roughly into a square (mine was probably 6"x6")
Mod Podge
foam brush
cup (to mix mod podge & water in)
a little bit of water

First, mix mod podge and a little bit of water into a cup (the water just helps make it easier to spread)

Next, drape the fabric over something so the center (or ghosts head) is in the middle. I used the container of mod podge as the form.



Then, use the foam brush to paint the mod podge solution onto the fabric, making sure to get the areas between the wrinkles as well.

Allow it to dry, and use puffy paint to make eyes on it.

Then, use thread to string a loop on the top of the ghost so it can hang somewhere as decoration.



* I used too much water the first time I painted the mod podge solution on, so I used less water and did a second coat, making the ghost much stiffer and giving it better form. *

Moccasin kits

Yesterday, while out running errands, hubby said he wanted some slippers... which reminded me of those make your own moccasin kits that I've seen around (and always wanted to do for some reason). So, I mentioned the idea of making our own and he was on board!

We went to Hobby Lobby, and bought a kit for each of us.

moccasin kits

Later on we busted out the kits, and the process of making the moccasins was more of a family project than I anticipated.



Someone kept stealing the strings we were using. We had to keep a sharp eye on this little one... she'd grab them and run away.



It took about an hour to make the kits. (probably would have been less time, except there was some unlacing and re lacing involved that could potentially have been avoided)

completed moccasins

Now, the trick is to keep these away from our other family member... (dog) who would love to add some more holes to them.

got the shoes!

Hubby & I went on a mission to find some Dorothy shoes and had success! He spotted them from several aisles away. These were from Walmart and are the brand Faded Glory. I usually wear a size 8 shoe... these are size 5 and fit perfectly.

Red Dorothy shoes

On a side note, I finally disposed of another pair of red shoes today. It took me a long time to accept that they were no longer wearable and that I needed to part with them. Hubby did not like those shoes at all... so I'm still slightly convinced he fed them to our beagle on purpose.