A few more cool links to get those halloween juices flowing:
This was actually supposed to go up last year (!) but you know how the time around halloween gets around here!
My friend Cecily made this costume for her daughter… She writes:
For my daughter, I didn’t like the Daphne costumes available for sale from the costume stores. They are kind of skanky and not the cool retro Daphne from 1970! She wanted to be the original Daphne for sure.
I used Simplicity: It’s So Easy, pattern #2825 (Dress and Backpack (didn’t make the backpack). I used purple Kona cotton and lavendar bias tape for the trim. Honestly I have no idea as to the “right way” to do something like this- I just followed the pattern and when I didn’t understand it, I improvised. I’m just excited that I was able to make a garment!Basically, if I can do this anyone can-as long as you have a basic knowledge of using a sewing machine and following a pattern.
Cecily added that “Funny thing is that I made myself a Daphne costume for Halloween in 2000 (maybe the Daphne-intrigue is partly due to the fact that I like her too?). I didn’t use a machine, just cut and hand-sewed thrift store pieces together to make that dress (a two piece).”
Here’s a scan of the mom version of the costume!
I promised you guys a second costume for The Boy’s halloween (you’ll remember he’s also doing Draco Malfoy, Death Eater), and here it is!
He’s a big fan of the Plants Vs. Zombies video game, and insisted on being a Conehead Zombie. We also considered buckethead, but we had the cone, so that sealed the deal.
This is easy to put together, and tons of fun. I think this would be a great group costume idea – everyone picking different zombies to play
Tutorial:
I’ve written an Instructable up, if you want to go make your own.
This has also been posted at Moms Rising! http://www.momsrising.org/blog/no-sew-halloween-costume-cone-head-zombie/
You can also create a card for your congressman:
Let Congress know that it takes more than a fancy Halloween costume for children to thrive.
This is part 3, we’ve already covered how to make a death eater mask, and how to make a hogwarts robe out of a t-shirt!
For the boy’s Death Eater costume, he really didn’t want any Slytherin gear, as he said (and rightly) that Draco Malfoy skulking around as a Death Eater would not be wearing his Slytherin scarf. But since a death eater doesn’t really look like anything other than a creepy guy in a mask without something to indicate Harry Potter-ness, I talked him into the scarf, so Draco could go incognito.
So here’s the quick tutorial on making the Slytherin scarf. As with any of my sewing projects, I’m not a seamstress, and I don’t measure.
Supplies: 1 green sweatshirt and 1 grey sweatshirt. We’re basically just using the sweatshirts as a comfy and cheap source of material here.
Step 1:Assess your fabric potential: If your sweatshirts have design on them, that will limit the amount of fabric you can get off of them, so take that into account. Minimally you should have a large piece from the back, a large piece from the front, plus you can split your sleeves along the bottom seam for 2 more large pieces.
(see more steps under the photos)
Step 2: Cut your rectangles. Figure out the width you want your scarf to be. You’ll need to cut out rectangles of fabric for your stripes at double that width, and at least 5 or 6 inches tall (the taller, the less you need – use the size of your workable fabric to determine how tall). If you have more fabric available from one of your shirts, plan on that one being the one on the ends of the scarf, so you’ll need 1 more square of that color.
The rectangles of each color should be approximately the same size (i.e. all the greens 7 in and all the greys 5 in) .
Step 3: Layout. Starting with your end color (Green in my case), lay out your rectangles in order to get an idea of length. Remember, you’ll be sewing these together, so you’ll lose some length to seams. Remember to start and end with the same color (in my case, I also made the green end pieces a little bit taller)
Step 4: Sew together the rectangles. Start with one end piece. Place “good” sides together with the good side of the opposing color, and machine stitch. Continue until you have one long piece of stripes. Remember to place the sides you want to show together each time you add a new color.
Step 5: You now have a long piece of striped fabric. But both of your ends are still unfinished, so run a quick hem on either end (see photo)
Step 6: Fold your long piece of striped fabric. in half lengthwise, so that the bad side is showing. Pin all the way down, making sure each stripe matches up.
Step 7. Sew the seam you just pinned to make a really long tube. Turn tube right side out to see your finished scarf!
For The Boy’s Draco Malfoy costume, I had a brainstorm one night when he was using a XL men’s tshirt as a sleep shirt. It was the perfect size for a wizard robe for a 6 year old.
This version is meant to be a Death Eater robe (I took the liberty of having it double as Draco’s school robe as well). This could of course work for a wide variety of hooded robes, including Jedi robes!
So I grabbed it, and a couple more old t-shirts and with my handy dandy sewing machine, I stitched this up. Note, I am not a seamstress. I have no patience for measuring or exactness. So this is not the most perfect job ever, but he loves it.
And you don’t have to have a sewing machine to do this – there isn’t a ton of sewing involved – but it just makes it go faster.
I only lined the inside of the hood with the Hogwarts House color (in this case, green), but add an extra green tshirt and I’m sure you can figure out how to line the whole robe if you prefer. And leaving out the lining all together makes this a much quicker and easier project, if you want to go all one color.
You’ll need:
Step 1:
Cut the Tshirt down the front from top to bottom. If the shirt has a design on it, like mine did, you’ll want to turn it inside out and treat the inside like the outside from now on.
Step 2:
Open the shirt up so the neckline is flat, and measure the neckline.
Step 3:
Trim the bottom off of your 2 extra tshirts. We’ll be using these large squares to make the hood. You’ll likely only need the front, but save the back in case you mess up.
Step 4:
For the 2 rectangles cut above:
Place with bottom t-shirt seam at the bottom, and trim so that the width is a little bit (1 in) longer than the width of our collar.
Step 5: Place the ‘good’ sides (the side you want to show) of the squares together, and sew around 3 sides of the square. Leave the bottom t-shirt seam side open. Turn inside out so that your good sides are now showing.
Step 6:
Place the black side of your hood against the good side of your robe body (the original tshirt hem of your hood pocket should line up with your robe collar). Keeping the green piece out of the way (so you don’t sew it) sew the black portion of the hood on to the body. You’ll end up with a seam inside the robe, with the “shirt hem” on the hood sewed to the collar of the shirt.
Step 7:
Sew the hood seam. This would be neatest done by hand, sewing from inside our pocket, but I was lazy and did it on the machine, so I ended up having a black seam inside my hood.
Basically take the top left and right corners, pull them together, and sew the seam that you create.
Step 8:
Finally, we just have to attach some sort of fastener. I decided just to sew on a simple button, and a loop of elastic. Knot a 6-8 in piece of elastic to make a loop. Make a hole in one side of your collar and feed it through to the inside. Sew the elastic down to the inside of the collar to secure. Sew a button on the collar on the opposite side.
See also: How to make a Death Eater mask
After I made the Draco Malfoy costume for my son, I took some video. He really is a ham on the camera! See the Boy, in his own words, tell you about his costume and how to make it!
I decided to post the Death Eater Mask Tutorial over at Dollar Store Crafts, since it was made with Dollar Store materials, so go check it out there!
Make a Death Eater Mask from a $1 Skeleton mask
I’ll have the tutorial on making the robe and/or scarf up tomorrow!
Happy All Hallows….
dot
I got too busy today to upload a tutorial on the Draco Malfoy Death Eater costume, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.
To tide you over, here are some clever Harry Potter halloween ideas, for those who like to mix their All Hallows with the Deathly Hallows!
A few photos below, then links to those ideas and more under the photos.
So, The Boy is somehow getting 2 halloween costumes this year. He’s a big Harry Potter fan, so his first costume is Draco Malfoy, Death Eater. He’s only on book 6, but he has some Legos that have Draco Malfoy in Death Eater garb, so he’s latched on to this idea.
So, for his totally homemade/upcycled costume, we have:
I’ll have tutorials on making most of the pieces of the costume this week, so stay tuned!
edit:
Tutorials posted:
Video – watch The Boy explain how to make his costume
Some additional pics:
Finally getting into the halloween spirit around here. The hubby was making new gravestones for the front yard the other day, while I thrift shopped and sewed for the Boys two (two? Why two? I’m not quite sure!) halloween costumes. I’ll get him to model one of them when he gets home from school today (Draco Malfoy: Death Eater!) and show that off to you guys this week. Plus a couple of cool tutorials on making it.
Until then, to tide you over on halloween related goodness, here’s a few ideas for halloween — all pumpkin, all the time!
PS, several of these have been linked on twitter/facebook, where I’m tossing up all kinds of good ideas as I come across them. Go Like the Dabbled page (or follow on Twitter) to be in the know! And feel free to post your own cool halloween ideas on the Dabbled page too. I love to feature readers’ halloween projects!
PS, this is in no particular order and no, I was lazy and didn’t try to make it match the photos above.
Looking for some cool and crafty halloween ideas? Here are some I’ve been collecting!
