Halloween Sewing Plans + Costumes Past

I LOVE Halloween!  It’s my favorite holiday of the year- I love a good excuse to dress up.  Growing up our costumes were always handmade by my mom, who was quite the seamstress.  I went as a butterfly, a black cat, Sleeping Beauty & Rapunzel (my yarn wig was awesome!).  In High school I started making my own costumes, mostly thrifted , ranging from George Sand(my favorite French writer), Isaac Asimov (I can’t quite recall why? I wore a 3 piece suit and made steel wool muttonchops),  and the Goddess Diana (silver spandex one sleeve dress with moon jewelry) which were a bit too literary/highbrow for anyone to guess who exactly I was supposed to be!  I thought It would be fun to share some of our family costumes from the last few years before I started blogging.  I also have some great Halloween Pinterest boards if you’d like more inspiration!

Halloween 2009

Regency Drop Waist Gown and Maternity Corset (pregnant with Ami), from Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 1,1798-1805 Salisbury museum Gown Reproduction and White Linen Jumps, c.1790 from Corsets, Historical Patterns and Techniques by Jill Salon.  Nigel as an Octopus(pics farther down)

Random Costumes for Play: Octopus(Halloween 2010), Bat Boy, Darth Vader, Ninja, & Pirate Ami!

Lego Ninjago Costume for Nigel’s Buddy Eli:

Snow White & The Huntsman Theme  (except for Nigel)- Ami as Forest Snow White, Myself as The Evil Queen Ravenna (self draped gown and foam crown plus awesome ring I found on Etsy!) & Nigel as an Army man.

If you’d like more ideas check out my inspiration boards below!

This year our theme is going to be Sleeping Beauty.  Ami is obsessed with Maleficent! Today is my son Nigel’s 6th birthday(!!!) but what Ami is psyched about is that Sleeping Beauty is being re released today :)  My little 3 year old loves the scary witches and evil queens the best in fairy tales.  She gets so angry when the Disney princess books don’t include the witch, that’s the best part!  You should hear her tell her fairy stories-they are EPIC!  So Ami is going as a little Maleficent. I made a muslin and am now piecing together my fabric (I’m using two dress from Goodwill as the main fabric) and love how it’s all coming together.

I of course must go as Briar Rose.  I talked Ami down from the Blue Gown(what’s up with the pink version- I definitely like the blue best!) so I’ll be the forest maiden.  I bought my fabric already- two neutral bamboo knits from Marcy Tilton.  I’m planning on using the Lady Skater Dress as my base so I can wear this regularly,  after Halloween I’ll be shibori dyeing the dress.   I’m going to raise the neckline slightly and lengthen the skirt-maybe add some more fullness.  I’ll make my black over corset out of some leftover black organic jersey in my stash.  Accessories will be a little removable collar, a long scarf and basket.  My mom actually has the perfect wig for me to use in her dress up bin.

Nigel is not into the whole Sleeping Beauty theme and so far is thinking he’ll be a skeleton.  He still may change his mind, so I’ll make his costume last.  You can look at all my inspiration for this years costumes below!

Are you dressing up for Halloween?  I’d love to know what you’ll be going as and if you’ll be making your costume.  So happy I have kids so no one thinks I’m crazy for dressing up at 38 :)