Cat's Halloween hobby

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Cat-a-Tonic

Cat-a-Tonic

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I thought I'd share this with you guys. Halloween is coming up! It's far and away my favorite holiday and something I look forward to all year. My hubby and I are really into making cool Halloween costumes, it's been a hobby of ours ever since we first started dating. We have a website with some of our Halloween costume photos on it - here's the link if anyone would like to see:

http://halloweeners.deviantart.com/gallery/
(Click on each year at the left to see that year's costumes)

We always do couples costumes. We've already started work on this year's costumes and hopefully they will be really cool. When I first became ill (somewhat ironically, in October 2009) I wasn't sure if this illness would prevent me from going out on Halloween. (I should mention that we live in Madison WI, and there is a HUGE Halloween party here every year with tens of thousands of costumed people gathering downtown.) I'm so glad that I'm still able to make costumes in spite of having this illness. It's not going to hold me back! :)

Does anybody else make costumes? Or just like to sew?
 
I love to sew, I just don't have the skill! (I can't sew the straight lines necessary for quilts, but that's it). I would love to learn.

I love it! Your work is incredible! Halloween is the BEST.
 
OMG the grumpy old men! You're killing me!

This year my friend and I want to be two of the kids from Bob's Burgers. It should be good, although not real involved.
 
Yeah, Statler and Waldorf! We loved dressing as them, we got to heckle all the bad costumes that year. :p
 
I dress up every year for my best friend's Halloween party. If my husband is in the States, we do a couples costume as well. This was us last year...

76368_1641733693058_1528300550_1637431_6574930_n.jpg


But I am not NEARLY talented enough to do what you do. I have to buy mine usually.
 
I purposely chose to live in Madison for many reasons, one of them being Halloween. :) So many people here dress up, it's really a lot of fun. I'm finally in/near remission and this should be the first Halloween in two years that I won't be super worried about where the bathrooms are, should I eat beforehand or not, etc.

I'm mostly keeping this a secret, but I'll tell you guys since you are awesome - we're going to be Beauty and the Beast this year. I'm excited to make Belle's big poofy yellow dress! I really liked making Princess Peach's big poofy pink dress last year so this will be similar. :) Hubby and I discovered that, for Beast, faux fur at the fabric store is really expensive. But, old teddy bears at garage sales and thrift shops are cheap! So we bought a bunch of old teddies for really cheap and are going to cut them up and make Beast's head, hands, and tail out of them. It should be fun!
 
That's gonna be amazing! Can't wait to see pics. Also happy to hear you'll be in/near remission.
 
We don't celebrate Halloween here in Oz so I will live it through you Cat! Can't wait to see the outfits...:):):)

I'm excited!
party.gif

Dusty. xxx
 
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you are so talented, they are amazing. Wish i could come up with something half as good. Cant wait to see what you have this year :)
 
I remember seeing the photos last year of your costumes. Amazing!
Over here our costumes are more usually of a horror theme. There is no major celebrations like you have in the US. Most years my Friends hold a party. My favourite costume was when my boyfriend, best friend and I went as The Shining. We went as the twins and he was Jack Nicholson. All we needed was some old nighties, long socks and he had a bashed in piece of wood to stick his head through and an axe!
How long does it take you to make the costumes?
 
Sam, the time it takes varies - for the more elaborate ones like Kang and Kodos, it took 3 or 4 months. For the less complex ones, I'd say we work on them for about 2 months. Statler and Waldorf were really easy, we just had to buy suits and the masks only took about a week to make. Hubby usually makes the masks, and I do the sewing.
 
This is amazing work! What do you do with your old costumes? I'm thinking of offering you some cash...

I love your talent!!
 
You got dressed as Waldorf and Statler? From muppet show???????? Will you marry me and make me those awesome costumes? For realz!!!
 
WOW! Your costumes are amazebobs! You're one talented lady, you should start an online shop! I'd deffo buy costumes from you. I don't usually celebrate Halloween but this year one of my work collegues is taking a career break to work in Disneyland over xmas. His leaving do is on the Halloween wknd so we all have to go dressed up (the theme is Disney obvs haha!) I have NO IDEA what to go as! One of the girls is going as mike lebowski (spl?) from monstors inc, should look well cool :) xx
 
Jessi, we keep all the old costumes. A few people have offered to buy them but I think I said something like $500 each minimum and those people all backed off in a hurry, ha ha. I'm not super keen on selling things that I've spent so much time and effort on, you know? My hubby seems more keen on selling our stuff than I am.

Scifimom, your post made me laugh! :D Sorry I'm taken, but I am a little bit tempted to marry you just for the chance to be able to go to Greece. Ha ha :)

Siobhan, there are a lot of Disney characters to choose from, I'm sure you can figure out a good one to dress up as. Lots of Disney princesses to choose from, or you could go as a pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean, or maybe one of the Incredibles?
 
Cat-a-Tonic said:
Jessi, we keep all the old costumes. A few people have offered to buy them but I think I said something like $500 each minimum and those people all backed off in a hurry, ha ha.
Click to expand...

I bet they're worth every penny that you're asking! :medal1:
 
Cat-a-Tonic said:
Scifimom, your post made me laugh! :D Sorry I'm taken, but I am a little bit tempted to marry you just for the chance to be able to go to Greece. Ha ha :)
Click to expand...

You can come to Greece anytime. Just send me a PM and arrange to land in Thessaloniki. I will pick you up from the airport (Both you and hubby) make you an itinerary to visit all the beautyfull sites, take you to the beach and out to dinner for some deeeeeeelicius AND healthy, Greek cuisine.

I am just a PM away
 
Scifimom said:
You can come to Greece anytime. Just send me a PM and arrange to land in Thessaloniki. I will pick you up from the airport (Both you and hubby) make you an itinerary to visit all the beautyfull sites, take you to the beach and out to dinner for some deeeeeeelicius AND healthy, Greek cuisine.

I am just a PM away
Click to expand...

I just invited myself, too. :D We still need to do that BBQ with you and your hubby here at my house, though.
 
I think a princess is too obvious. You'd make a nice Boo (would it be too weird to "match" your coworker?). That'd be easy. Alice (wonderland)? Lady and the Tramp or 101 Dalmations... Ursula? Timon and get someone to be Pumba (or vice versa)? The possibilities are endless. :D

Haha I found a list of Disney's animated characters. This should help narrow it down!
 
p.s. this is my favorite picture on the entire internets:
tumblr_ll21lqH2Mp1qf37y1o1_500.jpg


Cat, do you think I could tap in to your expertise when I make my costume? There's a small part I'm having trouble figuring out.
 
Scifimom, I may take you up on that offer someday! I'm drooling thinking of all the wonderful Greek foods. I can't afford to take a trip right now, but maybe someday!

Nic, that picture doesn't seem to be loading for me (I'm at work so it's possible that it's blocked or something). And sure, let me know what you're trying to do with your costume and I'll rack my brain and see what I can come up with.
 
Bummer. It's an adorable picture of a little girl dressed as Cruella Deville.

Have you ever seen Bob's Burgers? If not, you should, it's pretty funny though a little off beat. In any case, I'm going to be Louise.

Louise+on+++Bob%2527s+Burgers++.jpeg


This is my costume. Most of it is super simple, but I don't think I'm going to find a hat with pink bunny ears that stick straight up, so I'm going to have to make that part myself. If the picture doesn't load you can google image search "bob's burgers louise."
 
Nic, the bunny ears girl pic loaded, and I'll try to look at the other one when I get home from work. I don't watch Bob's Burgers but other friends have recommended it to me as well, so I will try to check it out sometime. So, about your costume, is it the hat that you're asking my opinion on? You could sew it, or knit/crochet it - either way, I'd put a couple thin wires inside the ears to keep them upright. Do you knit or crochet? That'd be super cute as a knit hat. The dress you could make yourself or you could probably find something at a thrift shop that would work. I usually do that with my costumes when a dress is required, I'll buy an old dress and then modify it accordingly.

Dusty, too cute! I could never get my cat to dress up in a Halloween costume, but my dog seems much more conducive to the idea. So, on that topic, we're going to be Beauty and the Beast this year, and my hubby is saying that we should dress our dog up as the footstool (if you don't remember the movie, all the staff of the castle were turned into objects like dishes, clocks, candlesticks, etc and apparently the castle's dog was turned into a yappy little footstool). Our dog is a corgi so she's the right height to be a footstool. I'm tempted, but not sure if my dog would like being a footstool (we'd just dress her up for photos, we wouldn't take her downtown to the big street party). Plus I don't know if we have time to make a dog costume. What do you guys think - doggie footstool, yea or nay?
 
Yea, the hat, sorry it was unclear. I mean I know I can make the ears and make them stick up, I just don't know how to do that and also make it look good.
 
Nic, were you thinking of sewing the hat or knitting/crocheting it? It might be easiest if you shop for a pink hat without ears, then get some pink fabric and make ears and stitch them on to the hat. Stores seem to be putting out their winter stuff now, I just bought some winter gloves at Target, so you should be able to find a hat that will work. When you make the ears, cut out two ear shapes, sew them almost all the way closed, then turn them inside out so that you can't see the seam, and stick a wire inside (bend it in half) to keep the ear shape nice and upright.
 
what sort of techniques would you recommend to learn to start making your own costumes? I can sew and thats about it. Really would like to start making some decent costunes but have no idea where to start
 
Cat-a-Tonic said:
Nic, were you thinking of sewing the hat or knitting/crocheting it? It might be easiest if you shop for a pink hat without ears, then get some pink fabric and make ears and stitch them on to the hat. Stores seem to be putting out their winter stuff now, I just bought some winter gloves at Target, so you should be able to find a hat that will work. When you make the ears, cut out two ear shapes, sew them almost all the way closed, then turn them inside out so that you can't see the seam, and stick a wire inside (bend it in half) to keep the ear shape nice and upright.
Click to expand...

I will report back with the results. :D
 
Rygon, sewing is a good place to start! This is probably more applicable to female costumes, but I try to find a good base piece that I can work with, and then modify it accordingly. Like, when I was Princess Peach last year, I bought a puffy pink prom dress at a thrift shop and then added to it and changed some things up so that it looked just like Peach's dress.

There's a lady I know who owns a costume shop and teaches classes on how to make your own steampunk outfits. Her main philosophy is that when you're making a steampunk outfit, buy or make one really awesome piece, like a cool jacket, that will draw the eye and be the main draw of your outfit. And everything else can be relatively plain/cheap in comparison. I'm not sure what kind of costumes you want to make, but that's a pretty good general idea even if you're not doing steampunk.

Hubby and I are a good team because I can sew and he can sculpt so he usually makes our masks. He made his entire Bowser costume last year, it was comprised entirely of craft foam, hot melt glue, and fleece. No sewing whatsoever! Same for our Kang & Kodos costumes, although those also involved PVC pipe. So if you aren't sure of your sewing skills, try seeing what you can do with craft foam (even carpet padding works) and hot melt glue, and then gluing fabric over it. If you look at our costume photos site (in my original post in this thread), we've got some "making of" photos - take a look at those and see if you get any ideas.

Do you have any thoughts on what you'd like to dress up as? Let me know, I'll help you brainstorm how to do it!
 
Nic, I can't wait to see what you come up with! Feel free to post a photo in here with the finished product! :)
 
On the subject of buying something at a thrift store and modifying it, has anybody else seen this blog? This girl is my hero and inspiration! She takes old ugly thrift store clothes and modifies them into cute, modern fashionable outfits! Besides costuming, I've done a few things like this because I was inspired by her blog.
http://www.newdressaday.com/
 
Cat those costumes are truly amazing !! What talent you and your husband have...and so much fun!!
I used to love making costumes for my kids, but nothing as in depth as yours!
I'm going to try and find the one (picture) I made for JJ 2 years ago now. I thought it was pretty cool, and he won 1st place in his contest ! (at his Karate school haunted house! LOL) But still...:)
 
Tracy, that's great that your son won a contest! What was his costume? Hubby and I entered 2 contests back in 2007 (our "Saw" costumes) and we won them both! In one contest we won a random grab bag of gift certificates and t-shirts and stuff, and in the other contest we won an ipod. But since then, we haven't found any good contests - the ipod one was at a store that closed in 2008, and the other contest changed the judging - it's at the big downtown party, and in 2007 they had actual judges, but after that year they decided instead to let the very drunk crowd cheer for their favorite, which is invariably for girls in skimpy things rather than good quality hand-made costumes. So, we haven't found any good contests to enter since 2007. I wish the downtown contest had better judging, because they did get better prizes than a grab bag of stuff - I heard that a couple of years ago, the grand prize was a big flat screen TV and $1000 AND a trip! Man, I would have loved to win that, but the one time we entered and the crowd judged us, we didn't get past the semifinals - which is BS if you ask me!
 
By the way, I remembered that we made some videos of our fun times at the big downtown party (it's really fun except for the costume contest). Here's our 2010 video in three parts:
Part one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXg8gbxMfiY
Part two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz1tNJXgNwc
Part three
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8_S1l24ZVA

I also found these but haven't watched them in awhile and the quality probably isn't super good, but here's a video from Halloween 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tZvCeHhdtU

And here's Halloween 2006.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4OGg3TSZzI
 
He was a headless guy Cat...and held his own head in his "hands". It was so fun!
I found the picture but I can't figure out how to post it here :(

Do you know how I can ?
Usually I am good at this stuff... LOL

Edit: Well, I can't figure it out so I put the picture in an album on my profile so you can see it :)
Hope that worked at least ! :ywow:

Edit again: Ha ! I figured it out ! LOL
 
That's cute! I like it! So how'd you make it? Did you buy an old jacket and stuff the top part above where his head actually is?
 
I wish I could sew, as you are all inspiring me. But all I ever got good at was ripping stitches. I don't dress up for Halloween, as I am more interested in taking care of my son as he goes trick or treating. I do sometimes dress up for Purim, but haven't for the past few years. Maybe I will this year.
 
I got a lot of good work done on my costume over the weekend. The dress is about halfway done! I also received some accessories in the mail, specifically long yellow gloves. I got a glowing rose too but it's not quite what I expected (it changes colors, I was hoping it'd just glow in one solid color like Beast's rose does). It's slowly starting to come together! Hubby got home from work yesterday and said my dress is looking great so far. :) I put it on my dressform so that I could see how it was looking - there's 4 layers of skirts on the thing right now, so it's really big and poofy! Hoop skirt, under skirt (basically just to cover up the hoop skirt), the shorter tier of dress, and a layer of satin over that which I'm going to floof up even further.

So is everybody else getting into the Halloween spirit yet? I sure am! I still need to watch my favorite Halloween specials though. Around this time of year, I always watch the Nightmare Before Xmas and the Garfield Halloween special. I also will probably watch Saw, it's my favorite scary movie. :) What do you guys like to watch to get into the Halloween spirit?
 
I got so excited I almost died when I saw your photos!! Halloween is my absolute favorite too! We live in a huge neighborhood with loads of kids, we have a 4 yr old and an 8 yr old. Our neighborhood becomes a huge block party with people partying and grilling out in their front yards while the kids treat or treat, there are several elaborate "haunted houses" and graveyards. We always have a big party, we just hang out and take turns taking the kids out.

The biggest killer for me is people who won't dress up!!! There are some amazing costume ideas in your pics, and lots for couples too. I'm so tired of seeing slutty girl costumes. I want something clever! I have been really sick and I'm having surgery right before Halloween, but we are still having a party, I just won't be able to do much. I came up with my husband's costume (Walker, Texas Ranger! My hubby even looks a little like Chuck Norris when his beard gets thicker!). I going as Meg from Family Guy, totally lame I know but I have to do the kids costumes too.

I can't wait to see your pics this year!
 
SarahAnne, I'm also really sick and tired of seeing "slutty" costumes. It takes ZERO creativity to come up with those. I literally saw a large group of college girls wearing nothing but underwear on Halloween once. Yeah, real creative not to mention smart, put on a bra and a thong and heels and walk around in 35 degree weather! Ugh. That kind of thing is a problem around here, the big Halloween party is downtown and the University campus is part of downtown, so ALL the college kids get drunk and party. It gets pretty crazy and some of them are wearing next-to-nothing. We usually try to get downtown around 7 PM and leave well before midnight because that's when people start to get dangerously drunk. There have been riots, broken store windows, stuff set on fire etc in years past so we get out of there well before any of that stuff starts happening!

I like your idea of being Meg Griffin. I don't have a photo, but one year we saw a really good Meg. She carried a stuffed Stewie with her and everything, it was cute. I'd love to see photos of your (and everyone else's!) costume after Halloween is over, and of course I'll post photos of mine & hubby's as well. :) Oh, and the Walker Texas Ranger costume sounds hilarious! I can't imagine grilling out on Halloween though, it is way too cold here for that. Many kids have to wear sweaters or coats underneath or sometimes even over their costumes. I am usually freezing in my costume even though I avoid the skimpy ones, and this year will be no exception.
 
Well, I'm in Florida so we have the opposite problem here! There have been years when the kids have been so uncomfortably hot in their costumes that they take half of them off! I will definitely post pics of Halloween, I have great ideas for decorating the yard this year. We live near the beach & have 2 palm trees in our front yard...I'm going to hang skeletons with eyepatches in them and half bury a treasure chest with a skeleton arm coming out of the ground next to it. Kind of a Pirates of the Caribbean, skeleton pirate them. Everyone in my neighborhood does ghosts, Nightmare before Christmas, but I've never seen any pirates. It might be our new tradition!

I am so excited for Halloween!!!!
:arghmatey_ani:
 
I love the pirate/skeleton decorating idea! We don't really decorate much outside of our house (we don't live in the best of neighborhoods so there's a good chance that outside decorations would just get stolen or broken). Hubby usually carves a pumpkin though and we do try to decorate on the inside of the house. We don't have a theme though, but with your post about pirates I'm thinking we should have a theme! Hmmm... must think...
 
Oh wow!!! Your costumes are great!!! I would love to have some of these...Unfortunately I do not sew....

I live in New York and last year I did not go to the parade because I was not well, but many many people go out and have fun here. In the city there is a huge village parade. After the parade is over it is like a neighborhood party inside and out of all the restaurants and bars.
This was a few years ago my friend and I....She is the gostbuster and I am the ring master.
halloweenpic.jpg


I even used to dress my little boy Rico up who recently passed away. Halloween was his birthday. I would call him my hallo Wee Man baby....
He had a matching crown but in this picture he knocked it off. Boy do I miss him.
104.jpg


For the holidays a couple of my friends and I want to dress up in costumes because people pay to take pictures with you near the christmas tree and in times square. When I used to ride my uncles 7 seater bikes that he put in the city for extra money.There were 20 bikes he had. All of us would go out at night and some of us knew if you put a costume on people came to you easier. I would make even more by putting on fishnet stockings, a short skirt (of course short leggings under lol) and cat ears. Not creative but people flocked to my bike when I was on it lol. That was before the "crohns days"!

This year the four of us girls want to dress up in something creative to make extra money with pictures near the christmas tree in the city and Times Square. We were thinking of a few....my friend wants to be angry birds lol...I say we can switch it up and be skimpy christmas trees for a few days lol....Or a Santa with pretty santas elves!
Should be fun!
 
Ok Cat...I need some creative ideas !! LOL
My youngest has just informed me that he wants to be Papa Smurf this year haha.
He has also informed me that it is up to me to make that happen for him, and of course he's not talking about a store bought costume! :)
I'm thinking of buying a red sweat suit for the pants, and turning the shirt into the hat; painting his body blue (of course), and using maybe cotton balls? as the beard and eyebrows??
Any better ideas for me?? It shouldn't be too very complex I'm guessing, but knowing me, I will make it harder than it should be ! haha.
Any creative ideas to help make it would be much appreciated :)
 
I just saw this thread and took a look at the photos cat...they are amazing. You are so clever. I am rubbish at sewing and needlework and envy your vision and creativity!
I refused to entertain the idea of sewing at school because I was a tomboy and no way was I going to learn sewing because that was what girls did....regret that now!!

We don't do halloween much in the uk, though it is becoming more of an event every year, you guys look to have so much fun!
 
Tracy, I think cottonballs would work fine for the eyebrows. For the beard though, I think I'd buy a beard rather than make one. A good looking-beard sounds tough to make! There's this amazing place in my town (it's a costume shop and a pharmacy all in one - perfect for costume accessories and IBD needs, ha ha!) and I just googled them and it looks like they've got a good looking beard that would work for Papa Smurf.
http://www.mallatts.com/commerce/product.jsp?prodId=4516&catId=2125
I think that sweatpants would be fine for Papa Smurf's pants - you might want to get some red fabric and make shoe covers (slightly oversized even?) too. It doesn't have to be a sweatshirt, but any red stretchy/jersey type fabric would do as long as it's the same color. It'd probably be cheaper to buy a bit of fabric rather than cut up a sweatshirt. And you could of course use the same fabric to make the hat. Blue body paint - well, I wouldn't do it here in Wisconsin, it gets too cold to go out shirtless (unless you're very drunk, which I also wouldn't advise, especially for your son!). But I'm assuming it's pretty warm down in Florida on Halloween, so I say go for it. If it's not going to be warm on Halloween, a tight blue shirt and blue gloves and blue face paint would be the way I'd go.
 
How's everybody's Halloween preparations coming along? Everybody working on your costumes, got your decorations up, watched your favorite Halloween specials/movies?

I am still working on our costumes but they're coming along. I hope to finish up my dress in the next day or two so that I can help hubby with his. He's made great progress with his mask but still needs the rest of his outfit put together. The next couple of weeks are going to be busy busy busy with costuming! Less than 2 weeks to go now, how exciting! I hope the weather is nicer by the end of the month - it's been cold, windy, and rainy here lately. Brrr! Not good weather for wearing a dress that's a bit skimpy on top and a hoop skirt on the bottom!
 
we went to a halloween party this past Saturday, and I think those might be the only halloween plans we have for this year. maybe I'll dress up for the kids trick or treating.
 
My son and I watched "Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" last weekend. And we carved some pumpkins. I don't dress up for Halloween, but my sister & brother in law have a big party for all the kids, and my son adores it.

Oh, and I ate 2 candy corn, so I hit my limit for the year.:lol:
 
Ive just bought some zombie makeup, will have to work out how to put it on properly. Trying to get used to using liquid latex for the 1st time to produce dead skin and wounds (with use of tissue paper). Think im going to find some oldclothes, put a bit of brown paint over them and some fake blood and that should be me sorted (hopefully)
 
the best way to use liquid latex is to brush it on in very fine layers, let it dry, add more.
once the latex is on and dry, start creating the wounds, after the wounds are decorated you can add some more liquid latex over it for texture or scar looks. my best fake blood on clothes was made with ketchup, hershey's syrup, and extra red food coloring.
 
Liquid latex is fun stuff. Hubby and I used it when we made our Miracle Max and Valerie masks (from the Princess Bride). It was easy to work with the latex, but the only problem I recall is that it didn't breathe very well and I got pretty warm & a bit sweaty under the areas of my face that were covered by the liquid latex. Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing if you live somewhere where it's cold during Halloween! This year, I'm sure I will be cold. Fortunately with a hoop skirt I can wear warm pants underneath, but I'm sure my shoulders & arms will be very cold.

Rygon, your zombie costume sounds like it's coming together! I'd love to see a photo when it's all ready. :)
 
Cat...I forgot to thank you for the referral to that website ! :)

I just placed my order and it reminded me.
JJ has decided that he and 2 of his friends are going to be "gangsta smurfs" now haha, so I ordered the sleeve tattoos from there, and also the blue paint for their faces.
This should be fun! Now off to the thrift stores to try and find a suit instead of the red sweatsuit.
 
Argh. I am totally discouraged about my costume. I bought a pattern to make the dress and I've never done that before. First I bought the wrong size. The variations were labeled A-G, but the size groupings are also A-G! Then I started working on it... I had trouble pinning the pattern to the fabric, I felt like it was stretching/distorting. But then I started cutting and it's not smooth at all and now it's completely distorted! It's going to look awful. But at least I tried/am trying. I am not cut out to be a seamstress.
 
Nic, I hear you, I hate working from patterns. I usually just wing it when I sew - yes, I make mistakes (too many probably!) but it's more fun to figure stuff out on my own rather than follow directions. My hubby and I were talking about my style of sewing, and I said that instead of "measure twice and cut once", I'm more like a "measure zero times (just eyeball it) and cut two or three (or more) times" kind of a gal. ;)

Seriously though, I'm sorry to hear you're having such problems making your dress. Is it fixable? If not, perhaps you could find something similar at a thrift shop and maybe either alter it a bit yourself (take it in, shorten it, etc) or dye it to be the right color if you find a white dress in the right fit & style? I've certainly modified thift store dresses before, in fact I'm doing it this year with my Belle gown. I started with a yellow sundress and made some tweaks and added a hoop skirt and a ton of yellow satin to make it big and floofy. It's almost ready and it looks great! You'd never know the "base" of it is a dress from Goodwill. I did the same thing last year too with Princess Peach. In my opinion, it's much easier to go that route than to try to make a dress from a pattern.

Tracy, I'm trying to imagine what a gangsta Smurf would look like! Are they going to wear pimp hats and baggy pants? Or did I read that wrong, are they going to be gangster Smurfs like in 1930s garb with tommy guns? Either way, how silly! You'll have to post photos!

Hubby's nearly finished with his Beast mask and it looks really good. We decided early on that faux fur from the fabric store is just too expensive, so instead we went around to thrift stores and bought a bunch of cheap old teddy bears to cut up to be the furry parts of Beast (head, tail, hands and feet). So that turned out really well, we estimate that we spent around $10 total for the bears and the mask is nearly complete and the tail too with several teddy bears left over to do the hands & feet. But it's kind of sad actually, hubby's work area in the basement looks like there was a teddy bear massacre! (Well, there kind of was!) Random bits of fur and teddy arms, legs, faces are strewn all about. It makes me oddly sad! And I can't throw the bits away yet because hubby still hasn't made his hands & feet, so we need to keep all the little bits of fur for potential use. Oh well. I guess it's less sad than our other option - a kind old lady at a garage sale offered to sell me a real fur coat for just a couple bucks, but in good conscience I could not cut up actual fur to make a Halloween costume. It just seemed wrong! So I guess a teddy bear sacrifice is better than bits of actual animal fur being scattered about.
 
I have these two books, which, hands down, are the most useful sewing books I own:
http://www.amazon.com/Sew-Built-Wen...r_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319145134&sr=1-11

http://www.amazon.com/Sew-What-Skir...=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319145134&sr=1-6

I cannot stand patterns. Everytime I've tried to use one I've thrown it out and worked it out myself. Since it's a halloween costume you could try adding extra fabric where the dress is messed up. So it'll have seams in odd places.. it's a halloween costume. Also - I've been seeing a lot of styles out there where seams have been put in odd places simply for fashion.
 
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By the way, I wanted to add that my profile pic is more Halloweeny than most of you might have guessed. That's my little black Halloween kitty, Lydia, named for Lydia from Beetlejuice (when I first got her as a kitten, she had been ill and having some diarrhea - I can relate! - so I stuck her in the bath to wash the crustiness off of her, and after the bath her black fur was all spiked out just like Lydia's hair in Beetlejuice :) ). In my pic, Lydia's lying on red tulle, specifically the red tulle I used when I made our Beetlejuice costumes - hubby and I were Beetlejuice and Lydia in the red wedding clothes. So that's Halloween Lydia, lying on what became Beetlejuice Lydia's dress. :D

I'm glad the name Lydia stuck, because her original name was Poo-Poo Kitty due to the d. Had I only known that later I'd develop IBD, I probably would have stuck with Poo-Poo Kitty!
 
Another reason why I think I never got into patterns is because most of the stuff I've made has been for ren faire clothing. There are instruction online for starting chemises, skirts, and knickers without patterns. Also - you can use clothing that fits you well as a guide for cutting your fabric.
 
Carrie, thanks for the links! My birthday's coming up so I may hint to hubby that I want the first one, it sounds very interesting. I don't know if I've posted this link before, but this girl is my sewing hero. She takes really ugly thrift store dresses and does just a few simple tweaks and makes them really cute and modern and fashionable. She shows and explains all the steps she does and has tutorials on her site so it's easy to copy the things she does. She's coming out with a book too although she's still working on it so I don't know when it will be out. Anyway, here's the link:
http://www.newdressaday.com/

And I know what you mean about some new clothes having seams in really weird places! I saw a shirt like that at the store the other day - I even tried it on to see what it looked like, it looked a bit weird but not horrible. There were multiple seams at angles going down the sides and sort of across the torso. It's hard to explain but it was weird and asymmetrical. But yeah, many of my Halloween costumes have been a bit lopsided and I'm probably the only one who noticed. Nic, if your dress turns out a bit lopsided or has seams in weird places, it will still probably look just fine, and honestly it'll bug you more than anyone else. So if you can live with it, then it's perfectly fine.
 
I think you posted it somewhere the other day, although I can't remember where. I did start looking at it, but I got side tracked after looking at the cupcake tank top.
 
The cupcake tank top was kind of silly. Most of her other stuff is much more cute and inventive.

That's cool that you make a lot of costumes too. I haven't ever made anything for a ren fair or anything along those lines, but I am friends with a woman who owns a costume shop and she has TONS of ren fair (and steampunk and various cosplay) outfits for sale. She is really awesome, she lets people come to her shop and play dress-up, she never pressures anyone into buying anything. Somehow she still makes really good money at what she does! Such an awesome job, making costumes and playing dress-up all day long. I'm jealous!
 
yeah I wish I could make money doing crafty things instead of making sure computers work ;) I'm looking at her before/after pics right now.. Some of that stuff she starts with is u.g.l.y. lol
 
I have no idea how it's going to turn out... I mean it will be wearable but I don't expect it'll look nice. But as you said Carrie it's a Halloween costume. It's more a matter of pride for me because I sew a lot. Just usually on a straight line. :p

My OH thought that I should just buy a cheap gigantic t-shirt and modify it a bit. Maybe I will if the dress ends up a horrible mess. I'll be sure to update you on my (lack of) progress.
 
Nic, a big t-shirt would probably work fine, you might just have to take it in at the sides a bit so it's not so baggy, and possibly shorten the sleeves or take them in a bit too. But that wouldn't be too hard, and the length should be pretty good. How's the hat coming along? Did you accomplish the bunny ears?

My dress is nearly finished. I worked on it a bit last night - another hour or two of work on it and it'll be ready! Then I get to figure out how to make hubby's clothes, eek! He wants his legs to look like Beast's do, you know how animal legs kind of have a backwards knee than human legs do? The anatomy is totally different looking, what looks like their knee is actually their ankle or something and that's why it's going the opposite way? Something like that anyway. So he's going to use foam to pad the front of his thighs and the backs of his calves to look more like animal legs. I've seen that done before with professional costumes and it looks really good if you do it right. I am still trying to wrap my head around how to sew pants that look like that though! It's going to be a challenge and I've only got a week to accomplish it (regular pants will be worn in the event that I just can't do it). Wish me luck!
 
I finished my dress today! There's still a few touches I could add to it if I have time, but if not it's perfectly fine. Got my wig and will be styling it soon. Made hubby's pants and started on his coat. I'm making such good progress! I'm very pleased with everything so far. I was really depressed yesterday because I've got a horrible cold and I was just not physically able to do anything yesterday. I had a fever and I felt really out of it and I couldn't get up off the couch. Today I feel much better and I did a ton of sewing and made up for the lost time of yesterday. Good stuff!
 
Right heres a couple of photos of my 1st proper attempt (ie using more than fingers to put paint on). Ive got the Ben Nye death wheel and their cuts one as well. Am i putting too much on as it looks pretty greasy. Would the eyes look better with black and red? Only did one side of my face (the other side has a water based white over it that im going to use for my neck and arms)
 

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Rygon, to make the face paint look less greasy, after you apply the makeup you should put just a bit of baby powder/talcum powder over the top of it (just sort of sprinkle it onto your face and then you can blow the excess off with a fan). That'll keep it from being too shiny or greasy looking. As for the color, bits of black and red wouldn't hurt. After all, zombies are dead and filthy, so more colors probably wouldn't hurt.
 
Our costumes are DONE! :D I'm really happy with how they turned out. I will post photos in a couple days! Happy Halloween everybody! :)
 
Thanks all! We had a blast last night at the big Halloween party downtown. I have lots of photos, which will be up on our deviant art site soon. In the meantime, here's a couple of photos to tide you guys over. :)

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What's a beauty like you doing with that beast! I hope it was cool at the party...for his sake. That's looks hot!!

Amazing costumes Cat!
 
Thanks all! Mark, yes, my hubby was very warm in his costume. But the temp was only in the 30s and it's an outdoor/street party, so I was freezing cold the entire night. We did go into a coffee shop for a bit to warm up but it was just achingly cold outside. Fortunately my guts behaved themselves! Which is very good because there were only porta-potties and I don't think I could have fit a hoop skirt in the door of one of those things.
 
Wow amazing costumes. Ended up buying a couple for the little guy. The puppy one was a bit small.
 

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You guys look amazing! Wonderful work!

Dexky, I thought you were referring to her dress! Bahaha
 
Cat always looks hot!!! Even when she's freezing....and without fixing the red-eye:)
 
My 4 year old daughter thought your Belle costume was awesome! You guys amaze me with your creativity!

Surgery was too close this year, but next year we are going all out with costumes. Hope ours turn out half as good as yours!
 
My makeup .. worked pretty much how i wanted it really, hope to get good at costumes next time

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Cat, I've been meaning to check for this year's final product for days now but just had the chance to look today -- happy the pictures have been posted! You look gorgeous! Amazing, amazing creativity and talent (and more work than I can imagine!).
 
Well, I completely forgot to post my kiddos picture of his Gangsta Smurf costume here ;)
We (I) didn't get nearly as creative as I intended to ( I just haven't felt good at all). However, he still looked pretty darn cute and had a great time trick or treating ! (Even tho quite a few people thought he was part of the Blue Man Group! haha). By the way, the "gun" he has is a Marshmallow Shooter ~ he and his friend had way too much fun shooting marshmallows while trick~or~treating! :rof:
Cat..thanks once again for the referral to the Halloween shop/Pharmacy near you. I will definitely use them again when we need costume supplies. They shipped the items we ordered within a couple of hours the same day ! Awesome :)

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I'm sorry the picture is so big ! If anyone would like to instruct me on how to downsize photos on this site I would be more than happy to do so :)
 
Kelly, thank you so much! :) It actually wasn't all that much work. A lot of fabric yes, but not tons of work. The more costumes I make, the more tricks and shortcuts I learn so it gets easier every year.

Tracy, that's a cute costume! :) I like the tattoo sleeves and I have never heard of a marshmallow gun before - I might need to get myself one of those! Ha ha. Do you think it'd shoot dog treats? Any projectile food is going to be immediately scarfed up by my pooch so I wouldn't use it to shoot marshmallows, but maybe dog treats or kibble.
 
Thanks Cat :) I actually got the tattoo sleeves from your store! lol
And yes, I'm quite sure it would shoot dog treats...in fact, I'm going to go get a cat treat and try it out for my kitty haha. Great idea!
They're only about $7.50 a piece for the shooters and well worth it for the fun! Make sure you get 2 of them tho so you can your hubby can battle :)
 
Where'd you find the $7.50 ones? I googled and looked on amazon, and the very cheapest one I see is $9. Can you get them at stores like Target or Toys r us? If I can find them for a good price, I might get some marshmallow guns for my two little nephews for xmas - a toy like that seems right up their alley! :)
 
Thanks for the link! It looks like it's made from PVC pipe? If so, I'm going to ask my hubby to try to make me a marshmallow gun. Hubby makes lots of stuff from PVC - if you recall our Halloween costumes from 2008, Kang and Kodos - they had PVC framework holding them together. It might be fun to make our own marshmallow guns and if it's not too hard to do then we'll make them for the little nephews too. :)
 

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