2011 Halloween costume crazies

Ok - I love to make Halloween Costumes. I think it shows creativity in a world of let's go to the store and buy something mentailty. And the other best part is - so far my daughter loves her costumes and they will get a lot of love till she grows out of them.

This year I'm having trouble. Besides the fact that with a newborn/infant I can't always get to my sewing room. I chose a crazy pattern for my daughter and my son's I have had to make up since there wasn't one that I wanted.

So what is driving me crazy this year - Tangled! My daughter as Rapunsel and my son as Pascal.

Pascal was easier than I thought. I had bought a baby pattern set from Simplicity #5316 . What was nice is there was a hat and the overall romper that I could use. And I used Polar fleece - which is why I went with the sleeveless style and I'm pairing it with a long sleeve shirt. He will be plenty warm and I didn't have to finish a lot of edges since this is a costume. Pascal has a bumpy back bone. So to get this look I sewed the hat seam and the back of the over all inside out. I also added about an inch of fabric. Doing this allowed me to cut scallops going down the back of the outfit. For the hat I combined the two peices of the pattern into one big piece. I also didn't do the lining part around the ears. Again - Halloween costume doesn't need to be fancy. With doing this I got one contious look going on the hat of the hat. I also made the ear flaps longer so I could add a little velrco underneath to keep the hat on instead of ties. I also free hand cut a tail that can be removed with velcro.

Rapunsel - was my issue. I used Simplicity #2065 . Now I have been sewing a loooong time, which is why I don't mind buying patterns from the store. I know they have been tested and the sizing is the way I want. However I felt that this was the worst designed pattern I have seen in while. I feel like the numbers weren't figured correctly and things weren't tested. I wouldn't be surprised if some of this one gets relooked at (I hope).

Here are the MANY issues I had with the pattern. Keep in mind I did the size 6 and it does fit my daughter, but there isn't much more difference between the size 6 and the biggest size 8.

1. The side front and back piece. They have you cut 2 pieces on the fold of the lining fabric, the over skirt, and the main skirt. The part I have a problem with - is the piece measures 26" wide before gathering. You gather this down to 9". So the piece is almost 3 times width of where it is to go. This was very hard to work with and on little girls that don't need that much fabric at their waist. The thickness also throws other things off in the design. also when you are sewing two of these pieces on to the bodice pieces - there is to much fabric for the machine to handle.

2. Working with 3 layers of gather fabric, made putting in the zipper - extremely hard. The only plus is that the overskirt and main fabric are togther and the lining is loose and attached to the bodice lining, not the main bodice pieces. But it was hard to work with all around. With all the fabric to gather and fit in one spot, I didn't have enough ungathered fabric to put in the zipper. Plus the directions have you putting in the zipper a different way than you would normally put in a zipper.

3. I ended up with nearly 36 inches extra of trim for the skirt on both both trims. Normally - not an issue. But I went with the trims pictured - and the flower trim was $6.99 a yard! The pattern called for 4.5 yrds. Before my 50% off coupon this came to $31.46. Now remember all that extra fabric in the skirt - if you cut out some of that fabric - you can cut out even more trim. Also note all the trims that I purchased for this dress were Simplicity trims to go with the Simplicity pattern.

4. I question the use of the tulle. The pattern called for 1 1/3 yrds. They had you cut 3 pieces 15 inches wide. When you gather this up it barely made a pouf. The pouf of the dress really is coming from the excess fabric at the waist - not the tulle in the skirt - this could almost be dropped. Granted this is not expensive - I just felt that it was a step that wasn't needed.

5. The lining of the dress. They have you cut neck facing pieces - but have you use them near the end when you add the lining of the bodice. The way it ends up - I would sew the bodice lining in earlier and use the interfacing directly on the lining fabric. The facing pieces sit weird on the inside of the dress since you have the lining that could be used. In the dress I made, I used cotton fabirc for the lining (no need to go with satin), and having a piece of fabric just sticking out there doesn't seem comfortable.

6. Lining part 2. I'm use to in dress patterns working the bodice till complete and then adding the skirt. One - if the lining was put in earlier - you can use it to hide more things like the sleeve edges. As it was  - working with the lining after the skirt of the dress was on the bodice made it very hard to manage on my machine.

7. Sleeves. They have you putting in the sleeves LAST. Again by the time you have the weight of the whole dress this hard to work with.

8. The yarn for the hair. They called for 16 ozs of 4ply yarn. The one I picked up was 1020 yds for the 16 ozs. They have you cut 38" inches of 180 strands and 18" of 180 strands. this equals - about 280 yds. by my calucation I have about 800 yds too much. Now I'm a knitter no big deal - but to someone else this is an issue. Well when I cut the 18" peices and braided them - guess what - it doesn't fit around my daughters head. so I have to re cut about  peices at least 25" long. Again someone needs check their measurements, or give us measurements based on head size.

9. One suggestion for working with the fabrics. In the pattern they mentioned sewing the seams and then serging or zig zaging the edges or sewing the seasm twice and trimming to keep the edges from fraying. I decided this time to do french seams where I could. Hopefully this will keep the seams from fraying and allow the dress to hold up to excessive wear.

I know once costumes were out I know could have found the Rapunsel dress cheaper than I made it. However, the way I made the dress it should hold up for a while with her playing dress up with it. She got to wear her costume to a dance already, and she got MANY compliments on it already, I can say it was a sucess. My only wish is I took some suggestions about making the dress that I had seen on online before - one would have made a simple dress and coat/robe with the detail to do over the dress. But having a 4/5 month old means lack of sleep for me and I didn't want to think to hard.

Now to see what she will want to be next year.