I figure that for the start of my blog, there's never a better punch than blogging about a few past projects of mine! Actually, mostly, I want to show off my daughter's last Halloween costume because she was so cute in it. She shouldn't take all the spotlight, though, so I'll add some other projects, as well.
For a few Halloweens now, I've taken notice of how expensive the good costumes are and how much like a garbage bag the cheap costumes look like. This last Halloween, she wanted to be The Little Mermaid. Soooo, one trip to the local Walmart (at the moment, I'm literally in the birthplace of Walmart but am soon moving to WA state) showed me no Little Mermaid costumes and several cheap costumes, as well as a few really cool, nifty, light-up or whatever costumes. A trip across town to the Halloween costume store and I find a few Little Mermaid costumes.
- Cheap, no wig
- $60, no wig
- $30 wig
You bet my mouth dropped in shock! $60 for a little kid's costume? o.O While I'm there, I look at hair dying options. My daughter has medium/dark brown hair, so it'll have to be a RED dye to look at all red. They have no red in the spray can stuff that washes off easily but do have a dye that's redder than red. The problem with the dye is that it's kind of permanent. Sooooo back to Walmart! I think about doing the non-permanent dyes for women that they have (I really think I should have... seriously) that last seven days but decide to check the Halloween section for spray can stuff that's red. I do find some and decide to buy it. I also buy a light pink leotard so my daughter doesn't have to be half-naked in her costume (it was going to be a little chilly and the leotard has long sleeves). When we get home, my daughter sees what little remaining scraps of this blue/silver rose stretch knit fabric I have and decides she wants to be a BLUE mermaid with RED hair so that her costume can have that in it. I'm fine with that, since I figured I'd have to make the thing anyway to avoid spending a small fortune on it. I start thinking what mermaids have. They have the cute little seashell cups on their chest, a shiny fish tail and fins- which are usually see-through on a fish. I get the rose stretch knit fabric to use on the seashell bra, find some elastic and get some taffeta out that matches the colors in the stretch knit (dark and light blue). Luckily, I have the fine-weave taffeta that looks more like a gauzy fabric. One major problem, though.... no useable fabric for the main part of the tail. Another trip out, this time to one of the few remaining fabric stores, nets me this wonderful, blaringly shiny swimsuit fabric in a dark blue. I couldn't have aske for anything more perfect in my life! $5 later and I have it all together but no pattern. No worries... I take measurements and decide the tail will just be a long, straight skirt with some shaping to make it taper at the bottom half, with a v shape at the bottom in front and back. The seashells... well, I figure out a good size for them so they'd "cover the mermaid" correctly and of course make the strap that goes around to the back. I did decide to add a seashell in front with a blue, glass heart bead and some blue coral in the back for the "button" to close the straps together. I also realize while fitting this on her that she has absolutely
nothing to keep the thing up... even if I put snaps on the inside to attach to the leotard (which I do) it still sags somewhere. To fix this, I put straps on it to go over her shoulders, using the blue swimsuit material. It worked well, too. For the long back fin that goes down the middle back of a mermaid tail, I sew in a rectangle of three thicknesses of the taffeta (both dark/light blue together and pre-gathered for a slight ruffling effect) and sew it into the seam back there. (The skirt is one piece, sewn together in the back.) The end of the tail was fairly easy. I cut the v shape so that I could still put taffeta on the bottom and not have her trip over it. I gathered the bottom taffeta as well and also blended the two tones together. She got to wear mommy's make-up (which she loved) and I bought a new bottle of fingernail polish for her to wear. Her lips, eyelids and fingernails were all blue. I put skin color foundation on her face and neck (to the neck on the leotard) and sprayed that evil red stuff in the can. Little did I know how evil it was then... Now, I regret using it and wish I just dyed her hair... seven days of red hair would have been better than the mess that stuff left!! She was really cute, though, as you can see in the photo. I will put up more photos of the costume to show her face better and the back of the costume.
nothing to keep the thing up... even if I put snaps on the inside to attach to the leotard (which I do) it still sags somewhere. To fix this, I put straps on it to go over her shoulders, using the blue swimsuit material. It worked well, too. For the long back fin that goes down the middle back of a mermaid tail, I sew in a rectangle of three thicknesses of the taffeta (both dark/light blue together and pre-gathered for a slight ruffling effect) and sew it into the seam back there. (The skirt is one piece, sewn together in the back.) The end of the tail was fairly easy. I cut the v shape so that I could still put taffeta on the bottom and not have her trip over it. I gathered the bottom taffeta as well and also blended the two tones together. She got to wear mommy's make-up (which she loved) and I bought a new bottle of fingernail polish for her to wear. Her lips, eyelids and fingernails were all blue. I put skin color foundation on her face and neck (to the neck on the leotard) and sprayed that evil red stuff in the can. Little did I know how evil it was then... Now, I regret using it and wish I just dyed her hair... seven days of red hair would have been better than the mess that stuff left!! She was really cute, though, as you can see in the photo. I will put up more photos of the costume to show her face better and the back of the costume.
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