Homemade Friday: Batman and The Wizard

I've sewn a lot lately - like a lot.  Like so much more than I ever have before.  And it's workable sewing, you know?  By that I mean that I can actually wear what I've made or put it on my children without being embarrassed to admit that I made it.

That doesn't always happen.

But since I've been having so much luck I thought I'd tackle sewing both of the kids' Halloween costumes this year.  Last year I only sewed Sebastian's - the Fierce Ninja.

And actually Sebastian picked out his costume months ago.  It wasn't exactly for Halloween.  He happened to be with me in the fabric store and saw a pattern and insisted that I buy it and make it right then.  I held him off for awhile as I was attempting to sew a quilt for him, which is so close to being finished but that I can't seem to find the time to work on now as I have a million other projects that need my attention.

But finally I couldn't put it off any longer because the boy needed to be Batman.  Plus we had a downtown Halloween Festival thing to go to that required a costume.  At least Sebastian required a costume.

The pattern he found was McCall's Costumes MP314 (Version B):

It isn't exactly Batman, but it was close enough for Sebastian and I improvised on the belt to make it more Batman-like. 

The costume is basically a jumpsuit with giant wings attached and a hood with ears.  And a mask.  And boot covers that I made but that no one really likes.  I made the belt bright yellow and found a picture of the Batman symbol online that I used to make the buckle.

It's not the commercial Batman, but Sebastian is satisfied.  He's worn it so much that a part of the wing is torn off and there's a hole in the costume.  I think that means it's loved.  And now, of course, he tells me that I have to sew him a grey one, too.

We'll see.

And I even sewed the zipper in myself, which is pretty awesome.  I'm not sure what happened or why it went so well, but I did it.  It may never happen again.

Sebastian's costume had so many parts, and so many different aspects to it, that when it came time to choose Adele's costume I searched for the easiest pattern I could find.  She honestly doesn't really care about costumes, not like her brother who lives in them.  She sees no need to put one on, has no joy in pretending to be someone else, so I didn't feel the need to consult her.  Bad Mama? 

The wizard costume - Simplicity 2571 (Version E) - only had two parts - a hat and a robe.  Easy enough.  And it was.  I even found blue fabric with gold stars on it like the pattern at 40 percent off, so I was happy about that.  I probably should have washed it first because I ended up with blue dust all over everything.  But other than that it was all pretty straightforward. 

The only ribbon I could find for the trim was wired, so I pulled the wire out before I sewed it on, which was surprisingly easy.  I also couldn't find packaged medium-weight interfacing so I made do with doubling up on the lightweight, which worked okay, but the hat could have been a little firmer.  Adele wasn't too keen on it anyway, so I don't think it mattered too much.

I did have a bit of trouble with my sewing machine, which I think may have been because I was sewing stretchy fabric and may have had the wrong needle.  My bobbin kept messing up and making these ridiculous knots in everything.  I cursed a lot and fiddled with the bobbin over and over again and eventually it worked itself out.

I bribed Adele with candy to get her to wear the costume but the hat didn't stay on too long.

Last night was a little tricky, as everyone was yelling about "The storms are a-comin'" but actually it was a bit anti-climactic.  We first decided to stick around our neighborhood - which is awesome for trick-or-treating.  There are lots of people out and everyone really gets into it.  But then we didn't see anyone else trick-or-treating, probably because of the supposed weather issues.  Se we decided to take the kids to the mall for indoor fun.  But when we got there all we could see was a giant line of people with no end or beginning in sight and very little actual trick-or-treating going on.  So then we went back home and there was only a little rain so Chris took the kids out while I waited on the porch for the few trick-or-treaters we had.  And I ate a bunch of candy because we didn't want it to go to waste, naturally.

So in the end the kids had fun and got lots of candy and came home damp but happy.

(Here's last year's Halloween post!)