Peacock Costume

Libby wanted to be a peacock, but not just any peacock, a pretty peacock!  Although this meant she would end up being a boy peacock because girl peacocks are ugly.

The fabric was some really old heavy polyester that I inherited from a lady. I haven't really had a use for it, and I figured a Halloween costume that will be worn once would be a good way to use it. That saved me from spending too much at the fabric store! I had plenty of fabric in all the right peacocky colors. I did buy one yard of (itchy) shimmery blue stuff for the top layer of the dress to give it a nice peacock glow.

I decided to make a pretty little fairy dress as the peacock body and add the tail as an accessory. I used Simplicity Sew Easy 1991 for the body/dress.  This dress looked very easy and I thought I could throw it together in one day, which equates to about an hour's worth of sewing for the normal sewing artist (i.e. one that does not have three kids running amuck). I was so wrong. It's actually harder than it looks; I would say it is an intermediate sewing project rather than an easy one. But it certainly isn't hard. It just has a lot of pieces and a lot of layers.

Once I finally finished the dress, I couldn't believe it. It's soooooo not cute. The finished dress is three times wider than any kid! The belt cinches it together, but without the belt, it's just wider than wide. I thought about pitching it and starting over, but I was pressed for time. I really only had $6.99 invested in it (the shimmery piece), but I also had three days of sewing invested in it. Ugh. I decided to remember that it's just a Halloween costume and it would do nicely. It doesn't have to win a contest or anything. I certainly won't use that pattern again without making some huge alterations to the bodice and skirt pieces. And I would never use a thick polyester. It just doesn't hang well. The photo on the pattern is of a fabric that drapes well when cinched and hung. 1970s polyester was probably never intended for its use.

Just now, as I am typing out this sewing tutorial, I see that I screwed up the skirt. It has all of the pointy parts of the skirt lined up. I alternated the hem points. Eh, whatever. The kid didn't notice.

On to the tail.

I used an old Halloween costume pattern, McCalls 2205 for the tail.  I chose the piece for the daisy flower head and folded it in half using three pedals. I cut two of those and added peacock feather applique to one side of the tail/flower.  I wish I would have done both sides, but one side seems to have been ok. I just winged it on the applique process. I didn't do much except to lay out the improvised peacock feather pieces and sew them down. No fusing or anything. They might be a bit crooked. After decided the dress was ok as it was, any further imperfections were easy to overlook. Besides, time was not on my side.

Once I had one side of the tail decorated, I grabbed up a piece of white posterboard (we all have that lying around, right?) and I cut out a piece of posterboard to the same size as the tail, with seam allowance.  Now I had to decide if I would sew the seam to the inside and flip it all around for nice pretty seams, or just sew around the outer edge and let the seam stick out.  Since I was on a roll with this whole "good enough" attitude, I sandwiched the poster in between the top and bottom tail pieces and sewed around the outer edge leaving the seam exposed. The posterboard is forever stuck inside the tail now. Sure hope I don't need to wash it for any reason!

I sewed the tail to the belt and the costume was done!  With the tail attached to the belt, she could flip it up or lay it down. Just like a real peacock!

Halloween 2013

Did it! Survived another Halloween! At the end of the night, I sighed with relief that the day went so well. Two awesome school parties, three adorable hand made costumes, trick or treating, a big pot of chili, fun with friends and neighbors, and tons of candy. And, my husband seemed to enjoy his birthday even though it was, as usual, a side-event after trick or treat.

It was a good one. 

My kids go to an awesome Montessori school. They have a lot of kids from various walks of life and like most schools, they do not celebrate Halloween at school.  I am glad about that. I like that the school respects those who do not do Halloween, and I like that my kids are learning to respect others in this way. But, they do something else that fits in with Halloween and the kids who do celebrate don't miss out on festivities with the alternative. This school is pretty cool!

Happy Non-offensive Fall!

The kindergarten kids study animals. Each student chooses an animal and does their own research and learning at home about that animal. On the last day of October, they dress up as the animal they chose to learn about and present what they learned. All of the kids wear their project costumes and the parents bring in treats for the autumn project party. At the party, the kids are encouraged to mingle and ask  each other about their animal.  Even the party is educational!

Libby chose to study a peacock.  We read about peacocks, looked at pictures, looked online, and we went to a dairy farm where they have a couple of peacocks in a pen. Libby asked the farm hand what peacocks eat and he told her they feed  them "mash" which is smashed corn. I made her a peacock costume and she made a poster for her presentation.

The lower elementary classes (grades 1,2 3) had a project called "Time Machine".  Each student chose a culture and time from the past and studied it. They could choose anything they wanted. At the end of the month, each student dresses as a person from their chosen time and presents what they learned about the history of the culture.

Gracie chose Ancient Egypt.  She watched a Brainpop video, read about it, and we went to the Museum of Man and explored the exhibit with the help of a docent. She learned a lot about ancient Egypt and the culture of the Egyptians.  She designed her costume and I made it the way she instructed.  As it turns out, Ancient Egypt was a popular place to go in the time machine! Several of her little classmates also studied the same topic. They had fun talking about what they learned and comparing.  At their "party" the kids all gather together and the parents go around asking students about their chosen historical period. Then the kids mingle and are encouraged to ask each other about their character's life. It's really a cool project and the kids learn a lot from each other.

Charlie is only three years old, but he is a wise little boy. I repeatedly asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween hoping to hear pirate or superman or Winnie the pooh, or something easy and popular with the tots. He was consistant with his request: He wanted to be Sandy, our dog who passed away in July.  He couldn't just be any puppy dog, he had to be Sandy. Luckily, I found some soft minky fabric in the right color for the costume. It had little swirls so it might look like a sheep, but it was soft and the right color and that was the best I could find, so I got it.  He loved it! He kept hugging the fabric and thanking me before I even had the costume cut out!

Charlie has this whole "Gramma can make anything" thing figured out! He told me just how to make it with ears like this and a tail like this and paws, wait, no paws, yes, paws. He couldn't decided about the paws, so I attached paw mitts that had a hole for his hands to escape if he wanted them out. Happy Puppy! Guess it was a good thing I didn't talk him into another costume.

His Sandy costume turned out pretty good. A bit sheepish, but mostly dog. He woofed and panted and gave puppy kisses. Had the day been a bit cooler, he might have worn his puppy costume all day long. He wore it to the school parties and then donned it again for trick or treating.

Just like every year, our first trick or treat stop is next door. The neighbors spoil my kids! This  year they gave the kids a candy necklace making kit. They're gonna love that! Keith took the first trick or treat shift and walked the kids up the street and back and they filled their bags. They took a break at home and shoved as much candy into their mouths as they could, then I took them out for round 2. I took them in the other direction. Once again, they filled their candy bags. Libby was exhausted by the time we got back home.  They each ate a couple of handfuls of candy, and it was off to bed.

The kids  had a blast!  Keith enjoyed his pot of chili and cornbread. The neighbors brought him a growler of beer from a local brewery. He also got a card in the mail, and the only thing he had to say about that was "it's not from your mom? that's weird. She must be slacking!"  We never did get around to eating his birthday pumpkin pie, but it was a school night and everyone was stuffed and tired so we'll do it later. 

Princess Mulan's Matchmaker Hanfu

Made It!!!

The girls have been wishing for Princess Mulan dresses for quite some time. I finally found time to get to the fabric store and while I was there, I actually remembered to grab up some pretty blue fabric for the waist band. Really, that's what the big wait was all about. I've had the pink satin and the red trim for quite some time.

I only made one dress because my older girl is growing out of the dress up stage and she would rather wear something normal but themed. I haven't figured out what to do for her yet, but I did buy some Star Wars fabric for when I figure something out. In the meantime, only one hanfu is in order. Which works because Libby's 5th birthday was quickly approaching so the dress could be a gift. 

It only took me a couple of days to make the dress, which would equate to a couple of hours in normal person time. It's been proven many times that I am not functioning in any level of normal, sewing or otherwise. But it should be noted that it was a quick project.

I used a normal looking dress pattern, mainly for the measurements of the shoulders and sleeves and bodice width. The hanfu does not at all resemble the pattern I used, but I am growing out of a need for much of a pattern; I just need the major cutting points and then I can wing the rest of it.

I made the hanfu just like a dress in that it has a top bodice section and a bottom skirt with a zipper up the back. I'm not so sure that is the proper way but I wanted it to have some flair at the bottom and I wasn't so sure a shift or A line cut would have the same effect. Besides, the gathered waistline would be covered by the waist band so it didn't really matter. I also made the skirt ankle length (or so I thought until my kid put it on and I discovered her legs are a lot longer than they used to be!)

I cut the sleeves the right length and then added "bat wings" to the wrist. I also made the tip of the wings longer than the top of the wrist so that it resembled Mulan's long sleeve tips without going overboard. Just a bit of effect for authenticity but not enough that it would be annoying to wear.

The bodice top gave me some pause. I had to think about how to make it overlap like a robe. I ended up cutting four bodice pieces and then folding them and ironing them down the way I wanted them, trimming off the unwanted half at the diagonal and stitching the two pieces of bodice together at the waist. It has a lining of the same satin, which is why I needed four pieces. Two outer and two for lining. There is probably a hundred easier and more conservative ways to cut the bodice out, but to keep it straight in my mind, that's how I did it. I will have to practice or draw up a little pattern piece.

I used some of the leftover cheap red stuff that I used for the Captain Hook Halloween costume last year to trim the bodice and make the red waist belt. The embroidered blue piece was easy to make into a waistband. I measure the child around the middle and made a rectangle to match. I sewed the red band to the middle of the blue rectangle and added apron ties.

Now I had the pink satin underdress with the red trim on the bodice and the separate blue and red waist band. Done!

There were just a couple of problems. I forgot the red upper skirt and the waist band slid straight down that satin covered kid. It wouldn't stay up.

I added a piece of gathered red to the bottom of the blue waist band and that fixed that issue. Then I tacked the waist band to the dress in the back, front and under the arms to keep it from sliding down. We don't need to spend all day yanking the waist piece up over and over again. Now, it's done!

Princess Mulan's pink hanfu was an awesome birthday gift for my little birthday girl! We hauled it around all day at Disneyland on her big day, but it was too hot to wear satin. Also, Mulan wasn't "home" when we went to the Princess Fantasy Faire. In the evening when it cooled down, she put her hanfu on over her clothes in lieu of a jacket.  It was so cute!  We sure heard a lot of compliments in the couple of hours that she wore it and her little friend instructed me to make one for her and her sister.

Happy Birthday to my little princess!

*** UPDATE ***
11/8/2013

My little Mulan met the real Mulan at Disneyland. Mulan saw her and gasped with excitement! She was like a little princess on Christmas morning when she saw Libby in her Mulan hanfu! Very exciting! Here are the princess twins together:

Princess Merida dresses

Fresh from under my sewing machine - a dress to "change your fate!"  The perfect dress for "climbing Crown's Tooth and drinking from the fire falls". Just right for a girl who wants "to stay single, hair flowing in the wind while riding through the glen firing arrows into the sunset."

I may have seen the movie Brave a few too many times since the dialogue is so easy for me to quote!

I started working on these dresses a long time ago. The fabric came from Joann Fabrics and was probably a seasonal print. It's various shades of dark green with a clover print. I don't remember where I got the gold; it was either Joanns or Hobby Lobby. The green is a cotton broadcloth and the gold is a glitter infused polyester. Unfortunately, the gold is rough and itchy.

I raided the donation bag (why do we always have a bag of worn, neglected, unloved clothes? I always think I cleaned out all the old stuff, and as soon as I donate it all, we start another bag)  for old black Tshirts. Score!  Lining for the dresses is soft black Tshirt cotton.  I lined the front of the bodice, and the inside of the sleeves with what I cut from the Tshirts. I had a bit of the bottom of a bright yellow Tshirt from a day that I trimmed off the bottom of a Tshirt to make a comfy play dress for my daughter (that she has not  yet worn, arg) and lined the backside of the gold collar ruffle. Ahh, anti-itch softness next to the skin! My girls are officially spoiled!

I didn't have a pattern to work from, although there's probably one out there on the market. I just decided to wing it. After carefully looking at pictures of the dress from the movie, the Disney store, and the princess herself in Disneyland, I came up with what I think is authentic yet kid-friendly.  In the movie, Merida rides her horse, climbs a mountain, goes fishing in the creek, runs, jumps, eats, and more all in this dress. My kids will be just as active in it, but I'm keeping them off of horses and away from bears.

The sleeves and shoulders were the most difficult part of this dress. I cut the sleeves in half and then cut out a good three inch strip from each. Once I had a lower and an upper sleeve, I inserted a strip of gold in a lightly gathered sort of way. I also made little belt loop type strips and stuck three into the mix to make it look suspended. For the shoulder suspension, I just added the rufled gold strip on top of the shoulder seam and it worked! I'm happy with the way the sleeves and shoulders turned out! I opted not to add gold to the wrists too; let's face it, these girls are going to drag the edges of these sleeves through ketchup, chocolate, dirt, and many many other sticky things. The laundry factor plays a role in the design as well.

After making four lovely suspended sleeves, I added two of them to Libby's dress. The next day I discovered that they just looked weird somehow. Low and behold, I put a size 4 sleeve on the left and a size 8 sleeve on the right! The joys of making identical dresses! Since her arms are both the same size, I had to fix that.

I was going to put the sleeves on Gracie's dress, but it was 86 degrees out and the forcast looks about the same for the next week. Summer is coming too. What was I thinking making lined long sleeves for a girl who never gets cold? I decided to put her long sleeves in the bottom drawer where they will never be seen again, and give her a sleeveless Merida dress. I gave the dress some little cap sleeves, even though I vowed to never do that again because the cap sleeves crack me up too much. They are so funny looking! They stick out like little wings. But, it works on this dress and with the gold on the shoulder, there had to be something. She didn't want short puff sleeves, so funny little wings it is. That's ok, laughter is good for me.

I could not find a good ribbon for the bottom hem. After searching and searching, literally for months, I settled for the black ribbon with a Greek key pattern, or maybe it's Egyptian. Greek/Egyptian ribbon and Irish clovers on a Scottish princess dress. Eh, the kids will never know.  The ribbon does give the hem a finished look and the Disneyland Merida has lots of fanciness at the bottom of her dress, so I had to add something.

The belt is just some brown polyester and I made a gigantic button out of a piece of cardboard covered with the gold fabric. I'm not entirely happy with it, but once I get the plaid piece attached, that will make it much better. Merida has a Scottish plaid hand-towel or snuggle blanket or handkerchief something to that effect hanging from her belt. Whatever it is, I'll make one and attach it. I did not realize that blue/green plaid would be so hard to find in the spring. So far, no luck. I might have to add a blue/green floral print instead. I believe the plaid symbolizes the family clan and if that is true, our clan pattern will be flowery. Why not!  In the movie, she has a quiver hanging from her belt, so if I cannot find a good clan piece, I'll whip up a quiver instead. I love having options.

I put a metal zipper on my four year old's dress and she promptly told me, "Can you make a placket for the zipper so it won't touch me?" Yes, child, you can have a placket. Any four year old who knows what a placket is deserves to have one.

I've decided the ultimate finishing touch would be for the girls to have mops of big red curly hair. Yeah, umm... no. they'll just be wearing the hair they were born with: straight, tangled, mousey-brown. Maybe a red hair clip?

All  that is left to do is take these dresses for a test run at Disneyland. Once the girls put them through a full day of activity, eating, sweating, spilling and such then we will know whether the dresses are a success or not. Stay tuned!

*Update:  I found a piece of plaid! A long lost pair of winter flannel pajama pants resurfaced from the depths of my dresser drawers. The two legs became the plaid kerchiefs and now I have a pair of plaid pajama shorts! Ta-Da!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Golden Hair

"She did, and then the prince climbed up."  That's how I remember the story, this doesn't exactly happen in the Disney movie. But, the Disney Rapunzel has a beautiful dress!

This dress is adorable, lovely colors and has lots of pretty ribbons and frills.  Plus, it's comfortable and Rapunzel proves that it is perfect for playing hard in this dress. She does all sorts of things while wearing it: swinging from trees, running, jumping, swimming, what doesn't she do in this dress?

She doesn't scratch and itch, so this dress has to be itch free in accordance with the wishes of the princesses in this house. They help with design. Libby likes to make sure she can put on her dress by herself, and take it off independently too. She is a do-it-by-myself kinda girl. Gracie was more interested in making sure lots of just the right ribbons and lace were on the dress. She came shopping with me to choose the appropriate Rapunzel trims.

I've been wanting to make a Rapunzel dress for quite some time, but had other projects. Finally got to it! And it was worth the wait! So pretty! I'm amazed at how well it turned out. I am making five Rapunzel dresses, and have three done. All a little bit different so far.

The first dress, I finished it twice so maybe it counts as two? I love it and I hope the little girl who gets to wear it will love it too. I made it for a sweet little girl named Leah. She's three and had a rough year. I wanted to give her a gift and help keep her smiling. Her mom does a great job of keeping her happy, so she didn't really need my help, but it made me feel good to make a dress for her. I can't wait to see pictures of her wearing her dress!

I made this dress with a peasant style top (a pull-over with an elastic neckline). I opted not to add the neckline lace to avoid the itch-factor. I lined this skirt with an eyelet cotton underskirt with a scalloped hem. It peeks out from under the purple skirt. It looks just like Rapunzel's dress in the movie in that regard. She has a petticoat that peeks out too.

There isn't a waist sash to tie, so there isn't any room to grow in width, but it seems to be a pretty forgiving style so it should fit. I topstitched the ribbon lace-up on the front of the dress so that it wouldn't be a problem with coming undone every few minutes. After I stitched the lacing down, I wasn't sure if I liked that idea or not. It will be better than lacing and relacing it repeatedly though.

I made her dress and finished it before Christmas. It was ready to ship and I laid it on the side table stacked on top of some things, where nobody would notice, and it was handy for me to take to the post office. It wasn't in a box yet, but it was folded and out of the way for the day. I took the girls to Disneyland and when I came home, I found the dress in a wad under the dining table and smudged with ketchup! This is what I get for leaving it out, but I honestly thought it was out of sight and wouldn't be bothered. I live and I learn, every day.

The ketchup was isolated to the outer skirt, the rest of the dress was still in perfect condition as far as I could see, so I took the dress apart and made a new skirt for it. I didn't want to wash it and lose the newness of the fabric. There is always a sheen when it's new that is gone after the first washing. I will laundry test the dresses I made for my girls, but this one was done and I just wanted to finish it again and not have to worry about the detail work on the bodice falling apart in the wash. It can fall apart after Leah wears it to DisneyWorld and spills chocolate ice cream on it, falls down and puts a hole in it, or gets marker on it when she's getting an autograph, after the fun! Just like Libby does. I'm fairly confident that it'll be fine in the laundry on a regular wash and dry, the other dresses I make go through the laundry without incident, but since it is for someone else, I wanted it to be nice, very nice.

You heard me right, the dress is going to Disney World in Florida! Super Fun!

The next dress, I made exactly the same way with the peasant style top. Libby loves this style since there are no buttons nor zippers to challenge her independence. I made the bodice and used the washed skirt from the first dress. It fit perfectly and you cannot tell the difference between the laundered skirt fabric and the new bodice fabric. Score!

I didn't have enough eyelet lace for the underskirt and so I added a white lace trim to the purple skirt for that petticoat look without the lining. It looks pretty good. And now that I study the Disneyland Rapunzel character dress, I think her white petticoat is actually a lace trim sewn to the purple skirt. This time I didn't sew down the lace-up ribbon, I just laced it through some ribbon loops and tied it.

I topstiched all of the bodice ribbons. I want them to stay in place, plus that's what they look like in the movie. If you pause the movie and really take a good look, Rapunzel's sleeve has topstitched pink ribbons, but the front of her dress has eyelets, with grommets, and laced up with pink ribbon. I don't do grommets. I used a ribbon to make little loops and topstitched a pink ribbon over the top to make the edges of the bodice vest look.

I didn't add the lower section of the sleeves because the girls would get too hot and the sheer fabric on the lower sleeve would fail the itch test for sure!

Now that I really look at the bodice and the lace-up detail in the front, I think I put it upside down on the first dress and then sewed it in place that way. OMG! I Did!!! Ugh, why did I do that! It ties at the top of the bodice, not at the waist!  Ooops! Hopefully the three-year old won't notice my big blunder, but she probably will.

Libby loves her dress but it looks a bit short in the bodice. I'll have to remember that my kid is growing and make the bodice longer next time. She now has three princess dresses in this same bodice size and style: Belle, Cinderella and Rapunzel.

Gracie's dress is the third one I made. Her bodice is completely different in that it isn't a peasant style. It has a zipper down the back.  She insisted on having the lace around the neckline, I was hesitant for fear of her complaining that it would itch (the anti-itch factor is very important, can you tell?) so I finished the neckline first and then added the lace just in case she wants me to remove it, I can keep the neckline in tact. Nice to have the option to change your mind, right? If/when she asks me to remove the lace, I can take out one row of stitching and the second row will keep it finished and neat. I won't have to sew it again. Ta-da! Much to my surprise, she really does like the neckline lace. Bonus.

I made her bodice a size 7 since she's been growing so much and the last dress I made was a size 6. Wrong. She grew a lot! And she's grown round the middle much more than she's grown toward the sky. I had to add a piece to each side of the bodice to accommodate her chub. I just guessed at this, there is not technique involved, just took a couple of scraps and made long triangles out of them and stuck them between the bodice front and back all the way up through the armpit. The sleeve hems still meet where they were originally planned. The length of the bodice is just right, at least I didn't mess that up like I did with her holiday dress (she never noticed).

Just like Libby's dress, I added a white lace trim to the purple skirt to simulate the look of a petticoat peeking out from under the dress. I used the leftover eyelet lace from the quilt I made for her for Christmas.  It totally rocks. She isn't complaining about the waistband itching so I guess she's ok with no skirt lining. I did her lace-up the same as Libby's with the loops and the ribbon laced loosely. So far, it's only come untied a few times. I'm debating whether to stitch it in place or not. I'll have to compare notes with Leah's mom and see what she thinks of the topstitched ties.

Gracie's skirt has a different  floral ribbon going down the front of the skirt. Disney's Rapunzel has an embroidered floral motif along the edges of her skirt in the front along her center pleat. I duplicated that look by running two lines of flower ribbon down the front of the skirt where a pleat would be. The first two dresses have a more colorful ribbon of little flowers, this dress has pink flowers. I ran out of the rainbow flower ribbon and the store did not have the same ribbon in stock when I went back for more. That's ok, this ribbon is pretty too and they don't need to be identical in every way.

I think the dresses are authentic enough to the movie costume and yet simplified just enough for little girls who play hard. Gacie and Libby are testing the durability of the dresses as I type this out. For the past two days, they've both covered their dresses in food and juice drippings, a bit of dirt, and twirled a million times. They are thrilled! And, they figured out that if they wear their super poofy skirts underneath that Santa brought them, the dresses look even better. Cool!

I have enough fabric and ribbon to make two more dresses for our favorite local friends. They have spring birthdays and I think these will make very nice birthday gifts. These little girls love to play dress-up just as much as my little girls so I know they will be a big hit. That will be five Rapunzel dresses by the time I'm done! Unless of course, someone else wants one.  Hint!

Halloween Costume Extravaganza!

I made five costumes this year! I just cannot say no to these adorable little children who love to wear custom costumes made just for them. They like to watch me sew and "help". The helping, I could do without that, but I have gotten Libby to cut up scraps of fabric as her way of helping. That keeps her out of my way a little bit, but sure makes a mess.

This year, I acquired some fabric (quite a bit actually) from a nice lady here in town. Her grandmother passed away and when the family went to clean the grandmother's house, they discovered that she had filled her home and garage with fabric, notions and machines. Apparently, the lady was a sewing enthusiast and one of JoAnn fabrics best costumers. They had too much fabric to deal with, so they posted an ad on facebook for a fabric sale. One of my friends saw it and sent the link to me, so I sent the lady a message and went over and got lots of fabric and zippers. With the amount they had to clear out of the home, it was just a small bit that I took home. I don't know what I was thinking, because I recently stocked up and have plenty of fabric already. I promise not to fill my whole house with stashes of fabric. I will use it!  Four of the five costumes I made this year all have some of the fabric from this gal. Plus, I made a few tote bags and a couple of pillow cases so far with her grandmother's fabric. I hope it comforts her to know that her grandmother's passion for sewing is alive and well in my house.

I made three costumes for Gracie: Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco, Cinderelly (the working dress), and "Modest Tinkerbell".  I made a Doc McStuffins costume for Libby.  And, I made a Captain Hook costume for Charlie. 

Surprisingly, the doctor lab coat and the pirate coat were from the same pattern. I just altered it for character effect. The pattern was for a dress and jacket pattern; not a costume pattern at all. But, it had just the right features for these two costumes. I improvised the pirate pants and the stethoscope and doctor bag.

Charlie's mom didn't want the Captain Hook costume to look quite so frilly as it does on the real Captain Hook. To man it up, I disregarded the white ruffles and I made the pants black instead of pink. I added a cute skeleton print to the pants as a sash and as a headband, perfect print for a pirate costume. And, instead of a wrap around belt, I gave Captain Hook's jacket a cinch thing on the back. I have no idea what that thing is called. It's a small piece that pulls the back together. Anyway, I think it worked well. The costume really came to life when my daughter  bought a pirate hat to match. Charlie decided to pull on his Lightning McQueen boots too. Sure, why not!

I didn't have a pattern for the Cinderelly costume, I just had to wing it and I used Cinderella storybook pictures to figure out how to make it. Gracie had her input too, she did not want straight three-quarter sleeves like the story illustrations have, she wanted puffy sleeves with elastic at the elbows. Since it's her costume, of course I said yes to that. She also chose all of the fabric. I do wish I would have made the bodice longer, oh well.

Here are the costumed kids in all their glory: