Sunday, October 31, 2010

why grannie, what a big nightgown you have.

Owoooooooo! Who's that I see walkin' in these woods? Why, it's Little Red Riding Hood. Hey there Little Red Riding Hood, You sure are looking good. You're everything a big bad wolf could want.

So I didn't take pictures as I made our costumes but wanted to share them anyway.

After much deliberation over a fun couple's costume, we decided on Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

First I looked at a pattern to make a Little Red Riding Hood costume (couldn't find a premade maternity one at the stores), but thinking of my time, sewing skills, and budget, I decided to make the hood and apron and wear clothes I already had.


for the hood, I used a hoodie, laid it with the top of the hood on the fold of the red fabric, and cut around it, not cutting the folded side. (basically a rectangle with a curved corner) then i sewed the seam up the back, and a hem around the face.

To make the ties, I cut a strip of fabric, about 4 inches wide along one end of the fabric. i cut it in half so i had 2 22"x4" strips. folding the peices right sides together, i sewed a seam along the edge and one end and turned it right side out.


For the cape, I pressed and sewed a seam along the 2 sides and bottom of the cape.

To attatch the hood and ties to the cape, I folded and pressed a 5/8" seam along the entire top, then centered the hood on that edge of the cape. Then, right sides together, I pinned the hood and ties on and sewed a seam along the entire edge, reinforcing the stitches where the ties were attatched.

Ta-Da a hooded cape. I did not however prewash the velvety dark bright red fabric, so my hands, sewing machine and clothes I wore were tinted red. oh well.


For the apron, I followed a pattern I bought at walmart. had I thought ahead of time, I could have found an appropriate apron for less $ than the materials and pattern, but I enjoyed sewing it, and have pride in having made it myself. HS Sewing 101 was a long time ago.

For the Big Bad Wolf, originally we planned to attatch peices of faux fur (remarkably hard to find, wasn't at JoAnns or Wal-Mart) to a brown sweatsuit. Then we decided we wanted the wolf to be dresses in Grannies clothes. We scoured a thrift store for a nightgown, but ended up getting one at KMart (my hubbys a big guy, needed womens 4x size).

After putting the gown on, we found that only the hood, neck and ankles of the sweatsuit even showed, so remembering our budget and body temperature when my hubby will be drinking at the party, we decided to scrap the sweatsuit and return it for $20 back.

He had some old ratty sweat pants that I stitched, essentially faux fur leg warmers, to.


For the hood, I made a hood similar to the Red Riding Hood, only i left the seam around the face big enough for a drawstring, and made it longer so it would drape down his neck.

For the chest, I just cut a rectangle with a neck sized hole out of it, then a cut in the back. this was wrapped around his neck, laying on his shoulders and chest, and safety-pinned in the back.

I had intentions of makeing glove type things for his hands, but ran out of time.

The great thing about my costume, it was super comfertable and warm. Other girls at the party were in short skirts, as one admitted after a bunch of drinks "a lotta lycra under here" and high heels and not comfertable. Mikey lost his chest peice, then pants, and eventually his hood/make up before too long, and ran around in this nightgown most of the night. At that point he was pretty comfertable...

Saturday, October 30, 2010

invite this guy to your halloween party

I got the idea for the super yummy mummy from a Taste of Home Halloween fun food magazine, where they had used cheese logs covered in piped cream cheese. well cheese logs are expensive and never get eaten all the way. I had already planned on making brownies (got a new brownie pan & brownie mix for a wedding gift) and I had leftover home made cream cheese frosting from wedding cupcakes.
Wilton Bake It Better 12-Cavity Bar Pan
The brownie pan only made a little under 1 box of mix, so I used a regular small rectangle cake pan (also a wedding gift) for the rest of the batter. Using a regular knife I shaped the head/torso out of the full pan and added the individual squares as the appendages, and cut them in half for the shoulder/hips(cut on diagonal) and arms (cut lengthwise). The legs are 2 full bars. Some scrap from around the head became the eyes.

Then I cut a slit in a freezer Ziploc (usually I use cheaper storage Ziplocs, but the cream cheese was cold and i didn't want the bag to split) to pipe on the bandages.
total project cost
$FR.EE, (well whatever about a cup of oil and 4 eggs and an hour of electricity costs)
but if you weren't gifted the brownie mix and didn't have leftover frosting, it would cost about $3ish for the mix, cream cheese, powdered sugar, eggs, oil etc.