I know this is a bit past Halloween but if you read my last post: Welcoming November you will can see October was an extremely busy month lol

This year I made my niece & nephew’s Halloween costumes, my nephew wanted to be Bob the Minion – he was extremely excited & mentioned he had the perfect teddy bear to take with him – my niece wanted to be Mal from Disney’s descendants – of course with her attitude it only made sense lol

My older sister (mother of my niece & nephew), our mom & I searched high & low looking for overalls for a 7 year old boy at multiple second hand stores, walmart, superstore & winners but could not for the life of us find any, so I made some instead.

My dad gave me an old pair of ripped jeans he had, the back pocket was the perfect width of my nephew’s chest. I cut a out the back pocket of one of the legs, making a panel with about 10 inches wide & 12 inches high with an added 1/2 – 1 inch of clearance for a seam on the top & sides. I then cut the straps out of the pant legs: 28 inches long plus 1/2 an inch to seam the top & 3 inches wide using 3/4 inch from both sides as a seam, making the strap 1 1/2 inches wide once seams are sewn. Then sewed the straps to the packet panel with two large matching black buttons, added button holes to the bottom of each strap & four on the bottom of the button panel. I then took a current pair of my nephew’s jeans, turned them inside out & sewed four buttons to the front waste band & two to the back; this way the overalls panel & buttons could later be removed and his pants were back to normal. As a final added touch I airbrushed the “G” on the front by making a stencil of the “G” & mixing fabric medium with airbrush paint. He wore a long sleeve yellow shirt, a yellow toque & face paint – I also got him a bald cap, painted it yellow, that he wore for school & even under his toque lol that boy means business when it comes to Halloween!

For my niece’s costume I bought a woman’s small white blazer from a second hand store as a cheap, clean canvas to work on. I printed out a reference photo of Mal’s jacket & free hand airbrushed everything except the dragons in the heart on the back (I cut out a stencil to ensure crisp clean lines). There were some other pieces I wanted to add to the costume but could not find the time, like the bottom “skirt” with the asymmetrical cut, high collar & dragon wing shoulders. I was, however, able to cut the jacket, giving it an asymmetrical collar similar to Mal’s & airbrush the illusion of studs.

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These costumes were a bit of a challenge as I am not a seamstress by any means lol So it was a bit frustrating at times when it came to sewing, but you cannot improve if you do not try! The jacket itself was a bit of a lengthy process & was the first time I have ever airbrushed on clothing, I used a 1:1 ratio of airbrush fabric medium & paint…if anyone out there knows if this is correct or not please let me know lol it seemed to be the safest bet at the time & worked pretty good as the paint did not crack, peal or harden too stiff on the fabric, it even withstood the rain on while we were trick or treating!
Through the challenges, difficulties, frustrations & many a late, late nights it was worth it in the end to see how happy they were to have these homemade costumes to dress up in that can be special memories & mementos for them when they are older.

Thank you for reading 🙂