cosplay

Venom

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Last week my son’s school had a “costume day.” He wanted to be Venom of Marvel lore, and told me so a week before. Welllllll I forgot until the day before. So I did a quick google search, made a list, and after work, hit up a Goodwill, Dollar Tree, hardware store, and an art supply store on my way home. I came home with this:

Dinosaur masks, paint, spray paint, long-sleeved t-shirt, and black jeans (not pictured).

At 11:30 PM, I was done.

Typical me, I look at this and think of all the improvements I could have made, but then I remember that I had to wake up early for puppy and work, and I did the best I could with the time and resources I had. Besides! The boy was OVER THE MOON with this outfit.

I’ve promised him that if he’s Venom for Halloween, I’ll make some upgrades. So far, that’s the plan. I just LOVE these challenges- making fantastical costumes with few resources (the more repurposed, the better!!!), and with a time crunch, I think I do my best work. 😉

Happy crafting!

The Eleventh Doctor

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Today the Wee Boy asked if he could dress like the Eleventh Doctor, and I happily took on the challenge. He happens to have good enough pants, a shirt, and a bow tie, but I had to come up with suspenders. I finally came across an old goody bag that I cut the straps off of, and sewed them onto a D-Ring and some binder clips.  For the back of the suspenders I used a length of red ribbon I had. And voila, add a sonic screwdriver and the Doctor was happy! 

He went to a party at his preschool and his fancy look was much admired. He confessed to a few people that he was the Doctor (no licensed characters allowed, but I figured that since school isn’t in session it would be ok).


I wore my tardis skirt in solidarity, but didn’t take a photo. 😜😁😊

Halloween!

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Finally, Halloween is here! The kids and I wore our Star Wars outfits, of course.  

this was taken yesterday, but we looked exactly like this today, but didn’t take a pic together!


Today we attended a very excellent Halloween party hosted by an elementary school classmate and family. There was BRAIN jello, which was extremely popular with the kids.  
 And adorable (delicious) spider cupcakes!  
And broomsticks!

 Most of the moms dressed up, which I loved, of course.

  
How amazing is this makeup?!

 
The kids looked great and had so much fun.

  
The Wee Boy met many Vaders!

 We went trick or treating on Belvedere Street, which becomes pedestrian-only and most of the houses put on a great show!

This house always has a (movie) theme and puts dancers in costume in the windows.  This year’s theme was Hotel Trannsylvania, and they made a paper mache dracula head- amazing!

   
I met two other Han Solos, and one was another female Han! I loved that the husband was Leia and the baby girl was Luke. 

too dark for a good photo!


Hope you had a fun Hallowern, too!!

 

Halloween event #1

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One of the fun things about having kids is the number of Halloween-related events, well,  assuming you like Halloween and costumes as much as I do! Today was our first event of many, and we were excited to debut our new, or in Leia’s case, slightly improved, duds.

I got carried away with adding more and more details- I was actually sewing things onto my outfit in the car to and from the Wee Girl’s soccer game this afternoon. 
 

an important detail

  

The Boy’s costume is all DIY/regular clothes except for the mask and light saber, which I bought.

little vader

  

who’s scruffy-looking?

  

The Wee Girl’s outfit is from 2 years ago, but she insisted on being Leia again. But this time around I bought her some new boots.

  
I’m so pleased with how this turned out! I thrifted/up cycled/made the entire outfit, and was working on details up to an hour before our event.   
I came up with more details for the belt this morning. Hot glue gun to the rescue!

 

We met an Ewok at the party!
  
Darth Leia on the way home.

We have a Star Wars event tomorrow, so we’re excited to wear our outfits again and to see what getups others come up with!

Halloween sneak peek 3

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Thanks to some sage advice from a reader of this blog, I revisited the pleather I was working on the other night. I had given up on the sewing machine in favor of the hot glue gun, but the result was mediocre at best.  I undid a lot of the work and went back with needle and thread.

  
Of course this was the way to go! It took several hours, and I wouldn’t have been able to finish if the Wee Boy hadn’t taken a fluke nap (big fluke! He fell asleep in my arms!).  At the risk of giving away too much information (I haven’t told you my costume, right? But if you know me even a tiny bit, I bet you’ve guessed!), here’s my result:

  
I think I’ll add just a few more details, but I’m very happy with it! It fits well and it’s even comfortable–I wore it all through dinner (hmmm, did I just prove what a geek I am??), and it didn’t shift or break, so I think I have a winner! Yeah!

Halloween sneak peek 2

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Today I had some frustration working with faux leather.

  
This is the back side- hemming didn’t work out, nor did just sewing the layers together with no finishing. The top layer tended to stretch, and the layers didn’t want to move forward in my sewing machine. I gave up and used my hot glue gun, but I’m not satisfied. Any ideas???

Felt is almost always good to me, however, and I was happy with my one last addition to the Wee Boy’s costume.

 

it’s upside down, though!


At least something worked out, right? 

Halloween sneak peak

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It’s no secret that I like costumes, making costumes, and any reason to wear costumes! This year, both kids have decided on costumes from the same theme, so I decided to join in and dress up as a character I’ve been wanting to cosplay for some time. I bet  you can guess our theme/characters, even though these pics only represent 2/3 of us. 

   
 
For myself and the Wee Boy, this is about what I have so far (my outfit is actually nearly done, but not attractive to photograph in pieces). I’ve been scouting Goodwill stores for the pieces, since a) don’t want it to cost too much, and b) want them to last, since we will be using these outfits for more than just Halloween! 

Handspun, swatching, blocking, and Halloween!

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Good news, my swatches for my NaKniSweMo cardigan look good.  The lace one is the one that really concerned me, but it looks to be the right size!  Yay!

Swatches!

Swatches!

I have four freshly blocked blanket squares, and this skein of handspun is almost out!

Blocking squares.

Blocking squares.

Luckily this one is ready to step in.

Wonderland Dyeworks

Wonderland Dyeworks

We attended some Halloween festivities today, and I whipped up a Totoro outfit so I wouldn’t be left out of the costume-y fun!  I already had the hat and soot sprites, I just made the tummy out of leftover white fleece and gray felt I had around.  Easy!

Impromptu Totoro costume!

Impromptu Totoro costume!

And I couldn’t BELIEVE that I found someone dressed up as Cat Bus!!!!!!!

NEKOBASU!!!!

NEKOBASU!!!!

The Wee Boy found Woody and Mr. Potato Head, and I thought his head would explode from joy.

The Wee Boy geeks out.

The Wee Boy geeks out.

I think I can officially declare Halloween as my favorite holiday!!!

Singalong Frozen, Star Wars style

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For Mother’s Day, whole family went to Singalong Frozen at the historic Castro Theater!

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Aside from the awesomeness of being allowed and ENCOURAGED to sing your heart out in a movie theater, they also have a parade of costumed kiddos before the movie! As you might expect, many, many are Disney princesses, but my kids chose their Star Wars outfits that I made for them, making me very happy.

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To go along with their theme, I wore my new Star Wars dress!
With cardigan:

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Without cardigan:

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I was tickled that a mom behind me in line for the costume parade to me that their whole family loved my dress! blush

It’s very comfortable! I really like the long side slits that I added. The only trouble is that the middle does poof out a bit if I don’t have my hands on my hips or a cardigan covering it. So I’m pondering what to do about that- to add waist casing and elastic? Or a few rows of shirring at the waist? I’ll do a little research before deciding.

Anyway, it was a pretty fun way to spend Mother’s Day! Aside from the parade, everyone also got a goody bag with a crown to wear, a glow stick to wave, bubbles to blow and a cracker to explode during the movie! How could it get any more awesome??!!

If you have a chance to attend the singalongs hosted at movie theaters, go for it, with or without kids!! And dress up!!!