Handmade Halloween, Part 2: With a little help from Hogsmeade Village Thrift and Amazon

Because I am crafty, I put an enormous amount of guilt upon myself if my children wear ready-made costumes.  Because I am cheap, I cannot turn down offers of free stuff.  So my son was given a Harry Potter set up (robe, tie & glasses) so that just left me 3 robes to make - 2 for the girls and 1 for my husband. 

This tutorial was simple, the fabric was cheap at Joanns and the style is very forgiving of my "eh...its good enough" style of sewing.    Because my husband was Snape and just needed black on black, I did one layer.    The girls robes were lined with red.    The patches were bought off Amazon- $10 for 3.    I made three scarves using yarn I had on hand, going with the early years style because it was easier and required less counting of rows.

On their persons:

Youngest refuses to wear the scarf.   Must find a 3yr old Redskins fan to regift it to.

For Snape, I paired it with a thift store find of some gaudy faux-crushed velvet shirt with gold accents.  It was obviously part of a costume get-up (tags still on) but for the life of me, I can't figure out what it could have been a costume of.    Yes, I know Snape is all black, with high collar, bla bla.   I'm in grad school, ok?  I only play a seamstress on the internet the week prior to Oct 31st! 

For my Alastar "Mad Eye" Moody costumes, I used a thrift store trench coat, brown pants, boots, an eyepatch from Amazon, a walking stick from the State Park gift shop and a black shirt.   But on oct 29th, I realized I needed something else.    A leather vest with some sort of hardware on it.    With nary a pattern, I took some pleather and curtain rod hangers and made my Mad Eye vest, finished about 2 hours before my Sat night Halloween party:

Close up of the hardware:

As usual, I go through this enormous effort to create a family theme costume and we never seem to have anyone around to take a pic of all five of us together.  So here we are in two pics:

It was way too hot for the trench coat!

The wig was a Cher wig, turned Tiger Lily wig in '09, turned Snape wig in '11. 

Handmade Halloween, Part 1: Ollivanders

A friend linked me to this awesome DIY Harry Potter wand instructible and despite the fact that my crafting skills are generally limited to yarn and fabric, I think they turned out pretty awesome!  Now, Fanboys take note: we did not make any efforts to make our wands look like the ones belonging to the characters in the movie.  We just had fun with the design and colors.   

L-R: Hermione, Ginny Weasley, Harry, Mad Eye, Snape

Here are some in progress pics:

Adding glue designs to the rolled paper wands

My husband, who usually mocks my harebrained ideas, even got into the fun.

Fun with paint!

My wand:  Before Paint

My wand:  After paint (My daughter says it looks like chocolate..works for me)

A close up of the details

I did add a thin wooden skewer inside the rolled paper to add some durability to the wands.  My kids are not gentle. Additionally, one step I would add would be to put some sort of clearcoat over it when done, because the paint does chip off easily.   If time permits, I may go get some, but seeing as these only have to survive through Monday, I'm not that worried. 

Stress makes me a milliner

Yes, I have been on a hat making tear in the last month.  Look at this mess of hats! 

It started with the monster hat I made for my neighbor's child, so I decided to create another monster hat to while away the hours I was spending at the theater for my daughter's play rehearsal:

Which led to kids begging for hats.  I didnt really want to take money from kids but I also couldn't keep up with the demand likely to be generated from giving away free hats, so I told them to donate to the theater if they end up taking one of my hats.  Before the show was over, I got one more theater-hat knocked out:

Bad pic, but its not my kid, so I didnt want to show a face.

Then there was a hospital stay for my son,  doctors' appts and general stress related to my son's medical condition, so more hats were made in a frenzy of yarn and hooks...

Crazy Cat Lady needs make up

From cats to birds to pigs, oh my...

That's my family in Angry Bird.  We havent been able to schedule a photoshoot yet, but it will happen and it will be made of awesome!  Although cannonball bird came out a bit small for my son and I wasnt feeling it for him, so I made him Yellow Bird.  

Definitely feeling it now.

Oh and in the midst I tried a Dr Seuss inspired stocking cap that turned out cute and made another to use up some babyish yarn I had on hand.  Which prompted my 3yr old to ask "Who that hat for, mama?"   I replied, "No one, I just needed to use up some yarn I had."  She then said, "So you can buy some more yarn!"  Yes, child.  You get me.  You really do!  (Now dont tell Daddy!)



Oh and I also knocked out a couple AB hats for a friend, coming up with the features for Girl Bird on my own.  That was fun.

And I have another monster hat in progress (got another play gearing up, need to keep my fans happy!) and I finished an owl hat that had been waiting for a face for months.

And the heavens opened up and shone their approval upon the crocheted owl, and there was joy and stuff.

Also mixed in that pile are 3 random hats that may become monsters or owls or puppies or some random critter whenever the fancy may hit me.  

Yeah, I'm crazy.    But I suppose its a better outlet for my stress than barbituates.