Enter at your own risk (Beware! This post is long and self-indulgent!)

With the exception of St. Valentine's Day, I don't think there is any holiday better suited to my interests than Halloween. There is just something about the idea of blood and guts and monsters and ghosts and witches and pranks and zombies and candy and mayhem that just really speaks to me. My absolute favorite is when Valentine's Day falls on a Saturday, making the day before Friday the Flirteenth. I'd like to say that it's because of a secret dark side I have or something, but let's be real, my dark side is still pretty cartooney.

More than anything, though, I especially love the costumes.

My college roommate and I used to start planning next year's costume on the day after Halloween. By the time October 1st rolled around, we had usually forgotten all of our brilliant ideas and were forced to start from square one, but we still had the spirit there. I was always very particular about the kind of costume I wanted. After some disastrous results in high school, I had sworn off doing the weird pun costumes (even though I just love lame puns). I also tended to avoid the bagged costumes, because I found them unimaginative (and expensive... and they could never really hit any middle ground between slutty and hideous... and weren't flattering anyway). Instead, I tried to make costumes that would be somewhat unique, recognizable, and homemade.

Junior year, I went as a pinata. It took me forever to attach each streamer to the dress. Then it took another forever to attach them to a new dress after I had taped everything too tight and broken the zipper on the first one. Weirdly, the most difficult part was finding devil horns to use as the pinata's bull horns. The only ones I could find were fluffy and glittery. Seriously, what is happening to the youth these days?

Downside? Packing tape really doesn't breathe

Senior year, I went as Mr. Peanut. I didn't know how to sew yet, so rather than even try to make a dress, I settled for just wrapping the fabric around me like a towel. Don't worry, I didn't run into any issues. My roommate let me borrow his cane, but I already owned the rest of the accessories for some reason.

The saddle shoes that you can't really see were part of my high school uniform.
I still wear them occasionally. They're the best.

Two years ago, I went as Toucan Sam. I had to tear apart a Viking helmet in order to make that mask, but it was worth it. I even used a box of Froot Loops as my purse that evening.

Last year, I went as Marvin the Martian. I only had to tear apart and paint a Spartan helmet for that costume, but I did make my own skirt. Although it may have been technically a tutu, this was the first time I had made my own clothing. In fact, it was the first time I had ever used a sewing machine. It was only a month later that I was begging for one for Christmas.

 
Which brings us to this year.

While I was still trying desperately to figure out what I wanted to be for Halloween, a friend of mine had had a brilliant idea. This friend, who will heretofore be referred as Jane Jetson, decided to go as (wait for it) Jane Jetson! She even found an amazing apron on etsy that would have been perfect. Unfortunately, before she said a chance to purchase said apron, it was sold to another. Knowing that I love crafting, recently got a sewing machine, and will work for free, she asked if I'd be able to make a replica (or at least a piss poor attempt at one). Excited, I agreed.

This is the original, professionally made apron. I was not
confident in my ability to live up to that.

Jane Jetson Costume

Materials:

-Sparkly purple fabric
-Light purple fabric
-White fabric
-White ribbon - approximately 1.5" thick
-White ribbon - approximately 0.75" thick

First, I started by cutting large circles in both purples (making the darker purple circle a little bit smaller). Actually, I folded the fabric a couple times and cut quarter-circles to make things easier on myself. Then, I cut out a circle in the middle for the waist.

This picture isn't technically from this step, but it gets the point across.

Next, rather than hem the bottom of the dark purple fabric, I decided to line it with ribbon. I used the thinner white ribbon, pinned it in place, and sewed it on.

 

After repeating the process with the lighter purple fabric, I attached the two circles at the waist and sewed them together.

With that, the skirt portion was finished.

For the bodice, I cut out a basic apron-esque shape with a sweetheart neckline. I'll be honest, I had no idea what I was doing at the time, and still don't really. But I cut the shape out of each purple, layered them, attached them to each other, and hemmed the edges regardless. Then, I pinned it to the skirt, added a temporary neck tie, and tried it on. Even though Jane Jetson and I are different sizes, I had no choice but to fit the bodice to me because I was making it up as a went along. After modeling it in the mirror for a while, and stabbing myself with a million pins (I guess that's why people use dress forms), I finally was able to cinch in the bodice to make it more fitted.

I may have forgotten to get pictures of this process for Jane's costume.
That's why this bodice is pink rather than purple.

Then, I took a long piece of white fabric and folded it in half. I sewed the edges together, flipped it inside out, and ironed it flat. It was about 2.5" thick and long enough to loop around my waist and tie in front. This would act as the main apron tie. I pinned this piece and the bodice to the skirt and sewed them all together.

It was at this point that I broke the needle in my sewing machine. I didn't even know that was a thing that could happen! I didn't know you could (or apparently should) replace those! So, after a minor freak-out, I picked up some replacements from Walmart, figured out how to change it out, and continued on my way.

My sewing machine has been such a trooper lately.

Then, I attached the thicker white ribbon to the bodice to act as the halter neck tie.The last things I needed to add were the neckline pieces and the pocket.

For the neck-line pieces, I took two pieces of white fabric and attached them to each other using iron-on adhesive. I did this to make them stiffer so that they'd maintain their shape. I then cut out two triangles and attached them to the neck.

The pocket is basically a square of fabric that was lined with ribbon and sewn onto the skirt.

Doesn't my friend make a great Jane Jetson?!

Now that her costume was finished, I decided to use the exact same method to make my own costume, with a few modifications, of course.

Daisy Duck Costume

Materials:

-Glittery hot pink fabric
-White fabric
-Pink ribbon - approximately 1.5" thick
-White ribbon - approximately 0.75" thick

I used the same basic methods as above to make the Daisy Duck costume.
-Same basic circle skirt, except with white fabric and no ribbon lining.
-Same basic bodice, except with hot pink fabric and white ribbon lining in lieu of the neckline triangles.
-Same waist tie, except with hot pink fabric.

When I was done with the basic apron, however, rather than add a pocket, I decided to cut out almost 200 tear drops from the white fabric and sew them on in layers. I think it gave the apron the duck look I was going for.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's blood on the tear drop. My blood.
From stabbing myself with pins so many times.

All I needed was a boa, a duck-call, and a hot pink hair bow, and I was ready to go!

 

Hannah went as a jazzerciser. Kirsten was the Sun Drop girl from those commercials.
We made a lot of jokes about duck face that night.

I think I might start making aprons for all of my future costumes. The up-side is that making an apron with a full circle skirt eliminates the need for zippers or buttons. The down-side is that an undershirt is pretty much mandatory.

WHILE I CRAFTED: I watched basically everything, because the two aprons combined took forever (although I might have actually napped or cleaned during some of these movies as well... who knows)
-Clue
-Shaun of the Dead
-Young Frankenstein
-Beetlejuice
-Hocus Pocus
-The Corpse Bride
-Alien
-The Addams Family
-Death Becomes Her
-I Married a Monster from Outer Space
-Dracula: Dead and Loving It
-Countless episodes of the Munsters (seriously, this show was amazing)
-and many more that I can't think of now

In our town of Halloween...

In the spirit of the season, my friend Hannah invited a few of us to her place this past weekend to carve pumpkins and watch Halloween movies!

Hannah absolutely loves carving pumpkins, and as a result, decided to splurge a bit this year on some pretty neat tools. Whenever I've carved pumpkins in the past, I've always used those somewhat crappy, cheap sets that always break about halfway through. Not Hannah; she had these really nice scoopers that meant that I barely had to touch the gross pumpkin pulp at all (incidentally, that was one of the best parts about having Matt as one of our roommates in college - he would do all the gross pumpkin work and let us decorate it). Hannah also got a hot knife, which is apparently a thing. It's basically just a crafting scalpel that you plug in, but it makes the carving process much easier. Academy Award Winner Sandra Bullock** commented that it was very convenient, because when he inevitably cut himself, it would automatically cauterize the wound. 

Hannah carved out Oogie Boogie from the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Academy Award Winner Sandra Bullock carved the Planet Express logo from Futurama.

I decided to carve out The Monarch from the Venture Bros. He's probably my favorite character on the show.

Now all three...

I had mentioned to Hannah that by carving them so early, they'd all be rotten come Halloween. Hannah pointed out that that was her plan all along, because she wants to have multiple carving nights. Hooray!

WHILE WE CRAFTED: We watched The Little Shop of Horrors and Underworld (well, I may have fallen asleep during Underworld, but that's neither here nor there).

**Actual name has been changed to protect the identity of my friend

This is Halloween, Everybody Make a Scene!

Ever since my friend Nikki moved back to town, we've been trying to get together semi-regularly for random craft nights! So far, we've had two.

At the first, we made a bunch of flower pens for her to bring to work. She just started her first year as a teacher, and she wanted to have pens available for her students to use while in class that they wouldn't walk off with.

Sadly, this is the least-grainy picture from that adventure.

 

At the second, this past Sunday, Nikki wanted to paint, and paint we did!

Unfortunately, I kind of totally forgot it was happening, so I hadn't even brainstormed about what I'd want to paint. Once we pulled out the canvases and paints (just because I was unprepared doesn't mean I didn't have a ready supply of craft supplies), I drew a blank.

Nikki had come with a plan (she wanted to do a tree and birds silhouette thing) and began painting immediately, while I just sat staring at my blank canvas. Then I realized that it was almost October, so of course I had do paint something for Halloween! Duh!

Keeping in theme with last year, where I went kind of bat crazy with my decorations, I decided to paint a moonscape featuring bats! And because I usually like my paintings to have a 3-D aspect to them (partially because I think it's fun and partially because I think it distracts from the fact that painting isn't actually my forte), I glued on a glittery felt bat in the corner!

It's very simple, and something that a child could have done, but I absolutely love it!

Nikki, however, was not as lucky. Due to the fact that I have a pretty sparse supply of paints and colors, her tree and birds thing wasn't quite working out as planned. She ended up deciding to scrap the whole project and paint over all of it in black. We started brainstorming on what she could do with a black canvas, and I joked that she should just put some googly eyes on it. Then we decided, non-jokingly, that she should totally just put some googly eyes on it!

We actually had to make a trip to Michael's to get some googly eyes for this one... not because I didn't have any (I had an entire craft drawer full), but because I didn't have a good variety of sizes. Afterwards, I texted my good friend, Academy Award Winner Sandra Bullock**, to let him know that after getting some craft supplies, all of my googly eyes wouldn't fit into my googly eye bin... because he's always joking that rather than first-world problems, I keep having first-grade problems.

I liked hers so much that I decided to make one too!

I just love the eyebrows.

Also, Nikki painted another canvas with polka dots.

We tend to make a bit of a mess.

And now that it's almost October, I feel like it's time to start putting up all my other Halloween decorations, too!

WHILE I CRAFTED: We actually didn't listen to or watch anything. I guess we just hung out and talked? Weird...



**My friend asked that I not use his name on my blog. "Academy Award Winner Sandra Bullock" is the pseudonym that he (yes, he) chose to protect his identity.