Carnaval 2017 . Jessie Costume

Hello sweet people! It’s Carnaval around here and I’ve been busy making a costume for my girl. This year she choose Jessie from Toy Story movies and I couldnt be happier when she told me her choice. Yes, I’ve been secretly wanting to make this costume since she started asking for Halloween and Carnaval costumes so YAY! 😀

It was a pretty easy one. The shirt is store bought, just added the details in yellow, orange and white felt. Also used some fabric markers to add the embroidery like details. The cowgirl trouser “protective thingies” (seriously I don’t know how those are called hahah) were really quick to make but I bought much more fabric than I needed so I may force someone to have a cute cow costume in the future… hahahaha

The hair was the hardest part for me. I started by making a braid that was supposed to be attached to her own hair, because usually she hates wigs. But then she started saying she wanted a wig so I decided to try Dana’s super cool tutorial (here) which I’ve been wanting to try ever since I first saw it.

The tutorial is easy to follow and I really liked it, however I made de mistake of using the braid I already had, and since the wool was kind of thick my first try ended up a bit messy. To make it worse the inside beanie (made from old tights) was small… That’s what happens when you decide to make it all without trying the beanie first on the person that is going to use it… sigh So starting over was my only option. This time I bought some thinner wool (my husband found the perfect color for it), and a swim cap that I knew would have space for her head and own hair too. ehehehe It worked pretty good and she was so so happy when she saw it! Total Win!

We even added the cord to be pulled like real Jessie has. 😀 Bruno made it from a piece of TV cable. It’s attached with a KAM snap, so she can take it off she wants. 😉

Here’s little sister trying to pull it! 😀

Like looking in the mirror! heheh

The hat was a super lucky find from Flying Tiger, it had some black trimmings that we removed and replaced with white thread all-around.  Worked perfect!

F. originally wanted to dress has Po from Kung Fu Panda, but somehow we managed to change her mind into a store bought costume. She calls it her Super Princess costume and I think it suits her well. 🙂 I have to confess I feel a bit of mommy guilt for not having made the panda costume for her but she seems pretty happy too so I guess I shouldn’t worry that much… there’re still plenty costumes in our future so maybe she gets it next time. 😉

Happy Carnaval! Hugs. ❤

Little Mermaid . Carnaval

In Portugal “we” celebrate Carnaval. The kids get a small school break and usually wear costumes on Friday, the last day of school.

M. always gets super excited to choose her costume, but tends to change her mind a million times so I’m never quite able to prepare things in advance. Well, that added to the fact that I’m the biggest procrastinator ever, always means I’m sewing costumes the day before. Yeah this time I can’t really blame her, ahem, she made her mind more than two weeks ago.

I had shown her Petit à Petit’s mermaid tail many times. I confess I really wanted to make it so I may have brainwashed her a bit in the last couple of years, Bahaha, no seriously, what kid doesn’t want to have a mermaid tail?

Disney’s The Little Mermaid was my first movie obsession. I think I was maybe ten when the movie become available to the video stores in Portugal. Sigh I’m old… Video tapes… What’s that? hahah

My friends and I saw it to exhaustion, we knew (I still do LOL) the lyrics by heart and sang them non stop, Brazilian version was perfect! 🙂 We also knew the funny lines and applied them to our daily lives, Hahha good times people. I still use them to tell the truth, and I make a really accurate impersonation of the seagull singing. hahaha

This is a pretty easy make, the tutorial is really easy to follow and everything comes together quickly. The most time consuming part was getting the shape of the tail right. Particularly because I didn’t have big paper sheets that would have helped trying it out. You should have seen my face when I realized there was no sewing involved in making the top. hahaha I love sewing but when you’re making things in the last minute… You get the picture right? heheh

I can tell you that M. was pretty happy with her costume. She woke me up saying it was 1000% perfect! ❤ She really wanted something similar to what Celina made for the tutorial, red hair and all, but she really dislikes wigs so I made the mistake of allowing hair spray paint. (insert panic emoji here) Yeah you should have seen my house!! lolol

Now I have to make one tail for F. too. 😀

The tutorial is available here, in case you want to keep it for later. You totally should, every kid should have a mermaid tail. ❤

Thanks for stopping by.Hugs. ❤

Young Maleficent costume

Happy halloween!!

Ok, the truth is, here in Portugal we don’t really have a big halloween tradition, the fact that it started being celebrated is mostly due to shops that see it as an opportunity to push consumerism… Nevertheless the kid in me still remembers really well all the magic and fantasy that goes into dressing a costume, so whenever I can, I make them. At Madalena’s school they are allowed to dress up in costumes on the halloween day or the day that precedes it, in cases it happens during the weekend, and she told me a couple of months ago that she wanted to go as young Maleficent (this happened right after she saw the movie but she really stuck to her choice).

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t feeling this costume at all. I didn’t want to make it, period. I tried to make her change her mind, but there was no going back… (I’m pretty sure her choice was mostly about being able to wear red lipstick hehehe) I could have said no but I know she will wear this a million times; both my girls love dressing up and spend lots of time “dressed as something” when they are home. So I just went for it.

The fabric came all from my local fabric shop, four pre-cuts that suited what I was imagining perfectly, and they only cost 10€, score! 😉

I used a Japanese pattern from the book A Sunny Spot (already used it here) has a starting point to make the dress. I have to send a big thank you to Toya who helped me figuring out a faster way to cut the wing “feathers” because I was dreading it. She made an amazing dragon costume by the way.

Yep, I sewed every single one of those feathers… I’m a crazy person, I know… 🙂

The horns were another thing I was dreading, I’m not really crafty, I’m not good with the hot glue gun or with spray painting, and stuff like that. Again I have to thank Toya, but also my friend Cláudia who told me to make it in cardboard or paper. I went with paper and duct tape, covered with special double sided tape, and finally with fabric. Not perfect but good enough. 😀 And she was so happy this morning!

 ❤

I bet she’s spending her recess time flying!! ❤

Little F. also decided she wanted to dress up this morning, so she chose a squirrel (yeah looks like a wolf but whatever) costume I made for M. a few years ago. It was actually the first one I made, and it shows… hehehe But I think she looks adorable. 😉

 

Thank you for stopping by and Happy Halloween! Have Fun!

xoxo