Regular clothes are the best costumes.

Meet Sans from Undertale and DC's Catwoman. Yes, those are a hoodie, shirt and leggings made from cotton interlock. Yes, i did think about their costumes ahead of time, and so did they.
A catsuit? Totally makeable but not not very comfortable to spend a whole day at school in.
Big hard helmet-type mask? Again, makeable but not practical either. So instead, regular, can-wear-them-all-the-time clothes with just a bit of detail, and some iconic accessories.
A zip-up hoodie with pockets and fuzzy edging (it's the same stuff from Abomasnow two Halloweens ago), is by far the most recognizable thing about Sans' getup. I realize now that it could be longer -- must get longer zipper and replace it for another two or three years' wear!
The hat/mask is a tube of white cotton knit, closed at the top. I had him put it on to mark the placement of eyes and nose. Very thin nylon/cotton knit patches were basted in place, then i cut out the holes with tiny snips before hand-stitching around the edges -- voila, a comfortable, lightweight mask that he can breathe and see out of (in good light!) That's him putting on the rest of the details (Sans' smile especially) with a permanent marker.
She gets a mock-neck t-shirt with some cats'-eye gems, and some leggings, in French terry. Cat ears, made from paper hot-glued to a headband, are all she needs. She decided she needed a glittery lariat.

Another trip 'round the bend...!

aka ballet performance sewing time again!
This year it was Journey to Neverland, an original Peter Pan ballet basically, not the famous one. I was supposed to make costumes for Peter, Hook, Tink,the three London girls, seven Indians (Tigerlily and six ensemble) and fifteen pirates.

Nightgowns, based on a vintage pattern found on Pinterest... Charmeuse and lace, fully lined in polyester habutai; three colors of the same fabrics.

Vests and skirts for Indians and Tigerlily in fawn suedecloth. Circle skirts for the ensemble, fringed tutu (and lots more jewels) for Tigerlily. Simplified version of an old vest pattern.

Tinkerbell, in lime green suedecloth. Side zip, sequin lace appliques. Actually the beauty of suedecloth is that you can use hot glue! I drafted this one myself, with a one-shoulder bodice and short circle skirt.

Pirates -- red/gold metallic brocade vests, baggy below-the-knee pants in charmeuse... simplified versions of  a Burda pattern I already had (and used several years ago for silver rapper pants!)

As things happen, they decided to order Hook and Peter's costumes instead so now I have to think of a use for red brocade and green suedecloth... I was sad but realized that it was a good thing! I would have overthought them and stressed myself out. But it was fun to imagine and plan.

Ironic that I never work on my own dd's costume except for some appliques last year... but have some pretty pix anyway!

The pirate outfits modelled... if you can call it that.

And here they are, worn! Tigerlily, Joan, Tinkerbell,Wendy, Michelle... and Maria and Franny.

Aaaand another year done! Wonder what they'll do next time....

Villains, but huggy. Or, costumes 2015!

Quite proud of this year's efforts... P just wanted a long black cloak with a hood -- Grim Reaper, Palpatine/other random Sith, or Voldemort. Easily achieved -- harking back to his original Jedi robes from long ago, it's a long selvage-to-selvage rectangle with slashes on the sides for sleeves, which were half the width of the body. I sloped both shoulder and cuff lines slightly. The hood is nice and deep and it has a snap at the throat so he can wear it as a cape too. It's exactly what he wanted, with lots of growing room.

With less than two weeks to go, K changed her mind from Scarlet Overkill (i was excited for that rocket dress!)

to Evie, daughter of Snow White's Evil Queen stepmother, from the Descendants TV movie...

and its animated follow-up, Wicked World.

and of course I agreed because of that very swooshy jacket. Kara Saun, the movie's costume designer/wardrobe mistress, put together the most interesting shapes and textures...

looking at these sketches I thought it was more like a cape, but looking at how it moves in the movie (and probably taking into consideration changes made during production), it's really more like a moto jacket with bell sleeves. So mine is a tribute to, or inspired by, Ms. Saun's distressed leather multi-layered creation.  

I went with costume satin -- a dark royal blue rather than the navy/denim shade of the leather, and remnants of red for the lining. I used a basic raglan draft and a combination of slash-and-spread and plain swinging-out lines to get the right shape for the sleeves. (I wanted a fluid look, not the boxiness I sometimes get with set-in sleeves... )

I constructed the lined sleeves first, then sewed them to the body... I dithered about lining the whole thing, but I'm glad I did because it made it that much warmer, and prevented the back applique from irritating or snagging. Rather than the sculpted/princess seams of the leather source garment, I sewed the front and back as straight pieces then pin-fit deep bodice darts. 

Franny helped with the hand-painting of the sleeves and wide stand-up collar -- we used Speedball waterbased screenprinting paint and regular flat and stiff round brushes. This is heat-set and washable!

I'm rather proud of the way the 24" brass zipper looks -- I used it as a non-functional edging for the open collar instead of trimming at the top. F has historical difficulty with jacket zippers, so i made sure this one stuck out from the bottom enough. Added a few brass studs to the front -- it's tiring doing those one-by-one, so I stopped at 6 per side... 

jacket front: metal studs, 24" brass jacket zipper used as both closure and "piping"/finishing for the neckline. 

The iconic cracked crown on the back is an applique of gold-on-black allover sequinned fabric, outlined with gold dimensional fabric paint then glitter.

Back applique and velcroed belt.

The other components: a dark blue mock turtleneck with finger-loop sleeves (that I made into a
 leotard just because!), tights hand-painted to look wrecked, and a circle skirt with an elastic waist. I couldn't find any red/blue/black/white print, so I color-blocked a dark blue batik and a Robert Kaufman vortex/starry sky print. I then had some fun embroidering touches of red...

the rest of the outfit

crown-heart pendant made from polymer clay

blue yarn braided into her hair

Pirates we will be!

So, political and social commentary aside, pirate costumes are fun. The kids' spring music show had a pirate premise, and I asked them what they wanted to wear -- they both drew long coats... Coats befitting an admiral, or a captain, if you will, based on o+S School Days coat pattern. P's is a size 8 in royal blue poplin (flying monkey leftovers) with extra length and satin cuffs/placket added. K's should have been a size 5 or 6, but I was reaching and made a 7 out of gold and burgundy brocade with broadcloth accents... with a bit of flare in the front seam. I ended up taking big darts front and back to make it more tailored (and look less like a starlet's boudoir robe...) 

I determined that I would make them two items each. Seinfeld-esque puffy white pirate shirts will be left to cooler times (maybe Halloween?), can you imagine all that extra fabric on their chests? K's pants are Puppet Show shorts lengthened to below the knee, with elastic in the hems instead of bias binding. Her belt is a surprise star player from the Jedi/princess days, an oval with long ties made from stretchy pleather.

The hat is the top of the Bucket Hat, with a larger oval for the brim. I layered interfacing so that there would be a double thickness at the points of the tricorn, and toilet tissue rolls support the upturns. If I make another I'll make a fabric/interfacing sandwich; it just didn't seem worth the trouble for one day.

(Apparently when they got to school, face paint and an eye-patch happened to P, and K could no longer stomach the uncoordinatedness of her orange headscarf.)

Fabric from Vogue Fabrics/http://www.fabricwholesaledirect.com, fleece from Fabric.com, buttons and paisley trim from Daytona Trimming.

Flying monkey jackets!!

For this year's full-length ballet, the dance company did The Wizard of Oz, and they asked if I could make jackets for the flying monkeys. Of course the answer was yes! At first I was searching for costumes or bellhop uniforms, but those were either too heavy, too expensive or needed to be altered to be practical to dance in.
So from scratch it is! They needed 21 costumes for various-sized girls. This is what I used to go off of: 

And this is what I made: 

plus hats, of course. 

I chose poplin for the fabric; unfortunately I couldn't get it in the grey-blue that would match, but royal blue looks pretty good I think. I found this in the NYC Garment District, at A&H. 

The raglan-sleeve jacket pattern was tricky... I had a hard time finding a pattern for tween/teen sizes that would work. Eventually I combined the Field Trip and Nature Walk patterns from Oliver + S to make a raglan-sleeved cropped jacket. The size 12 worked well enough for the 27 inch chest, but for the other sizes I graded the pattern pieces. I left the collar off because they were smearing makeup as they turned. For wings, craft foam worked well -- I drew 3 pairs onto each 12x18" sheet and cut them out.

For the red and white design, at first I thought I could just stencil it onto the poplin before constructing the jackets. I made some stencils from plastic, cut with an x-acto knife, and tried it.

Straight-on fabric paint (actually screenprinting ink from dickblick) didn't work because the blue showed through. I realized that i needed a white background to paint the red onto, then still applique that onto the blue main fabric. I found 60" poly-cotton broadcloth in white from Fabric Wholesale Direct (a great online store, I wish I'd found them before hauling 15 yards of heavy poplin on the train!) Back to the art store I went as well, to get a silkscreen and a consultation... the trial also showed me that I needed to mix two reds to get the color I wanted.

After measuring my stencils, I figured out that if cut into 14" widths, the 60" broadcloth could lay over my kitchen counter and fit 7 of the back design at a time.

After screenprinting the design on, I had nowhere else to let them dry so I hung the pieces on the wall; I didn't want red splotched walls so I taped them straddling corners.

I then ironed them to heat-set. I did the same for the sleeves and the hats.

For the front pieces, I decided to make a stencil that could do two at a time and just flip it for half of them... after I'd made quite a few ;D! I figured out an alternative way to heat-set is with a low oven for 10 minutes -- just watch the time or they melt :(
After the fabric strips were heat-set, I cut out the pieces with a generous white border. 

Pinning, pinning, lots of pinning. 

Using the edge of the presser foot as a guide, I stitched the appliques on with a wide satin stitch and black thread.

Then the jackets could be put together, with the wings sandwiched into the back seams.

Then just hems and they're done! Hats are the 9-12 month Bucket Hat (from Little Things to Sew, and from the o+S website, under free patterns) without the brim. 4" rolls of interfacing and grippy clips from toptrimming... (they don't have them on the website, but do in the store)! 

and here they are in action. 

whoohoo! one of my biggest sewing undertakings yet. And that was just the jackets. There was also 40 red poppy dresses that took 4-5 appliques each,

skirts for the Scarecrow, Tin (wo)man, and Lion, 

 14 Emerald City tutus with 6 appliques each,

and trims for Glinda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch. 

A good time was had by all... they even gave me a thank-you card and a show circle shoutout. Happy girl, looks like they have me roped in for the next 10 years!