Spirited Halloween Clothes!

Halloween is upon us!  And while we are saving our costumes for the actual day, there's no reason we can't show the world we're ready for Halloween with our regular clothes, right?  

Pumpkin carving with the buddies requires themed clothing, IMO.

First up, I made these baby legwarmers out of a pair of Halloween knee socks (LOVE post-season clearance for this type of thing!).  Same process I used in this post, if you're curious.

Then I thought that Little Sister would definitely need a black skirt to wear over the top of these.  In the olden days (like, a year ago) this would have meant that I would go find a black skirt to buy for her.  But not anymore!

I pulled this thing (skirt?  strapless dress?  we'll never know) out of a free box in our neighborhood this summer.  I know I've mentioned these boxes before--they are particularly prolific in these parts.  And while my husband is slightly concerned about using these items, well, free is a very good price.  Anyway, when I first found this I was thinking I might actually wear it as-is (as a skirt), but summer came and went and while I pulled it on a few times, it never really did it for me.  So to the repurposing box it went!

The top is shirred with elastic thread.

Since a few of the rows of elastic were stretched out in the top, I just cut them off--the jersey fabric won't fray, but you could serge the top if you wanted to I guess.  This left me a nice sized waistband.  I decided to use one existing side seam and cut the rest to the width and length I wanted.  You can always line up an existing piece of clothing to figure out where to cut, or even measure your child if you want to go crazy.  In this case I just eyeballed it.  Those elastic gathers are super-stretchy, so I knew it would work.

Existing side seam intact (shown running down the middle)

Then I pinned the opposite side together and sewed straight down the edge, leaving about a quarter inch seam allowance.  Then I zig-zagged it for some more stability.  It might be easier to zig-zag if you leave a wider seam allowance then trim it off afterwards.

regular seam next to the zig-zag down the edge

Before I hemmed it, I lined it up and trimmed off any odd parts, since I wasn't terribly precise when cutting it out.

Then I pinned a small rolled hem, and stitched it down.  In hindsight, I think I should have done a wider hem and a double-seam.  Because this fabric was so thin, the rolled hem wants to flip.  Oh well.

The finished product!  So easy.  Would have been even faster if I hadn't stopped to take all these pictures :)

The finished ensemble, complete with the "I'm so cute it's scary" tee picked up post-season last year.

Oh look, my little pumpkin.  Wait, what's that on my finger?  Wah, there's paint on my finger!

Well, but I couldn't find any cute boys' Halloween shirts half-off last year, so at the last minute I decided to make one.  This black shirt with white long sleeves had been in my "to-applique" box for a while, and I thought it might finally be the right size for The Boy (wrong, it's still too big, but oh well, it will last him several Halloweens!)

I thought cute little ghosties would be fun, so I cut them out of a free onesie we got from the library.

I cut holes out for eyes and mouth, so the black of the shirt showed through.  Then I zig-zag stitched the outlines, and did a straight stitch around the mouths and eyes.

This guy was my favorite.

Here it is in action:

Very scary.

I was happy to have festive children for the occasion.  And everything except Little Sister's t-shirt should fit again next year!

The crowd for pumpkin carving