Witch Costume etc. (Emphasis on the etc.?)

This post gets a little random (is it only 9:00...hmm...feeling a little loopy for only being 9:00...) but it at least starts out as a logical show-and-tell of Robyn's costume.

Amber and Katie opted for not-so (not-sew?) intensive Halloween costumes this year, so I’ve had to try and squeeze all the fabric-fun I can out of Robyn’s witch outfit.  I’ll probably put up group shots of everyone after the big day, but I had such a good time playing with Robyn’s I thought I’d post about it separately.

We decided to go for a friendly, good-witch, rather than the green-faced, warty, tallon-nailed scary witch of days-gone-by.  (Mom, if you have a picture of me from that Halloween, please send a copy…)  To get that look I actually started with a Red Riding Hood pattern (Simplicity 2571):

I love the top and with a handful of tweaks, coupled with the good fortune of finding orange costume satin for $2/yd in the clearance bin, it wasn’t hard to turn goodie-toting Red into this goodie-stealing little witch:

 

I saw this sparkly spiderweb fabric and thought it would be festive to add a little overskirt.  The hem on the main skirt also finally gave me an excuse to use one of the fancy stitches on the (amazing) old sewing machine from my mother-in-law.

I also made a couple of adjustments to the bodice, including adding some loose gathers to the center panel, changing it to a square neckline, and doing contrast bindings on the sleeve.  There's also a marked lack of lace.  As a declared lover-of-lace when it comes to little girls, I'm not sure what came over me.  But I like how it turned out.

I’m really excited about the whole thing and I think Robyn is too.  At least that’s how I’m interpreting her reluctance to take it off for dinner tonight.  Thankfully she didn’t turn me into a frog when I made her change clothes anyway.

Speaking of spooky happenings around here (not-so-subtle segue into a completely unrelated topic), our neighborhood association newsletter last month had an unsettling notice in it: apparently our decidedly suburban little neighborhood has been having problems with coyotes.  Don’t leave your pets outdoors at night!  Don’t leave food out! Keep an eye on your small children!

Or so they said.

The newsletter for this  month came today, with the following correction, “I guess the coyote some people spotted was really a baby fox.  Does that make you feel any better?”

Yes, I suppose it does.  Thanks for asking.

Still, in the midst of my relief, I’m left wondering how a baby fox was mistaken for a coyote. (???)  I’m also worrying, given that history, what our own little egg-snatching kit might be mistaken for:

I'm thinking about printing a t-shirt for her that says "Not a coyote" for when we play outside.  Just to be safe.

And finally, (one last subject change) for no particular reason here’s a random picture of Amber looking cute even though she’s covered in breakfast.  Doesn’t she have the greatest little face?

 

 Happy October, everyone!