feeling wooly headed!

Hello! How are you feeling today? 

This is how I'm feeling....

 This is a current advert on tv here in the UK. (I'm not endorsing Sudafed here, just sharing the ad!) 

I feel just like that cleverly knitted lady! I marvelled at the ad actually, very clever! 

So yes, I'm feeling ILL again, a big nasty cold, I'm swamped in tissues, sitting here with my cup-a-soup, 

but ...

I thought I's share with you my Hubby's fancy dress costume I made/re-fashioned! 

I would share all of our costumes but my camera ran out of battery on the night and I didn't even get one of myself or step-daughter in our outfits!! so I will have to try it back on when I feel better!!

So if you didn't guess from my hint in my last post my hubby went as 'The Phantom of the Opera' one of his favourite films of all time! 

Please excuse the quality of the photo's as my step-daughter took them!

the trousers and cumber band and shirt are his own, I made the cloak, the cravat, and re-styled the frock coat. 

also, we got a cheap 99p Dracula wig from Tesco, and I took out the stupid white streaks and we shaped it to make sideburns

That cloak was such a challenge! I used black velour fabric, and ivory dress lining, which slipped and puckered all the time!! But as long as no-one looked closely at the seams no-one would know just how bad it is sewn up!! 

the Jacket was a ladies dress! I found it in a charity shop and took out the front panel, took out some darts to take out the womanly shape! I lengthened the sleeves, and edged them in the same material as the cravat.

The cravat was the simplest thing to make, made out out jacquard/ damask patterned dress lining. Not sure what its called!  I sewed on an ornate antique style button I had for a cravat pin. 

Quite a few people thought he was the best dressed there, and he did look so menacing and brooding as he wafted about! but perhaps that was because he had a bad cold too!

here's a photo of us both that My Mum took, but I will add more details about my costume on my next post! 

my boys were the Mario brothers. I made their dungarees and hats...

my eldest son isn't very happy here,because there were 3 other 'Mario's' there too, and heaven forbid, one of them was a 6 year old girl! and also his close friends weren't at the party due to illness, so he didn't know anyone...however after a little pep talk, and within half an hour of this photo he was skidding on his knees across the dance floor with all the other kids there!! and he had an 'awesome' time. 

I couldn't find a pattern for dungarees anywhere online, but I did find a trouser (Pants) tutorial (sorry I can't find it now!) so I followed that by basically, folding trousers they already have, pulling out the crotch bit and drawing round them and using that as a pattern, then I made the rest up as I went along! 

I had to put elastic in the waist at the back to save them from falling down to the ankles if the popper came undone, and I am very glad I did that, as most of the evening they went around with the bib part hanging down!! (the popper wasn't strong enough, should have used velcro in retrospect, didn't make a button hole as the button was too big!and I can't do them!)

Their hats I made with the help of  this tutorial from a very talented lady, AmberLee.

The first one I made was horrendously big, I must have printed out the instructions wrong, but I muddled through and eventually discarded the tutorial template and cut around melamine plates instead! ..but still followed the rest of the instructions ( I think it was a case of being late into the night and not getting my head round non-metric measurements) and  made two perfect fitting hats from fleece

To my sons amazement I even 'got the 'm' right, just like Mario's 'M'' 

(haha! that's because I looked at the proper font online and copied it!) the letters are also cut from fleece and the white circle is felt, I used fabric glue to attach these to each other and the hat. 

Inside the bill I used stiff cardboard from packaging, the tutorial said to use plastic canvas which I didn't have.

It was a really cold evening, so both boys were happy to wear the hat all evening!!

The other 'Mario's' all had shop bought costumes on, I saw these myself when I went shopping for Hubby's mask, and they were expensive and really badly made! worse than mine!!! So I'm glad that I managed to make the boys better costumes, more realistic (the others were all all-in-one suit, like a big romper suits, and with one button at the neck and a slit down the back!) 

I actually had bought twice the amount blue fabric I needed as I mis-calculated, but it was just as well as I'd messed up the cutting out their legs at first, so I had enough to re-cut them, still both costumes cost under £5 each to make (just over $7 to my US readers)

the shop was charging 3 times that for their cheap nylon suits. 

I also got them 99p white gloves too to finish off the outfits along with boots and tops they already had. 

My eldest rubbed his moustache off, as it felt 'stupid' but little one gladly wanted one and gigled the whole time I was putting it on with eyeliner!! 

So there we go. 

I am still making, in my next post I will give more details about my costume, and my step-daughters, and also show other makes I'd done recently. 

Take Care and thanks for reading Xx