Wizard of Oz in the Making

Every year for Halloween I have a hard time coming up with a new Family Theme for our costumes. This year I came up with the idea to do the Wizard of Oz. I originally started looking at buying all of the costumes, but was feeling like that would cost too much. So after talking to a client who sews a lot she got me excited about the idea of sewing a Dorothy costume. I went to Joanne's and bought everything I needed and was shocked at how much the total came to. I learned quickly that making your own costume isn't always cheaper.

After having a fire lit under my butt about this I started to wonder what have I gotten myself into? Never before had a purchased pattern and fabric to create something. I almost took everything back, but then there was something that I wanted to prove to myself. So I started on the sewing project. There was a definite learning curve, but a lot of the sewing lessons I took from my Grandma Goodrich when I was young, were all coming back to me.  Decrypting the pattern instructions were quite the challenge. There were a few times that Jesse and I were talking it through until we figured it out.

Over the course of the next few weeks, several late nights and many hours at the sewing machine I finished the Dorothy Costume. It wasn't perfect but for my first time sewing something I am very proud.

The zipper ended up being a little bit crooked. But that's it. So I'll take it. It's just a Halloween costume right?

Now that that was out of the way I could then start on the Tin Man costume. I looked online for some ideas and I just wasn't liking anything that I was finding. I really wanted something that would hold it's shape but still be flexible. It wasn't until I went back to Joanne's and talked to one of the workers there that she gave me the idea of this Foam Interfacing. It is sewable. So that's what I went with and I was finally feeling inspired and knew how to put it together. Even though I was flying by the seat of my pants on this everything I was doing, it was coming together quite nicely.

After the first day of working on it I made this much progress.... 

Ryker was so excited as he stood in as my mannequin that he couldn't sit still.

Once I got it all together I spray painted it Silver.

I didn't get any progress pictures of Cy's scarecrow costume. But his was really simple. Afer purchasing a green men's sweater and brown girl pants from the DI, I cut, sewed and glued the sweater into a jacket. Glued raffia around to look like straw.

I'm borrowing the Lion costume and got everything for The Wizard at the DI as well. So thankfully I only need to work on 3 costumes instead of all 5. Makes things more doable.