Tangled Halloween Costumes

So every year I make my Halloween costumes in July (and I may or may not have written the majority of this in July). Don't judge me. This year I felt like July kinda snuck up on me. I was so behind! I didn't even know what I was going to make yet! I researched for a few weeks and just couldn't decide. I thought I had settled on Star Wars characters. I'm more of a Star Trek person myself (KHAAAAAANNNNNNNNN) but my husband LOVES Star Wars. There's a new movie coming out this year and I can't tell you how many times I've seen the multiple trailers (didn't really have a choice) and heard it blaring from the computer in Matt's office. He is pumped. He is actually going to an all-day Star Wars movie marathon at the Paradiso the day it comes out. They'll watch every movie and end with the new one. Did I mention it's 900 minutes of film so they have to start it at 4 AM? FOUR IN THE MORNING! CRAZY HE IS!!

Anyways, so I did a lot of research on Star Wars costumes and then it occurred to me:  Do I really want my sweet, precious little girl's first Halloween costume to be Wookie in nature? Yoda doesn't wear bows. Jabba the Hutt? She's not THAT chubby. I just couldn't.

 I wanted something cute and happy and not from space. My all time favorite movie is Tangled (the Disney movie about Rapunzel) and Presley and I have already watched it together 5 times in the 6 months she's been in this world (Note: she's now almost 10 months old, we've watched it more like 12 times and it's currently playing as I write. OBSESSED). So duh it's going to be her favorite movie too. She has no choice. I did more research and was completely inspired. AND AT LAST I'D SEEN THE LIGHT! The fog most definitely had lifted. WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS SOONER?

I was going to be Rapunzel, Matt was going to be Flynn Rider/Eugene Fitzherbert and Presley obviously had to be Pascal. But a cute girly version since technically he's a boy. These costumes weren't hard to make at all and were pretty inexpensive! About $40 for all 3 (granted I had a lot of the supplies on hand).

Here's my sketch. Not all of it happened exactly how I drew it out but here was my original thought process. I got pretty close.

I've mentioned before that Matt and I are Jr High leaders at our church. Every year we go on the Fall Retreat to Lake Forest Ranch in the thriving metropolis of Macon, Mississippi. It's usually around Halloween so we have a costume party and that's when I like to bring out my 'stumes for the first time. Then we go to my in-laws on Oct 31. This year the retreat was ON Halloween and we have a baby. I couldn't be away from her on her first Halloween (and I also am still breastfeeding making it hard to be separated from her) so we took her with us. She was the youngest leader to ever go on that trip since she helped me lead my small groups. Presley and I had our own special room so we didn't disturb the other people and I had privacy to nurse and take care of her. My 8th grade girls LOVE her so they were so happy to spend the weekend with her. She, of course, loves them as well because she gets all the attention. They loved our costumes!. I was amazed at how well Presley pulled off the whole chameleon look. Granted the costume party wasn't until 9:30 PM and the music was loud and Presley got really stressed out and was tired so we lasted a good 10 minutes. Worth it.

So without further ado... 

Rapunzel

Supplies:

Purple base dress (thrift store if you don't own already)

White 3/4 sleeve shirt

Solid light pink fabric (1/4 yard)

Gold ribbon

Purple decorative ribbon

Lace trim for neck (maybe a yard)

Small lace trim for sleeves (2/3 yard)

Satin ribbon in pink or purple

Pink ribbon

5 yards each of pink and purple tulle
Frying pan (optional)

I started with the most intimidating costume first. At least to me it was. I didn't know where to start. I thought about it and made some sketches and decided I needed a base dress to begin with. I didn't want to start completely from scratch. I didn't trust myself. I'm still learning and pretty basic. I found a purple dress in my closet but I like it and wear it often and didn't want to ruin it. Then I remembered! When I was a Freshman in high school I bought this soft purple dress from Forever 21 in Nashville. I wore it all the time then, but as I got older it turned into pjs. It's so comfy and soft and out of style so why not? Well it was the perfect starting piece to work around and it was okay to glue stuff to. Is it exact? No. Do people get the point if they've seen the movie when they see my costume? Sure! It's more of a whimsical portrayal of the real thing but I like it. It was kinda like Rapunzel meets Fairy Godmother.

I started by cutting out the pink rectangle for the center piece. I actually doubled it and sewed it together because it's thin and a little see-thru, but you don't have to do this. I just found it looked better doubled. Then I got my gold ribbon and criss-crossed it while hot gluing it in place. I added a little gold bow in the upper center. When I was done with that I hot glued the purple decorative ribbon down the side to cover up the edge. Then I hot glued the big lace trim around the neck for a more feminine touch.

Next I did the sleeves. I had some batting scraps on hand from a t-shirt quilt I made a few years ago that were perfect. I cut and glued them together like this.

Then I stuffed them in the sleeve and hot glued them in place. I cut strips of the pink fabric and hot glued them on as well (only glued at the top and bottom).  Make sure they're evenly spaced and the same as the opposite sleeve. I added pink satin ribbon bows to the center of the sleeve bottoms as well. 

The skirt took forever but was totally worth it. I cut long strips of tulle and slip knotted them onto a long piece of the thicker satin ribbon. I didn't like the look of how the tulle looked knotted at the top when I was done so I glued this pink ruffle ribbon around the top to hide it and then hot glued it to its place on the dress as well. I only glued it in place in the front, not in the back. Here's the tutorial I used for the skirt that was really helpful (especially when cutting all of the strips):

http://ashleylivingeasy.blogspot.com/2012/12/tulle-skirt.html

Super easy just a bit time consuming.

Lastly, I had a ratty looking 3/4 sleeve white t-shirt in my closet that I don't really wear anymore (well, because it's ratty). So I donated it to my own cause and used the little lace trim to sew around the ends of the sleeves. Is this necessary? No. I just liked the extra touch.

And that was that! Not so bad!

Flynn

Supplies:

Blue denimy button down (thrift store for a few bucks)

Longsleeved white t-shirt ($5 at Hobby Lobby)

Thick brown belt

Khakis

Boot covers (Ebay) or actual boots

Brown Satchel (optional)

This one was so easy! I cut the sleeves off of the blue shirt to give it a capsleeve. That's it with that. I cut out a large "V" from the white t-shirt and rolled up the sleeves. Put the belt around the the top of the blue shirt and you're finished from the waist up. 

I found these pirate boot covers on Ebay for $10 because they were used and the elastic around the bottom of one of them was broken. They're in perfect condition otherwise and a super easy fix with my machine. You wear them on top of black shoes so it gives the illusion that you're wearing boots without the price tag (unless you have man boots on hand which I don't). I would've gotten brown ones but they were way more expensive because they would've had to have been bought new and I'm cheap. I didn't like the laces on them because they looked too, well, piratey. Flynn wasn't a pirate. So I removed the laces, sewed up the front of the cuffs and sharpied the silver holes so they were less noticeable. I was going to spray paint them brown but Matt didn't have matching shoes which was a problem. If it really bothers you you could buy cheap dress shoes and spray paint the boot covers and the shoes so they'd match. I don't think anyone noticed they were the wrong color though.

Here's what they looked like originally:

Pascal

Supplies:

Green onesie (Target.com)

Lime green fleece fabric (1.5 yard)

Tulle in 2-3 different shades of green (about 5ish total yards)

Green Ribbon

Big white pom pom balls

Felt in 2-3 different shades of green

Big brown matching buttons and 2 small black ones

Pink bow (optional)

Long piece of thick wire or wire hanger

Stuffing
White tights (optional)

I love this little costume and how it turned out. I started with the green onesie. The cheapest one I found (and with long sleeves for October) was on Target.com (not sold in stores). It's made of organic cotton. Fancy. I cut out an oval of the fleece and hot glued it on the front to tie it in to the hat. I sewed the same little lace trim around the sleeves just like I did my white shirt. Not necessary but I loved the girlyness of it. Is that a word? Then I cut out little triangles of the different green felts and hot glued them down the back. Easy as that.

Next I made the tail. I just cut out a long piece of green fleece (that I had leftover from my pregnant belly Mike Wazowski costume from last Halloween) and gradually gave it a point at the end. I actually traced and cut this out while it was folded in half long ways so it'd be even all the way around. I sewed it up and turned it right-side out. I filled it with a little bit of stuffing (using a wooden dowel to help me get it all the way to the bottom) then stuffed up a long piece of thick wire. This helped me to make it curl well. I hot glued the curl in place then glued a few more felt scales to the top. I folded the ends of the fabric over and hot glued them. I didn't attach this until she was going to wear it. It made putting it on her much easier. I just used a few safety pins.

Then I made the hat which was surprisingly really simple. I used this tutorial that walked me through everything and even had free patterns you can print off:

http://www.fleecefun.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Shannon-Fabrics-Baby-Chin-Strap-Hat-web.pdf

After I made the hat using the pattern and instructions above I added pom poms for the eyes. Then I glued the buttons in place and gave them eyelids out of fleece scraps. I glued on the bow last.

Last but not least, the green tutu that's most definitely my favorite part and so easy to make. Still takes a while to do but way less time consuming than the adult one. Much smaller and the pieces of tulle are way shorter. I used this tutorial:

http://treasuresfortots.blogspot.com/2009/10/cut-tulle-for-tutu-using-quick-and-easy.html

Easy peasy. I put it on Presley right after I finished making it and she loved it so much she started eating the tulle. BUT LOOK HOW CUTE SHE IS OMG!! (PS she was 6 months here and she was so bald and chubby OH MY GOODNESS she's grown so much ALL THE FEELS)

And here is the final product! I'm so mad I didn't get better pictures that night of the whole fam and Matt's whole costume (showing his boots) with the fancy camera. I did take some good pics of Presley after we got home.  As for the rest, Iphone pics will have to do.

HOW IS SHE SO CUTE I DON'T EVEN KNOW!

So there you have it!! I hope you enjoyed. As always, can't wait until Halloween next year!!