Monday, October 10, 2011

Simplicty 2569 - Toddler's Witch Costume

I love Halloween and now that I have kids it is more fun than ever.  This year my boys have decided to be Jedi.  Specifically, they will be Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi.  Most of the components for their costumes were purchased online or pulled out of our toy boxes and dresser drawers. 
But for my daughter I decided to go all out and make her a witch costume since this is probably the last year that I'll be able to pick her costume with little or no input from her.
My favorite movie of all time is The Wizard of Oz so when I think "witch" I think Wicked Witch of the West.  I wanted my daughter's costume to have lots of the same elements that Margaret Hamilton wore in the MGM film.


Most important to me were the fitted bodice with long sleeves and puffed shoulders, plus a long swirling, gloomy skirt.  As I was looking for a pattern, Simplicity 4024 caught my eye because it is a Wizard of Oz pattern, even though no Wicked Witch is pictured. 


The line drawing for Glinda's costume (view B) actually looks like it would make a pretty good witch costume.  It has most of the elements for my witch's dress - fitted bodice, long sleeves with a puff shoulder and a long skirt.


Rendered in gloomy fabric instead of pink frothy fabric I think it could work for a witch.  However, that neck line was not at all what I wanted.  My witch will be much too wicked for a v-neck line.  I was looking for something prim but spooky - like the fabulous Miss Wednesday Addams would wear...



She is so scary!  I love her.  Ok, back to the pattern selection...

I finally found this one, Simplicity 2569.  If you look past the pastel tulle used in most of the views and all of the frilly Tinkerbell-esque peplums you can see that this dress pattern meets my requirements pretty well.  Puff sleeve option?  Check.  Long skirt?  Check.  Fitted bodice upon which I can work my prim, yet creepy embelishments?  Check. 

Yesterday I dragged my 3 year old son through Joann's to purchase the pattern (thank you Columbus Day $.99 pattern sale) and all the fabrics.  I avoided the costum satins and went with a nice black satin from the bridal fabrics line (used a 50% off coupon for that).  I found a bolt of crushed organza in orange on the red-tag clearance shelf (50% of the clearance price!).  I also picked up a couple of yards of black tulle with spiders and sparkly webs on it (60% right now at my Joann's).  For trim I purchased black velvet ribbon.  I will be making the size 1 for my daughter.  Can't wait to start putting this dress together.  Anyone else making Halloween costumes right now? 

4 comments:

  1. That pattern is nice, I also want to see the dress finished. I will start next week sewing a costume, my daughter will be a pirate, to be specific, she will be Elizabeth from the Cariben Pirates film.

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  2. I am making this same pattern for my daughter this year! We are using view C in various shades of pink. She's 2 1/2 and in full blown princess mode. This has been the most advanced sewing project I have taken on so far, but I am almost done (just have the zipper and some final details to add). Good luck!

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  3. Lizzy - I love little girl's pirate costumes! So fun. I will definelty post pictures of my finsihed witch dress - maybe even some in-progress shots.

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  4. Janet - I'm so excited to run into someone who is making the same pattern right now! Have you read the reviews for it over at patternreview? They should come up if you go here: http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/topsearch.pl
    Will you post a picture of your finished dress someplace once it is done? I would love to see it - the tiered skirt in View C is very pretty.
    - Liz

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