Creatures of the night

Hello again! I'm back from our vacation. As good intentions go... I have managed to sew some, put my feet up some more (after chasing the children around all day, of course!), but have not completely finished the childrens' costumes - the witch needs some elastic and hemming, and the angel needs wings. (I have tried to persuade my son that angels don't necessarily have wings, to no avail, of course.) There is also a deadline; this Thursday will be "Weiberfastnacht" which is one of the high days of German carnival, and the whole kindergarten will be in costume.

But... as I promised I'd be back after my vacation, I didn't want to leave this spot unattended until I finish the costumes, and will give a little retrospective on my son's vampire cape and a preview on the witch. (Gotta love it when a three-year-old goes all dangerous and "witchy"!)

First, the cape (and the ds):

It looks a bit limp here, but it has nice, bat-like spikes all around. I searched high and low for inspiration - what to make (to wear) for a vampire party? For a 5yo? A cape, but with what? All right, try free association... Death? hmmm... Graves? Headstones? Coffins? Maybe not... Blood? Not too much... In the end all that remained was the bat motive, and I hope it doesn't come off as too Batman-like!

I drafted this freehand, as I am wont to do whenever possible - childrens' costumes are a good opportunity for this. It's basically a half circle - or more like a half oval, the measurements derived from ds's spread out arm-span and shoulder-to-knee-length. I used black and red polyester satin, and Vliesofix - an iron-on-interfacing - for applying the bat. I drew the bat freehand as well, and I'm sure not very correctly! I used a fairly long velcro strip on the neck for extra party-fastness, and afterwards discovered this makes the cape truly one-size-fits-all; when I have a dark moment, I can wear it as a capelet, and it fits quite well!

This may well have been my last back project review for a while.

I'm a bit scared - now I'll have to start sewing faster I guess! So here are at least two teaser pictures from the next project - my material collection and inspiration drawings for the witch costume.

Live pictures to follow! Happy sewing!