So midterms are done (yay finally)! I have been working on some sewing while I relaxed on my reading week. This past Sunday was supposed to be the Halloween horse show at my barn, but because of the horrible rainy weather lately they postponed it until after Hurricane Sandy passes. For my costume, I decided to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Donatello to be exact. And for my sisters costume, well lets just say she wanted to be a horse... Keeping in mind she would have to be able ride a horse in this costume - so she would be a horse on a horse! What a silly child, I love her dearly. So anyways, for this I will show you my steps in creating the horse costume. (Since she decided to be this for Halloween as well I had to put mine on the back burner and finish hers.) This will most likely be my entry to the Halloween contest as well :)
Maggie (my little sister) wanted to be a chestnut horse with a black mane and white markings. So off we went to our local thrift store to take a look around. I found a warm fluffy orange hoodie, with minimal writing/designs on it, that we would use for the body. I found the cheapest white t-shirt to use for the white sleeves or 'stockings'. I decided to use yarn for the mane and tale, the package we found had orange, black and white yarn all in one bag, so overall it was a good deal.
I made Mags where the hoodie and I marked off where the mane, tail and markings would be. Plus where I would put the ears. I only had to cut the sweatshirt three times: once down the hood and past the neck for the mane and I cut off fabric from each sleeve to use for the ears.
For the mane I was following multiple tutorials. I took my yarn and I just wrapped it around a piece of cardboard until I was happy with the thickness. Word of wisdom which the first tutorial forgot to mention; don't wrap the yarn that tight around the cardboard because when you cut it free it will get shorter and 'spring' back up. I guess its common sense, but they shouldn't assume everyone has it! :P
After cutting all the thread free I realized I would most likely need my sewing machine to secure all the yarn together. Of course my sewing machine was at my parents so I figured a way around it. I cut a line out of the white t-shirt that was the length of the 'mane' and I carefully placed all the yarn on top of it (as shown below). I then sewed the mane together in sections - however this wasn't the best approach and I really should of got my sewing machine. But I was making do with what I had, so I just went over it many times sewing different chunks together until it somewhat was secure.
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| Close up of underside of mane. |
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| First run through of securing the yarn complete. |
After I finished the mane, I placed it in the cut section of the hood (it goes straight down the middle to about the back of the neck). Pictured below is the hood getting pinned up (with the mane on the inside) so I can sew it shut! The white t-shirt that I sewed the yarn into became handy during this step because I was able to use it to sew the mane in place. I had extra 'mane' so I cut it off and it because the tail. I just sewed the tail onto the orange fabric where I wanted it to go; nothing special there.
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| The wee little tail :) All pinned in place and ready to sew. |
Now that the horsie costume had a mane and tail, all it was missing was the ears (and 'stockings'). For the ears, I cut a section off each sleeve, then cut even squares from each. I folded one corner up to the middle of the square and bent it into an ear shape and sewed it together. Once I had both ears I pinned them in place and finally sewed them. For the 'stockings' I cut the white t-shirt and wrapped them around the arms. I sewed each in place.
After that it was just a matter of finishing touches; since she wanted to wear it for Halloween, I had to rip the logo that was stitched into the hoodie. This took about a full day or so to get done, but it was worth it.
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| Evil cat intermission.... |
And might I say she was one happy camper. For the horse show she will just wear her riding breeches most likely but for Halloween I think Mum and her were going to try and get pants of the same colour and some white leg warmers. Yup Halloween may commence.
Happy Halloween, stay safe and warm! :)
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