dana's test blog: Halloween 2014: Lala Lucy and Lil Squirt

I know.
Halloween is so two weeks ago.
BUT....I must share the girls costumes with you! Because they're so much fun!
And if by chance you have a LalaLoopsy loving girl at your house, you can tuck this post away till Halloween rolls around again.

Okay.
Here's part 2 of our Halloween.
Unlike Owen, Lucy knew what she wanted to be months ago....in fact, she told me in the summer that she and her friends were going to dress as Lalaloopsies.

They just love these little dolls.
They can't get enough of them! I keep a small bag of them in my purse and it keeps the kids occupied when we go out to eat---even Owen. He likes to be Patch.
For her birthday, we got Lucy the collectors book and she looked at that thing for a month straight (now we've been giving copies to friends on their birthday!)

One thing I love about these little dolls is their story---it's all about sewing and having your own unique personality. Lalaloopsies are rag dolls that came to life when their last stitch was sewn. And their outfits are repurposed from other items. Fantastic!

Of course picking WHICH doll to be isn't easy....there are so many cute ones.
But Lucy decided on Peanut---Peanut Big Top.
According to the collector's guide (heh heh), Peanut has a special talent for making people laugh, and she's never afraid to show her silly side. And her costume is made from an old clown costume.
I love it!

When it came to sewing Lucy's costume, Lucy had the whole thing figured out....
Mom you can just make me one of those circle skirts, and a little polka dot shirt like those jammies you made me, and then some tights!
Great plan Luce! Great plan.
And so the week before Halloween, it all came together!

And she totally loved it...which is always the best reward for your labors.
Happy, excited kids.

Here's what we did....

I made a triple-layer circle skirt using 100% quilter's cotton. I wanted it to be a little stiffer---so the layers would stand out without needing a petticoat underneath---and the fabric worked great. You could also make Peanut's skirt from tulle (if you look online, there are various versions of her outfit and various ways you could make it)

For the shirt I used the First Day Dress pattern, adding some ruffled flutter sleeves and a lacy placket to the front. I love it when I have patterns all ready to go for this stuff!

And I really love how the shirt and skirt turned out. She might actually wear these again as normal clothes. And.... I kinda want that shirt for myself!

Now the key to really looking like a Lalaloopsy is the yarn wig....which I'm going to have share more about in a separate tutorial. It's not hard to make, but they are some tips that will help. To get you started: it's a knit beanie hat underneath, with yarn sewn into a part on top. It's not perfect and every once in a while you could see her bits of her beanie. But overall it worked great!

Then we threw it all together with some pink shoes, red laces, a pair of tights (I purchased these) with a heart on the right knee (we just taped a felt heart on because sewing it in place was too complicated. Ding!)

And we added a pair of fingerless gloves.
I just cut two rectangles of fabric, folded the tops and bottom under and sewed them in a tube. Then I cut a small hole for the thumb. No hemming or finishing. And she actually lost this pair when she wore the outfit to dance class, so I whipped up another pair in red fabric and liked those even better.

And there you go! Just as she had planned.

And then of course,
there's this girl.

YES! We finally dressed Clara in a real costume!

Cause did you know that Peanut has a little sister???
She's Squirt Lil' Top! Too perfect.

And she wears this darling romper, also made from an old clown costume (according to legend). So I came up with a make-shift romper using the KID shorts pattern and the circle skirt tutorial for the collar, and it worked out pretty well.
I made yarn pom-poms using my tutorial here, then measured felt circles the size of the poms and sewed them to the romper first, and then hot glued the pom-poms to the felt.