Halloween and Holiday Sewing

Glancing back at my sewing since I last posted, I have not actually done a lot of projects compared what I normally do. I think the biggest reason is that I teach an early morning scripture study class to the high schoolers at church, and I am always tired. But I did manage to make some fun Halloween costumes, pretty Christmas dresses, and a few other things. Plus I made stockings for my seasonal stocking business.

For my oldest, I made several costume pieces. She wanted to be a steampunk faun (where this came from, I don’t know), and I bought several parts to her costume and made others. I used a woven pants pattern to make her some furry capri length pants. I also made the corset. This was my first corset pattern, and I ended up changing the pattern I bought a fair amount, but it worked perfectly and fit great, and she was ecstatic.

My son just wanted to be a turtle again, so once again he used the turtle shell I made four Halloweens ago. It’s been used a turtle shell, Squirtle shell, and Bulbasaur bulb. Very versatile!

My next daughter wanted to be Mal from Descendants, and I wasn’t thrilled with the quality of the costumes I was willing to pay for. So I spent about that same amount on fabric and made her a jacket and pants from patterns I already had. She looked adorable and still wears the jacket just for fun.

For my youngest, I made a knight jacket. I’ve wanted to make this pattern for awhile, so when he said he wanted to be a knight, I jumped on that. He did change his mind back and forth between his firefighter costume from last year and the knight costume, but he wear the jacket all the time now that Halloween is over, so it’s been a good make. I also made a shield.

Then I hit stocking season. As I had discontinued one of my popular styles due to supply issues, I didn’t have as busy of a season. However, then I got an order for 100 stockings. That was a huge endeavor! My biggest order ever of anything. However, my large order of 60 purses a few years ago was a real help for this. I finished the order in about ten days and sent it off in the mail to Canada.

Over Black Friday, I bought some fabric on sale. I gave into temptation and bought a floral fabric I’ve been looking at for awhile. I ended up using it for Christmas dresses for my daughters. Since I had just happened to buy some other fabrics that matched them perfectly, I used those for the skirts. Then I ended up making myself a coordinating dress with the leftover fabric. I hacked a button bottom on the skirt and didn’t end up getting a great photo of myself with the finished version. I also lowered the neckline after this photo because I don’t like necklines that are high.

I only made a few presents this year for Christmas. I made sweatshirts for each of my nephews. They seem to like them. I also made a blanket for my sister-in-law who unexpectedly had two major surgeries right before and after Christmas.

Now it’s a new year! I would like to get more patterns done this year (only three done last year). I have one close to ready to go, I just need to devote the time to it that it needs. Last week my kids had snow days every day except one. That makes it hard to work. I am partway done with sewing myself a new winter coat, and I’m really excited to work on it!

I do have a Sewing Summit going on at the end of the month. This was rescheduled, so I already posted about it. This class teaches how to make a Moroccan-style storage ottoman. Sign up to be able to watch this class and about forty others for free! (This pattern is now available here.)