Halloween Central, Yuma, AZ 2008

The Halloween Inspiration:

My husband & I went to Yuma, AZ this past October to help out my older sister and her family since she was due to give birth to her second child any day. The only thing on her mind, though, was making sure they all had costumes to wear for the upcoming Halloween! Their Halloween theme this year was to go as King Triton (my sister's husband), Ursula (my sister), Ariel (my 3-year old niece), and if & when baby came he/she would go as Sebastian (the crab, not featured in the photo above).

So Kev & I took my niece's Little Mermaid book and drove around downtown Yuma to find the supplies I needed to get their Halloween costumes together. I had actually worked on the Ariel mermaid costume a month prior at home & I mailed it to my sister - one down, two to go. I only had to come up with King Triton's fishtail/fins, cuffs, triton (the pitchfork-like staff), & his crown, and Ursula's dress/tentacles, and nautilus shell necklace - in like, two days. At least my sister had found a crab costume for a dog that she bought for baby to wear!

I sewed like a "maniac" (my brother-in-laws exact word to describe me) for like 12 hours straight for the last few days we were in Yuma to get these costumes done. The harder part was getting my brother-in-law and my sister to show up for the fittings between the way he works 10-12 hours a day 6-days a week (military) and her running around witht he energy of a 20-yr old even though she's about to pop any day! Sheesh!

Halloween Central at my sister's house. Matt created the triton, I created the crown. We used an old technique I learned in a high school art class (see high school was good for something!). We cut out cardboard then used wadded up masking tape to bulk up/build up the shape to make the triton & crown more 3D. Finished with flat pieces of masking tape then spray painted it gold. I sewed those cuffs for King Triton's costume and lined them with poly-batting to give it some body.

Close up view of the finished product (King Triton's crown). This technique worked well, better than something like paper mache, since there was no drying time!

Yay, I got my brother-in-law to stay still long enough for the first fitting of King Triton's fins (pants) before I put in the elastic waistband & hemmed them. I got lucky & found this really cheesy 1970's men's skin-tight pants pattern at Goodwill to use as a template. My brother-in-law is 6' 4" so there was a lot of inches I needed to add to the pattern to make it fit him.

Ursula's tentacles were the most time-consuming part, of course. I sewed them, stuffed them with poly-batting, then stuck straightened metal clothes hangers in each one to allow them to be bent into shape. I sewed them all on to a little pull-on skirt with an elastic wasitband for ease of getting them on & off.

I created this cute little strapless number for the upper half of Ursula's costume. Obviously it's not my sister modeling it - it fit her body better since she was able to fill out the bust & belly area. Elastic above & below the bust area to hold the dress up, a little elastic down the front/middle of the bust for a flattering look/shape (my sister was very pleased with that detailing), and lots of velcro in the back to keep it shut.

Kev & I scoured Joanne's beads. We were just hoping to find one that looked like a shell, and as luck would have it, we found a nautilus one! It was glass with funky colors so my brother-in-law spray painted it gold & it was perfect!

For my 3-year old niece: Ariel's purple top - the serger came in very handy for this!


Ariel's fish fin bottoms made for a 3-year old, being modeled my yours truely because I made it at my house & didn't have a 3-year old model to try it on.

However, I did have (my) teddy to model it before I packaged it up & sent it to my sister's. Remember, I made this a month in advance. Originally I had only signed up to do Ariel's costume. I thought my sister had already gotten Ursula's & King Triton's together. Apparently she was waiting till I arrived to let me know they hadn't been created... how convenient! There's now a sewer in the house!

Here they all are on Halloween night. Hmmm...where's that Ariel costume I slaved over??? My niece decided she wanted to go as PRINCESS Ariel instead that night! (Arrg! 3-year olds!) Isn't the muscle suit great for the King Triton costume? (Sorry the photo is so small. My sister doesn't understand how to set the photos to be larger on her camera so all photos she takes are postage-sized ones.)