Carnival 2015

Last year I did a little series on my Carnival costumes. I even shared tutorials for two of them, and linked to another one. When I did the round up of my past costumes, the last day, I forgot to mention two more that weren't on the photos. They were a medieval girl's dress and an angel dress. I still don't have photos of the last one I mentioned, but my niece was big enough this year for it to fit her and that's what she wore. Here's a little photo from our first day from this year's Carnival. Apart from my nephew, I made all the other 3 costumes. 

The Medieval dress was made many years ago, for my third fashion show, and it was used by a friend's daughter. This was the dress that closed the show. That little girl, has also opened the show, she wore the angel dress for that and all eyes were on her, she was so brave, and I was so proud of her. Back to this dress, the features I love the most are both in the sleeves. Apart from the gathering, I love that they are so long. L. was always hiding her hands but the sleeves are lined in red, and they make a raindrop shape. I guess you can only have a little glimpse of that in the last photo below. I also made her a last minute cape, but I didn't take a single photo of that. She dressed as a vampire. 

For S. I upcycled his sister's ant costume. She asked me to make him a cat costume, but after sewing her own costume (in a minute!), I was feeling way too lazy to sew up another one from zero. Since he is the exact same age she was Carnival 2012, and since her costume was all black, I took the chance to adapt hers into his. It was the quickiest and easiest thing to do. Here's the before:

I took the extra arms out, sewed them together and attached them back as the cat's tail. Then I took the antennaes out of the headband (which was covered in fabric too after these photos) and sewed two felt cat ears. Easy as that. I only regreat that I didn't take any better photos of this.

For G.'s I made the pink Cinderella dress. I tried to make her change her mind about the dress, "wouldn't you like the blue instead dear? you love blue so much!". And she really does, but apparently, it's a pink fase and I have to deal with it. But I'll admit it though, when it comes to our own princess it doesn't really matter what colour she wears, it comes down to how happy we can make her and I have succeded here. She was just super excited about it.

To make this, I used an original bride's maid dress from the early 80's (I believe!). It was from my sister's MIL just as many clothes I have refashioned before. I even have original photos from her wearing it. The fabric looked like a thin table cloth, it was not pretty at all. But I saved this dress because I thought of it as Carnival costumes material and I was so right. It was perfect for that pink Cinderella G. was begging for. To finish the look I also used scraps from a light satin pink fabric I used over 10 years ago to make a dress for a friend and white tulle that was saved from my sister's wedding, also over 10 years ago...

I made hers with a long sleeve though because it was so windy and cold these days. This way she was able to wear a white shirt underneath without a weird look like last year's when she used a red shirt under her Snow White costume. This dress has all sort of things I don't like, such as soooo many pink and big bows, oh gosh, those big bows, and yet, I couldn't have been more happy about it. My daughter felt like the most special princess in the party, so how couldn't I love it?! I saved the V shaped on the back, in order to be able to save the original ziper and save myself from the work of installing a new one.

I wasn't able to take that seam mark off though. Do I really care about it?!

To finish the costumes parade, I should have the Minnie mouse costume I made for my niece two years ago. I didn't get photos back then, and I didn't get photos this year either, when she wore it the second day. That was simple though. we used one of the minnie mouse headbands I made for g.'s first birthday and I made her a simple skirt, with a wide elastic on the seam. It fits me too because of it, and I have actually wore it at a carnival night's out last year. It was a success. lol I do have photos of that, but would have to search for them, and I am feeling lazy.