Wizardly Woes

I like to go to Goodwill around Halloween after the kids decide what they want to be, and try to find things that would work for costumes with a little tweaking. That way they don't have those thin, lame costumes you get from Wal-Mart, but something a bit more unique. 

I went to Goodwill on Monday in search of a wizard costume and a witch for Jarem and Tessa.  I saw my good friend, Ale, there whom I haven't got to spend time with in awhile.  She was anxiously waiting for a call from her husband who would be calling to let her know when he would be home.  He was supposed to arrive from Afghanistan from deployment that DAY.  She said her house was all ready and she was just trying to kill some time looking for a distraction.  It was awesome cause she went around the store helping me look for things, and we had a good time together.  For Jarem, we found a silver very long skirt that I thought could be fashioned into a wizard's robe along with two shimmery shirts that could work for his hat and accessories.  Also, a white fuzzy top that was perfect for a beard.  For Tessa, we found several black tops and skirts that could be fashioned into a witch outfit.

This was what the robe looked like before adding the sleeves and I redid the shape as well cause it looked too princessy.  I wanted it to go straight down, so I re-cut and sewed both side.  See the black line on the robe on the right side.  That is about where I cut it.

As you can see, I cut off the sleeves of the shimmery shirt and  attached them upside down (see above pic), so the wide part would be at the bottom.  I just wished I would have kept it more straight.  I kind of traced his shape on the fabric so I could make it fit him, but I forgot to make room for seam allowances.

I spent all day yesterday cutting and sewing (and I am not a good seamstress at all) the silver skirt to create the wizard's robe.  I thought it looked pretty good, so when Jarem got home from school I had him try it on.  IT WAS TOO SMALL!!  He couldn't get it over his head, then we tried the other way, and he couldn't get it over his bottom.  Finally, after a few minutes of working at it and some ripping, we got it over is bottom end and up.  When I zipped it on the back, he said it was really tight on his chest (which it was), but he really didn't want to take it off cause he didn't want to make me feel bad after working so hard.  But finally, he just couldn't handle the tightness anymore.  He said he felt like he couldn't breathe! (and it was really tight).  Besides, the girls told me that it looked like a princess dress and Eric (later, not in front of the kids) told me he thought it looked girlish too.  This was a HUGE bummer for me after working so hard on it all day, but oh well!  I made a cape and hat out of one of the shimmery shirts and I made his beard out of the white fuzzy top.  He borrowed Eric's authentic Dumbledore wand from Harry Potter World and I think he still looks pretty wizard like. :)

Since today they have to dress up like a character in a book, he chose to take Harry Potter.  This is a picture of him just before he left for school.