Halloween 2024!

my beige flag is going overboard on my children’s coordinating Halloween costumes.

this year we continued the tradition from 2023’s Strega Nona and Big Anthony costumes and did another book theme: pigeon and duckling from Mo Willems’ classic pigeon books.

for the base of the costumes i got each kid a hooded sweatshirt and leggings from primary. i got the fabrics stonemountain & daughter:

a white knit from the remnant section for the whites of the eyes and the pigeon’s neck.
black flannel for the pigeon’s pupils.
blue flannel for the duckling’s pupils and the pigeon’s wing backing.
yellow flannel for the duckling’s wing backing.
orange and yellow felt for the beaks.
a few fat quarters of yellow fabrics with small and abstract prints for the duckling’s feathers.
a few fat quarters of light blue fabrics with small and abstract prints for the pigeon’s feathers.
tan felt for the duckling’s cookie purse.
darker brown felt for the chocolate chips on the duckling’s cookie purse.
tan webbing for the duckling’s cookie purse handle.
a tan invisible zipper for the duckling’s cookie purse.

the eyes were simply circles of various sizes and the pigeon’s neck was a strip of the white fabric, all of which i attached with a zigzag stitch since the sweatshirts were knit.

for the beaks i did a triangle for the pigeon and a semi circle for the duckling. to make them sturdy i cut two of each piece, interfaced them, and sewed them right sides together with a small opening on one side. then I flipped them right side out and attached the final beak to the top front of the hood with a zig zag stitched that also closed up the opening.

for the feathers i started by interfacing all the fabrics i was going to use. i found that no matter how much i ironed ahead of time, the interfacing would start separating from the fabric as soon as it was cut in to the feather shape. to keep them attached, and prevent fraying, I stitched around the bottom section of each feather. even though each feather was only about 1 inch by 2 inches this took a long time because there were roughly 300 of them.

once all the feathers were done, I stitched them to a half circle of the solid flannel (aka the wing backing) in ‘rows’. I started at the outside and worked in, making sure each row of feathers covered the stitching of the row before it. I made sure to leave roughly a half inch at the top of the wing backing for a seam allowance.

once the entire half circle was filled with feathers, i folded the bottom row of feathers in and pinned it them place, exposing what would be my seam allowance. i then stitched the whole thing to another half circle, with right sides together and leaving a 6 inch opening. then flipped it right side out, hand stitched the opening closed, and edge stitched along the top.

finally, I used five snaps to attach the wings to the back of the sweatshirts: one on each wrist, one on each shoulder, and one on the center of the neck. I figure this way the sweatshirts can still be worn in normal life over the next few months.

to carry her candy, i made duckling Talia a circular ‘cookie’ purse from the tan felt, tan webbing, and an invisible zipper.

to attach the ‘chocolate chips’, or small circles of a darker brown felt, I used iron on fabric tape but then did a few stitches in the center of each one with dark brown thread.

for the ‘nuts’ i found some tan embroidery thread and made a few X’s, but i only did this on one side to align with the story.

during his bath on the 30th jude requested to carry his candy in a bus. so after he went to bed i went out to the garage, cracked open an epidemic ales nightshade stout, and got to work.

i went through the recycling and and found a broken down box that originally held six cans of spiked seltzer. I reconstructed it, taped the whole thing shut with packing tape, then cut a circle in the top.

to make it the right color I went through our wrapping paper and found some blue tissue paper, which i cut in to strips and mod-podged to the box.

for the strap, I found a thick white ribbon in my stash, which i thread through slits i cut in the sides of the box. I cut out bumpers, windows, and headlights from craft foam and hot glued them on.

finally for the wheels i once again went through the recycling, found four bottle caps, colored them black with a sharpie, and hot glued them to the box.