Halloween 2015 – Me and My Cowboy

Halloween is a bigger deal than it used to be in my life now that our little one is actually old enough to realize what it is about and enjoy it.  I’ve also realized it does give me a very good reason to sew something for my half-pint and not just myself.  In 2015, I didn’t do that much sewing for Halloween, but enough to be proud of and count as projects to share.

My outfit wasn’t much, just something I put together at the last minute.  I dressed as some sort of punk, dark, vintage-style housewife, in an original 50’s blouse, a pencil skirt, platform heels, and a handmade apron with dachshund featured print.  Yes, that is purple hair I sported for the night.  However, my son’s outfit received most of my attention.  He went as a 1940’s cowboy, with part vintage, part handmade, and the rest being items from my childhood for a special kind of outfit.

THE FACTS:

FABRIC:  For the cowboy: ½ yard of super clearance polyester suede with a metallic printed wrong side; For my apron: a 100% cotton M’Liss print, exclusive to the now-defunct Hancock Fabrics store.

NOTIONS:  I had all I needed for the cowboy vest and chaps, and for my apron I bought skinny bright orange single fold bias tape.

PATTERN:  A vintage original Butterick 2744, year 1943, was used as the basis for the cowboy chaps, and the apron used the “Cosmopolitan” pattern from the book “A is for Apron” by Nathalie Mornu, published 2008.  (See this post to see my last apron from this book – I’m a big fan of it!)

TIME TO COMPLETE:  The cowboy outfit parts only took me about 3 hours hours in one evening on October 29, 2015.  My apron was finished on Halloween, October 31, 2015, made in 3 hours, too.

THE INSIDES:  The cowboy outfit is a costume so I didn’t do anything fancy inside, my apron is all clean finished bias bound.

TOTAL COST:  $2.00 for the suede fabric, and maybe $10.00 for my apron

His hat and six shooter set is mine from when I was his age, the sheriff’s badge on the vest is also mine from a visit to Silver Dollar City.  The shirt was given to us by a dear acquaintance – it a true 1940’s original with embroidery of swirls and hobby horses, fancy pockets, and special buttons.

For the sewn part, I basically took a simple button front vest from my tykes’ wardrobe and traced it out and remade it into the faux suede.  This was easy as pie (which isn’t as easy as some sewing) – just two small side seams and even smaller shoulder seams.  Next the vest was cut and re-shaped slightly to be more open and curved so the front so his shirt can be seen.

My original plans were to only make him a vest, but my hubby said some passing comment sounding surprised as to the lack matching chaps.  I took this as a sort of challenge even though this was not at all what he meant – he just didn’t know what I had in mind.  There wasn’t much fabric to start with and even less after the vest was made…but chaps aren’t a full pants leg, anyway.  So I pulled out a vintage 1940’s children’s pattern from my stash as the basis to cut by – this way I also was testing out the fit of a pattern I wanted to make anyway.  I didn’t have a length of fabric long enough to go all the way up his leg so I merely made a large loop to add on for the top of the chaps’ legs.  The loop is perfect for the chaps to hang, or float, over his jeans.  A length of elastic is tied around his waist with the chaps’ top loops going through, and the rest hanging from that.

A rectangular strip of fabric was sewn all the way up into the side seams, then it was cut into little strips to turn it into fringe.  I love how the metallic “wrong side” makes the fringe look quite neat, bestowing just enough ‘bling’ for a little boy’s Halloween outfit.

Our little “cowboy” was so tickled by his outfit and so proud of himself.  “Mommy made it!” he would tell others on me, but that’s o.k.  Being a cowboy must run in the family.  My Grandma has a picture of her husband, my Grandpa, in a handmade cowboy outfit when he was little, so I’ve been told.  My dad loved playing cowboy himself – his room (when he was my son’s age) had a western theme to it, as I can still see in the cute printed paper lining of his old dresser set.  One of my dad’s favorite Christmases growing up was the one when he was given a western set, and he still remembers the bright red velvet hat that came with the set.  In the old pictures from then my 5 or 6 year old “cowboy” dad looks so much like my son did for Halloween – very cute to see.

My apron is something I’ve been wanting to make for a long time.  The fabric had been bought a while back (maybe a year or two) and the apron pattern has also been on my radar of things to make ever since I bought the book in year 2011.  Now I could combine both into one!  Besides, how could I go wrong with something that combines my favorite things – a dachshund dog printed fabric (I own a dachsie, by the way), an apron, and a design named after one of my favorite mixed drinks, the Cosmopolitan.

This was super easy to make.  I like how the pockets are right over the hips – this way they can’t catch stray food like aprons with center front pockets often do.  I like the slightly vintage “café waitress” aura to it, as well, though this is not as strong with my version compared to the original in the book.  Look at how cute is that fashion themed fabric on the one in the book!  My fabric is pretty darling, nevertheless.  I mean there are cute wiener dogs dressed as a ladybug, police officer, witch, princess, and butterfly!

This is not the best apron for coverage against spills and messy cooking, but it is mostly decorative anyway.  I did slightly change the pattern by both making the inner dip of the U-neckline smaller and having the center back neck closure be Velcro hook-and-look tape rather than a button and button hole.  I also had to shorten the neck straps so the waist ties would be where they should be rather than on my hips.

I went through just over 2 packs of bias tape to go around and around all the edges.  Honestly – that is the hardest and only step that takes up all my time spent to make this apron.  I thought the amount of edging I had to sew would never stop.  This sounds like a Halloween “Twilight Zone” nightmare… the “different sewing dimension where the edges to finish never stops and keeps going…with no end…you can’t take your foot off of the pedal, and the bias tape keeps coming, never lessening…”  Oh, I could have too much fun with this!  Happy Halloween everyone!

Save