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September 21, 2017

Felt Trick or Treat Bags: The Emperor's New Groove



My favorite part of creating Halloween costumes is making these custom, felt Trick-or-Treat bags every year.  We have quite the collection now that I've made them for Jessie from Toy Story and Buzz Lightyear, Harry Potter, Peter Pan, Frozen, Super Mario Brothers,


The entire bag is made from felt.  The stuff you can buy on the roll at the fabric store is typically made out of recycled plastic bottles, and it is pretty strong.  These bags have always held up really well when I make them from that material.  That, plus the ribbon enforced handles, ensures that these bags last through all the parties and trick or treating of the season, and long after that.


Two of Kronk's best lines are on the two sides of this Trick-or-Treat bag.  

And Yzma as the wicked cat with a funny high pitched voice looked great!


Not to mention her vials of poison :)

These two quotes from Emperor's New Groove can often be heard around our house:
"You Threw off my Groove!" and "No Touchy!'


Here I took a couple of in-process pictures.  I often trace images I find and cut them out of felt. 

Some pieces I sew down, some I glue down with a small amount of fabric glue.  Fabric glue is easier - and certainly works just fine.  I usually just like the way that sewing looks, but it does take longer.


And sewing them all together is fairly quick.  Again, you can find the full tutorial here:


I love how much these little sweeties get into Halloween.  They are the best!
Happy Halloween!!

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August 20, 2017

Halloween 2016: The Emperor's New Groove


Around here, Halloween is a family affair - with themed costumes, and silly fun that everyone participates in!
Before I get going on our costumes for this year, I wanted to share our family costumes from 2016 - because they turned out to be some of my favorite yet!

Back in 2000, Disney released what has become a family favorite, oft quoted around our house:
The Emperor's New Groove

If you don't know this movie, I highly recommend it - and for those of you who do, I hope you'll appreciate our versions of these fun characters!



Our sassy 4 year old was Emperor Kuzco - and she really pulled it off!  "No Touchy" was her favorite phrase, particularly when referring to her Halloween candy ;)


I used 2 large t-shirts to make her costume.  It worked so well!  I was really happy with the result.  I tucked the yellow shirt inside of the red shirt (which I cut to match the pattern I needed) and zig zag stitched them together.  With the remaining under part of the t-shirt I was able to make fringe leg wraps.  The sash and bottom of the shirt were scrap fabric. 

For both Kuzco's hat and Kronk's hat I got cheap foam construction hats from the craft store.  I cut off the bill and cut notches in the top so that I could hot glue in double thick foam sheets for the top of the hat.  It was heavy, so I added an elastic chin strap.  The earrings were double thick foam pages I cut into ovals and hot glued onto earring hardware.  Pretty easy - but so effective!


The villain of the show was my favorite costume - Yzma was played by my 2nd daughter, and she was SOO adorable!  Foam sheets again to the rescue for her hat - with a thick black knit headband to hold it all on her head.  The v on her forhead was felt, attached to the purple foam curl.
We thrifted the black dress, which I modified to fit her - and found a boa at the dollar store.


My favorite was the addition of the fake eyelashes and lipstick.  They really made the outfit :)



Kronk, the loveable henchman was my oldest.  Thrifted skirt, fabric sash, more modified tshirts, and knit arm arm and leg warmers.  Plus another foam hat I cut the bill off of.  A yellow straw and foam accessory at the top made a perfect Kronk hat!



My husband and I were Pacha, and his wife Chicha.  


Lots of thrift store items here - but all modified to fit our theme.  Plus, a simple hat out of flannel for Pacha.  Love this guy ;)

And last but not least, our baby - the squirrel.  Squeak Squeaken Squeaker, as Kronk would say.  


I took a brown hooded sweater she already had and added a felt tummy and felt ears.  The tail was a rectangle of faux fur I found at the craft store, sewn into a tube, stuffed, and sewn onto the back of the sweater.  

A little black nose, and there you have the cutest little thing you ever did see!





Not everyone knew who we were, but those who did gave us a great response!
We participated in a "Trunk or Treat" at our church, and kept the theme going with the secret lab:



Although this was time intensive, it was so fun to have the girls all excited to dress up together!  We had an awesome Halloween.  


Stay tuned for close up pictures of their trick-or-treat bags - my favorite things to make each year!  

And check out our other family costumes over the years:



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