Halloween Costumes 2013: Iron Maiden

Every year I get excited for Halloween. (I know a good many people in my family don't like it.) But it's not the famous parts of halloween that I like - I can't stand the scary, gory, nasty, buggy, creepy stuff! Yuk - if that's all that was involved, I'd hate it. What I like is the fun sewing that ends in playing dressup for candy!

I have a project list longer than my table, but when fall comes, everything on the list gets pushed aside - it's the one time of year that my kids run my projects. And the fact that they are just as excited over my projects (for once) as I am to show it off...ah - reward enough. :)

On to the 2nd costume I'll blog this year -

Iron Maiden! 

(She was inspired by someone on Pinterest while searching with me for ideas.

I thought this would be the hardest, knowing that I did NOT want to try and make on iron man outfit, nor did I want to buy a $15-$20 cheap walmart costume...I lucked out - I found an iron man costume at a local kids consignment shop for $4.50. I can do that.

So I used this tutu tutorial to make a sewn tutu, and then made a headband to give the feeling of the head thing without having to have a mask (creepy and not allowed at our church trunk or treat).

I followed the tutorial exactly except for using 3/4" elastic because that's what I have a bunch of.

I alternated red and gold tulle (inspired by this from Pinterest), but sewn rather than the knotted no sew version.

I suggested a simple eye mask like this one, but she said no thanks. She's my sensitive child (in every way) and the thought of something around her eyes was completely unappealing to her.


For the headband, I cut out a rectangle from the gold felt sheet and laid it over the red felt sheet, sewing the two together along the shape of the cut out. Then, I cut the entire piece to be 5" wide (front to back) - the width across the head is the full width of the felt piece - 9" I think.

I zig zagged over some 1/4" elastic along the front and back of the headband so that it would curve towards her head, and I sewed a piece of 3/4" elastic into each end to fit around the back of the head. (I used her little sister's head for reference since she was not at school like our Iron Maiden was.)

The headband doesn't look awesome, but I doubt anything other than the tutu will be worn over and over again as dress up, so I didn't feel the need to put a lot of effort into it. :)

As you can probably see from the above picture, my other 6 year old girl wanted to be - yes, very specific:  Cinderella as a Ballerina ... That will be my next post - coming soon!