Halloween...a little bit late

Happy belated Halloween!!  It is a week past the holiday which brought unGodly amounts of candy into my house.  All of which I would like promptly removed!!!  Before I eat any more of it!  Hopefully it won't be much longer before the boys forget about Halloween candy and it'll just mysteriously disappear.

Anyway, sometimes I get lucky on Halloween and my kids dress up in clothes they already have.  My sister sends the boys awesome dress up clothes.  We have 2 sets of camis and one flight suit that the boys love!  And, last year my oldest dressed up in his Marine camis, face paint and all, and poof, his costume was done!  My middle boy decided to dress up in a costume I had made a prior year for my oldest when he was about 3 or 4.  He was a dalmation.  The baby was little and I store bought (egad!!) a costume for him, mainly for me because he didn't much care as long as he was there in my arms.  Here's a picture of them last year with my oldest son's best friend, dressed as an astronaut.

Cute huh?  And easy.  Well, this year was different.  They wanted to be Star Wars characters.  Which, is fine, it's just that I'm not the most creative person in the world.  I can follow directions very well, but can't really come up with my own idea to save my life.  But, I think my creations of their costumes this year didn't turn out too bad. 

My oldest wanted to be Clone Captain Rex from the Clone Wars.  Middle son wanted to be Boba Fett.  And, baby got to be Clifford (a creation from a prior year - in which I was able to follow a pattern - when my oldest was 2 or 3).  Here are pictures from this year.

I measured and drew out my own pattern pieces to create the "armor".  I then cut out the pieces of fabric and doubled them up.  I was concerned with the gray sweatsuits showing through with the lighter colors.  Then, I placed them in their appropriate places on the sweatsuits using my 2 live models, who were very patient with me and my goal to have the knees in just the right spot.  What good boys...

My biggest challenge in creating these (besides deciding on the size and shapes of the various pattern pieces) was sewing the "armor" pieces to the pre-purchased sweat pants and sweat shirts.  My Boba Fett boy's costume was extremely difficult because the arms were so narrow and it was difficult to push and pull to get the arm into place.  Then, attempting to sew the fabric to the shirt without hitting my finger.  I was successful with that as well.  No blood was shed on these projects!  I did work on them down to the wire, finishing Halloween eve.  Just in time for the boys to wear their costumes out to breakfast Sunday morning. 

So, now I've taken about a week and a half break from sewing but am chomping at the bit to get moving on my projects for Christmas.  I won't be blogging about them until after the holiday since some of them are going to family members who read my blog and I'd like to keep the projects a surprise for them.

Is anyone else sewing for the holidays?  I'd love to hear about what you're working on.