My Last Halloween Project - Not Doll Related

I made this costume for the Dancer when she was 15. She wanted to wear it to a gaming convention called Origins. She's worn it a few times since, and she wanted to wear it to work today. The bodice desperately needed new binding, and I originally made the off-the-shoulder sleeves too large and too loose. So the Dancer and I drove out to a quilt store to pick out new cotton fabric for the binding, then I made some bias strips. The Dancer helped me rip off the old binding, I machine-sewed the new material on, then flipped the binding over the raw edges and hand-sewed it down. I also folded the sleeve material in half, tacked it together, and re-sewed the sleeves back on to the bodice by hand. She freshened up the fabric paint on the front and back of the bodice. I made this back in the original Frozen I heyday, so I was fortunate enough to find pre-printed material for the skirt. It doesn't look exactly like the movie, but I wasn't up for making a paneled skirt, and hand-painting several panels with the movie-accurate pattern. :P I also found her necklace, and the hair comb that Anna wears with this costume, on Etsy. I'm glad the Dancer has gotten as much wear out of this as she has, and of course she's planning on wearing it when she goes to see Frozen II.

I hope you all had a great Halloween. We don't get trick-or-treaters here, which I find sad. Maybe someday I'll have grandchildren to go out with.

October Instagram Challenge Day 18: Owl

Since a lot of you aren't familiar with the Ever After High characters, here Ever After High character Cerise Hood is helping Ashlynn Ella travel through the Dark Wood safely. Ashlynn is startled by the strange noise, but Cerise knows it's just an owl. Since Cerise is related to wolves (although few people know it) she feels safe traversing the scary forest near Ever After High, as opposed to the Enchanted Forest. I picked Ashlynn as her traveling companion in part because this particular doll is Through the Woods Ashlynn, who is in a story where Ashlynn and some of the other girls become lost in... the Dark Forest. It's also a little bit of a play on birds; they figure largely in the Cinderella story, more in some stories than in others, but Ashlynn doesn't know much about nocturnal birds. That might be overthinking it.

Still working on "we need to look like we're in the dark, but it needs to be light enough so we can actually be seen in a picture" photography. Owl was on loan from the collection of Mr. BTEG.

October Instagram Challenge Day 17: Favorite Treat

Who can decide on their favorite treat? I can't! I decided to just go with some festive sugar cookies.

October Instagram Challenge Day 14: Orange

This theme was blessedly easy to do. I even used the new dress that I won from Xanadu's giveaway, and that she made. I bought several mini pumpkins to put throughout our home, so I used one in this photo. The background is scrapbook paper, and it makes for such a great all-around fall backdrop.

I skipped yesterday's theme. It was "Conjure," and I just wasn't getting any picture ideas. Tomorrow's theme is "Magic," and I'm not getting a lot of inspiration for that one, either. There are several coming up that I will be doing, though, so the Halloween fun is not over yet.

October Instagram Challenge Day 12: Haunted

"Oh, Barbie, I don't want to watch this movie. You know haunted dolls creep me out."

"There's no such thing as a haunted doll. I'm a doll collector, JT; none of my dolls are haunted."

"Well, at least you have most of them in your spare room, so I don't have to see them."

"They're all in my spare room."

"Well, what about that little one there on the table?"
"I didn't put a doll there."

It would be easier with these pictures, if I could do some sort of special effects, but since the picture has to be taken with your phone or your tablet, I find it sometimes limiting for this sort of thing. However, most of the people participating in this are not doing overly complicated pictures, so that helps me feel better. It's still good practice in photography and creativity. There is another doll Halloween challenge going, where the topics are more complex, and the photos have more props and action going on, but I wasn't prepared for that one, as I didn't see it until a day or so before October started. How do people on Flickr and Instagram find out about challenges? I suppose it's just following the right people.

October Instagram Challenge Day 11: Costumes

Barbie found this lovely red satin in her fabric stash, and she's trying to decide what kind of costume she could make with it. Maybe the Queen of Hearts? Do you have any suggestions? :)

Also, I found a NRFB Anne Klein doll at a garage sale for only $12! She will get deboxed at some point, and you'll get to see her clothes and jewelry and a better look at her face.

October Instagram Challenge Day 10: Monster

If I ever wished that I owned a Monster High doll, today was definitely that day. I came up with the idea of having some of the Ever After High girls watching the first Monster High reboot video. This involved making a flat screen TV frame, and getting the image color printed. We don't have a color printer yet, so getting the image done required going to a store. I like this image, but if you lived during the 70s in the US, the paneling is sort of giving me "rumpus room" vibes. :)