Princess Peach Halloween Costume

So I have started my Halloween costume. I wanted to

make Princess Peach last year but never got around to doing it. I even bought the fabric and all the notions. This year I wanted a warm costume. Here in Montreal it is C-O-L-D at the end of October. I wanted a costume I could fit over my jacket. I chose Simplicity 2853 thinking I would do some sort of cat, version "D". 

This is what I am basing my costume on

One weekend I trekked out to Club Tissus with family in tow. Simon had the brilliant idea to do Princess Peach, but the kitty version from Mario 3d World. It is the perfect choice as this is the WiiU game that we are currently playing together, and I still get to be warm and not have a jacket cover up my costume! 

One afternoon I traced out the pattern and cut it out. I want to sew this project with Simon. With 2 kids that demand my attention the only time we can sew together is after they go to bed. Usually we are drained by that time, but we MUST make the commitment. 

The hardest part to start was cutting put the fabric. We have Pink, White and lining. Simon hacked the hood to make the sides poof out and to do the color blocking. He also did the color blocking on the tail. So the pattern modifications and cutting out of fabric took about 3. That was day 2.

Day 3: We sewed the white part to the belly and sewed the 2 front pieces together. Believe it or not that took 2 hours. I wanted to do everything up until the zipper, so we are on target.




Day 4: We sewed the zipper. But we must redo it. Simon wanted to do the zipper his way, and he is good with zippers, but he did not realize that I did not want to see the zipper. I want it to be hidden. It is well done, but not to my liking. I know I am picky, but I want to be able to show this costume off! While Simon was sewing the zipper he broke a needle and my sewing machine was not picking up the bobbin thread after. I thought it was broken! I started to hyperventilate, freak out, panic. Simon fixed it. It works, all is well in my World.


I stayed stitched the arms and attached the front arms to the front body. i am looking like the Pink panther at the moment. That would work, he was my Favorite when I was a kid!

Day 5: As we were not happy with the zipper placement Simon spent 1 ½ hours ripping out the seams for the zipper to redo the placement. It is now not as noticeable. It is not 100% how I would want it, but whatever, it is nice enough.

We then made the tail. I want to be able to have a bendy tail. We took electrical wires; doubled it and duct taped it together. We then wrapped it with the stuffing. We have first tried it with 4 ply of wires, but that would be too heavy. 2 ply of wires is just perfect. 

The tail right now looks a little...odd. Let's say it looks like a Swan?

Sewing the back together was a cinch! I stopped at the arms as I was getting tired. We are making great progress. The 2 sides are sewn up, and tonight we will put all the pieces together and start the collar! 

Day 6: Now all we had to do was place the back arms on the back pieces and sew the front to the back. You would think this is a quick process. I would say yes but I wanted to take my time. The tail is rigid due to the way we made it and it pulled on the material. I had to go slowly or else the material would shift while sewing. We spent 1½ hours on this part and I was tired, so we called it a night before the collar step.

Here you can see the back, it came together nicely.

Meow! I will need to shorten the arms and legs, but that will be the next step.





















Day 7: So the collar is a straightforward easy application. It would be if it fit the collar. I checked the piece against the pattern, I cut it out properly. I believe that with our walking foot we were not sewing with the proper seam allowances. I re cut the facing on an XL and it was still to small.
Now I have to mention that my sewing table surface ROCKS! I have the cardboard overlay for pattern tracing and material pinning. But I also have an ironing surface. Scooch the cardboard over, and Voila! I can iron directly on the top. Soooo convenient.

To fit the facing on the collar I pieced the 2 facings together to make a longer one. You fold it on the inside, so you do not notice that it has extra pieces sewn at the end.  You tack it down to the seams, and it is not noticeable. Either it is us or the pattern was off. I compared the material to the pattern and I was good. I did not cut the incorrect size.

So much for wanting to hem the arms and legs. I felt good about what we got accomplished. Yes, it was only the collar. that got sewed tonight. Yes, we made a big mistake. But we were able to find a solution and it looks like it was intended to look. Would I prefer to do every step perfectly? Yes, but hey we are new to sewing. Mistakes happen, That is how you learn. 

We will be going camping and I will need to pack, so we will be taking 3 - 4 days off of sewing. When we come back we will be all relaxed and ready to go! A week of late nights gets you very tired and cranky. 

We went camping, I had a weekend away with Beaver Scouts and then Simon got the flu. My Halloween party with Scouts is no longer on Friday, it is on Wednesday. Simon still has the flu a week later, but we NEED to finish this. In comes Super Nana. Because Simon is so sick I actually cancelled the adults only day at Laronde for Freight Fest. That is how sick he is. NO haunted Houses for me this year. This is a BIG deal for me. I called my Mom to ask her to take Sam for the day. I can't sew with a screaming 4 year old.

So this morning we did the hem on the arms, the gloves and the spats. I added thick black zig zags to give the impression of hands.

 

I just KNEW the hood would give us troubles. Either it is because we modified it, did color blocking or the pattern is off the center piece if the hood does not line up. We had to recut the center piece. And the steps are not lined out very clear for the ears and hood. Due to the fact that there are views A B C D it is not fluid. They have a bold heading for Views A and B for the ears, but none for C and D. I was like WHAT??????? You need to read the entire thing many times and then figure out where to go. 

 

I would not recommend this patter to a sewer just starting out. Yes there are details on how to sew with fur, but they are not as detailed with their steps. Perhaps if there were less versions it would be clearer. The steps are not hard, just time consuming. And you need to know many techniques, elastics, lining, zippers, etc. It is not a straightforward project, but it is ok for a moderate to advanced sewer.

Happy Halloween