"I wanna be a red bat..." DIY Costume

Last summer (more like last September), I watched my friend's little ones while she and her hubby were away. During nap times, I would try and do as many art projects with the older one as possible.

I asked him on the first day after picking him up from pre-school: "Hey! Want to work on your Halloween costume?"

He replied: "I want to be a red bat...".

Hmmm...clarification needed.

"Like Batman?"
"No. A bat. A red bat."
"Why red?"
"Red is my favorite color."
Of course it is. Stupid me. :)

Thus began his first trip to Joann's Fabric store, where we bough red fabric, red feathers and ribbon.

I had no idea how to construct bat wings. All I knew was that I wanted the wings to fit him like a cape, but not force him to tie the costume around his neck (after all, I'm in Arizona and Halloween is a very, very warm holiday). Thus the experiment with attaching ribbon to the inside of the cape (so that it could be worn like a backpack) and wristbands on the ends of the wings (so he'd be able to flap).

I laid out the fabric, took a white chalk pencil and drafted out the shape of the wings based on his arm span. Then I took out the sewing machine (a magical machine my friend's son just needed to try out- I allowed him to push the pedal as I led the material through the needle, directing him to "press harder" or "STOP" when I was done sewing). :) I sewed lines from the neck down to the ends of each semi-circles at the bottom of the fabric.

Once I had finished that, I cut off some straggling pieces and then convinced the little one to help me with the feathers. Since this required use of a hot glue gun, he was only allowed to pass me the feathers as I set each in place. This ended up being too much of a task for him and, with only three feathers set, he proclaimed "I'm tired. This is hard work!"


Yes, buddy, it is hard work! But think how cool this costume is gonna be! And it was...

Snow White DIY Costume

Having convinced a friend to have a Halloween party, and being very into DIY costumes, I decided for Halloween 2014 I would be Snow White (at least my version). 

I found two dresses of a navy blue, purple hue (see the two dresses below) and decided to mesh the two together and sew a completely new dress using only material from both and red ribbon. 

Full skirt removed and replaced in dress below. 

Dress #2. Had the corset bodice for the Snow White dress. I removed flower bead decor that embellished the neck of the dress. 

Pinning the full skirt into the second dress. Photo is of both dress and skirt inside out. 

Dress with full skirt underneath and pieces of a sash to experiment with the concept of  "capped sleeves". 

Sewing the sleeves. 

 Sewing the sleeves for the dress was a feat in itself. I looked up a tutorial for how to sew puffy sleeves, and when I wasn't getting the results I wanted, I ended up taking the sash from one dress, sewed strips of red ribbon into the material, and pinned/gathered the sleeve into the dress. Once I got the desired effect, I hand sewed the sleeves in place.

Puffy sleeves in places and sewn. Finally. These things were a work in progress for a couple days. 

Next came the collar. Again, I viewed some tutorials online, but didn't have enough material (ripped from other dresses) to follow the patterns provided directly. Instead I took the bottom of a white dress and drapped it across the neckline of the Snow White dress, pinned it in place from the inside and hand stitched it in place. 

Collar in place. Time to finish the rest of the gown. 

 Once I had all the pieces in places, it took me a couple days and many hours to hand sew things in place (I'm handier with a needle and thread than I am with a sewing machine). :) Final touches: Ribbon to make the sleeves was added to the bust of the dress in gathered folds, a gold, glittery ribbon was added for a belt, and I (once again) hand sewed my bow onto a headband. Costume done.

Finished dress. Happy DIY Halloween!

T-minus 52 days until Halloween

Hello readers,

It's that time of year again: time to draft Halloween costumes!!! 52 days until Halloween and I've already accomplished the following:
1) Sketch out ideas-Maleficent, Snow White's Evil Queen and Ursula.
2) Shop for second hand prom dresses to create costume- any full skirted dress is perfect for Halloween. I bought three dresses this year and all were under $10 per dress.
3) Start cutting and get to sewing.

Before I blog about my costume for this year though, I'd like to post pictures of my dresses from last year and the year before.


2012 Halloween (re-post with additional information)

Final look for my dress. Materials: Red dress, red tulle for under dress and sparkly tulle for on top of skirt. Ribbon, red and green, for the belt, flower and accents around the neck.

Hair and makeup. Materials: foam cone for under the hair, secured with bobby pins and rubber bands. Side braids, which could be braided around wire or pipe cleaner and secured to base of cone. Christmas decorations for head decor. Makeup- highlighted eyebrows, significant cat eye, red lipstick and a Who-nose.

Front office staff at my internship placement site, Dana Middle School: (left to right) Rudolph, Cindy Lou Who, The Grinch, me and another reindeer.

2013 Halloween

Started with a red dress, floor length.

Removed underskirt and tulle from red dress and began attaching to a black dress (see below)

Black dress was cut down the middle and sewed on an angle. Red dress was then cut, cinched and sewed into the straps of the black dress to make sleeves. Newspaper was crumpled and added to give "puffy" appearance.

White tulle was bundled and sewn into the collar.

Checker patterned material was then added to the front and layered on the fringe of the dress.

Queen of Hearts and Alice.

The Mad Scientist in the Basement

As mentioned in previous posts, I have decided to illustrate a number of poems and short stories I've written. Many are from my childhood and others are fantastic takes on real life people and events in my life. "The Mad Scientist in the Basement" is a comical take on a man engrossed with his work/inventions/hobbies and the little kids who like to spy on him. :)

Hope you like it. 

-Becky

Copyright 2014

Copyright 2014

Copyright 2014

Copyright 2014

Copyright 2014

"Becky, can you draw with me?"

Last month I spent a couple weeks visiting family in Virginia and Chicago. Many of my cousins now have children of their own and love to share with their kids that I like to draw (an understatement of course). I don't LIKE to draw, I LOVE to draw. Especially with my little cousins.

Drawing #1
Location: Virginia.
Cousins' ages: 4.5 and 6

Quick sketch illustrating my silly little cousins.

Drawing #2
Location: Chicago
Cousins' ages: 3.5 and 6

Original art by my 6 yr old cousin Thomas.

Collaborative effort by me and my 3.5 yr old cousin Olivia.

Drawing #3
Location: Chicago
Cousins' ages: 4, 7 and 8

My 8 yr old cousin watches me draw Elsa from Disney's Frozen. He holds a blue marker and is ready to jump in and color.

Coloring while my 7 yr old cousin looks online for a pic of Elsa's castle for me to sketch.

Drawing the background.

Finished picture. Sketched by Rebecca Arguello, colored by Joaquin, Jacinta and Jayne (4 yrs).

Castle Crashers

Dear readers,

My cousin Gio turned 6 in July, but was insistent on not really turning 6 until we had a party. Lately he is into this game called Castle Crashers. When I head his party would not be at the usual Chuck E. Cheese, I thought "What IS the theme this year!?!" If' you've seen my other posts, you know that any excuse to make and create is what I'm looking for and parties are the best excuse to get some hot glue going.

I played Castle Crashers with Gio a couple weeks before and thought "This is gonna be AWESOME!" I looked up costumes online and found a great tutorial online on how to make Castle Crasher helmets out of multi gallon paint buckets. The downside of this tutorial: time. It was Friday, the party was Sunday afternoon and my goal was to not only have a helmet for the birthday boy, but at least five other people. So, I went to cardboard.

Cardboard boxes are great materials for masks, weapons and all types of construction. So I took a precut cardboard boxes and folded as many extras edges into it as possible to give is a cylinder shape. I cut about two inches off the bottom while cutting the point of the helmet. After, I mounted the opposite side to a plastic plate (corresponding to the correct color of the Castle Crasher Knight I was thinking of painting) and from there covered the cylinder in its respective Knight color. I made five nights and the Necromancer. If you need a crash course on Castle Crashers, please visit http://www.castlecrashers.com/.

After covering the cylinders I sketched out a template for the knights' helmets and cut the cross out of white construction paper (glued on after). Using black construction paper, I cut out the eyes and details for the rest, added accents of color and ruggedness to each and later finished off the Knights with black Speedball ink for detail.

The Necromancer was a different story: black construction paper, preliminary sketched on face, then painted with gray and white accents and red eyes. Finished with black Speedball ink.

I cut an eye area in the Pink Knight and upon arriving to the birthday boy's house, I told his brother "Don't hide him. Let him see EVERYTHING!" And he did.

He saw me walking in with the helmet on and probably thought I WAS the Pink Knight (despite my jeans, sandals and flowery summer shirt). He saw the other helmets (and the dragon pinata we picked up on the way over) and immediately said "The red one's mine!!!"

So we put on the helmets, played a little Castle Crashers, and took a couple of CC selfies. :) Enjoy!

-Becky

Cardboard House Construction

Cardboard house construction. After school program activity. Too bad it didn't take with the students. Guess I was the most enthusiastic of all.

God Bless (Captain) America

A birthday card for one of my favorite little guys. Happy 5th Birthday, Ben!