Fantasy costumes construction

Long ago I wanted to post about making the fantsay costumes for the kids.  But I never did.  And for sake of just getting these pictures out there, I'm posting it now.  Because at 12:30 at night my brain does not make good decisions and instead of going to bed, it says to catch up everything!  Anyway, these were Jubal's hoofs,  I followed some online tutorials making them with the stuff you wrap broken arms with.  They were okay, but didn't look as good on him I though. And his furry pants was the most expensive fabric that I used in any of the costumes.  Ack.  And they didn't fit as well as I would have liked either.  I tried making padding to go under them to give him more a horse/goat shape legs and that just didn't work at all.  His legs are just too short and the pants being so furry hid it all anyway. 


Sebastian's leather armor I cut from our red couch that got sadly ruined. It was fairly easy to make actually.  I just had to keep the pieces straight.  And then I painted it with black leather paint.  I based it off of Magyar (Hungarian) medieval cavalry armor.  The real thing are amazing! Seriously, check out the link below. I even used horse hair for the helmet thanks to Megan. 


Scythian/Magyar/Hun calvary archers
https://maghon.weebly.com/blog---english/military-culture-of-horse-archers√
My go to toddler pattern worked fabulous.


Although I made this hat from another pattern and was so excited for it, but it ended up too small and he wouldn't keep it on.  Sad. 




And Isabel's dress bodice was actually this pattern, and I didn't have enough material for the skirt so I just pieced sections together.  And all that white flowy material is just curtains pinned on her. 


I snagged an old 70's leather coat from a thrift store I volunteered at one day for girl's camp and made Elena's vest and arm thingee's with that. It worked beautifully.  And I was really, really happy with how her costume turned out.  She matured enough this last year that the pattern just fit her perfectly where as when I made it for her the year before it fit all wonky. 

And Nicolas's pants I made using a online tutorial for viking/Rus pants, but I lost the tutorial after cutting out the fabric and could never find it again, so I winged them and they went weird.  Seriously, how hard can two huge tubes of fabric on a drawstring be?  So I ended up patching in another piece, but I was out of blue fabric so I just added on darker blue.  Anyway, you can't tell from the front, but I was pretty sad about it, because his pants are probably my favorite part of any of these costumes.   See bottom problems.  The vest was a thrift store hack, and I made the green tunic from some basic Burda costume pattern I have and bought the white shirt. Anyway, I loved how his turned out as well. Honestly I loved how all of them turned out.   I had a list of other things to make to add to them, but in the end I just decided to take photos and be done.  Time is just not that forgiving. 

Ward Christmas Party and Otra

We went to our new ward's Christmas Party too.  (Yes we double up--ward and branch, but I would like to get to know our neighbors some.)  The kids all got to see Santa but these were the only pictures I got.  Efraim wouldn't go up to him at all, until he saw Jubal sit on his lap.  And then Efraim was perfectly fine with it.  It was fun.

 
This is what I came to bed to one night. No room for me.  I think tonight might be the same--but I wanted to catch up my blog/journal.


Isabel's 5th grade class party.



I got a job!  It's at the local nursing home.  So back to work I go.  It's kind of surreal after 13 years of not working.


Testing out what curtains I want in my sewing room.  I decided on the white ones. 
 And the project that has been taking SO MUCH time.  Neither of us ever want to do anything like it again.  It's so frustrating when I've tried to be so careful and there's so many things that have gone wrong.  They're not going to be obvious (I hope) but still, I tried so hard, and you just can't account for things like a wall being crooked.

Leo's Work Christmas Party

Leo's work has their Christmas party every year at Ruth's Chris Steak House and then rents rooms at the Park City Hotel for anyone who wants to stay.  Last year we didn't stay overnight, but this year we did.  We debated bringing the kids and letting them play in the pool etc, but I'm glad we didn't. It was a nice night away.  The steak and lobster for dinner was delicious, and our "cottage" was surrounded on ⅔ sides by the lake.  It was a lovely view and in the morning we watched skiers go right by.  We enjoyed the hot tub on the balcony too.  :)   When we got home we found out Isabel had thrown up 5 times during the night--poor babysitter.  I think it was food poisoning from the branch's Christmas breakfast that morning, because nobody else got sick.  

Elena's Christmas Play

Elena wanted to be in another play earlier this year, but she kind of became disenchanted with it by the end. I'm glad she had another opportunity to try it out though.  She played Loper the deer. I volunteered to help with the set and painted the castle, and helped set up a bit.  Elena really did a good job, she spoke nice and clear and actually one song practically turned into a solo (from a trio) because the mic the other two girls grabbed wasn't working.  And she sounded beautiful!!  I was coming down with a head cold/sinus infection that day, but I decided the night before to have Isabel sell baked goods there to raise money for Teton Science School.  So I actually kept her home from school on Friday and she worked so hard all day! I was seriously impressed!  We made a bunch of cookies and then I made three yule log cakes thinking that they looked so fancy that they would sell well.  I was wrong, none of them sold.  But she was able to sell one the next week and the other two were delicious, so that's good.  Anyway, that Friday, I was sick, two different types of cookies we tried making completely failed (like garbage can failed).  And I was rushing to help do the set too.  I literally never ate a meal that day because I never had the time.  It was not a day I want to repeat anytime soon.  And I pretty much missed all the play because I stayed in the school commons area with Jubal and Efraim.  But I did get to see Elena sing her unintended solo!!!  She was so cute!!



The innocent face of the boy who managed to get the drain piece off the middle school drinking fountain drain and was sucking on it. DISGUSTING!!!!!!



See I painted a lot in November.