Pattern Patter : halloween costumes

Showing posts with label halloween costumes. Show all posts

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Happy Halloween From The Pattern Patter Team

Halloween is nearly here! I know all of you are busy sewing your special Halloween costumes, so let's take a look at Halloween past!

I had the luck to find this lovely vintage costume catalog from Ladies Home Journal, circa 1920s:

Ahh! This cover is so pretty and Art Deco.. and some of the costumes inside are a real treat.

First some international costumes from places around the globe...

Or maybe some loosely-interpreted historical characters are more up your alley? (Dolly Varden is from Dickens, so she's fictional!)

Still more whimsical international themed designs... I love the French Sewing Girl, don't you?

Here are some lovely characters from theatre and legend...

Of course, it wouldn't be Halloween without some fairies and witches... :)

Nobody says no to a cute patriotic costume!

Still more whimsical international costumes!

There were also many child-size costumes included in the catalog.. very sweet ideas

More child-sized or teen-sized costumes... I didn't know the Campfire Girls had been around so long..

And that's it!!

One really interesting thing about this little catalog is that descriptions list not only fabric requirements, but crepe paper requirements, if you should want to make the costume out of paper instead of fabric.

The fabric requirements are listed with the regular descriptions and pictures, the crepe paper requirements are in the back.

The descriptions are really so cute, but if I listed them all we'd be here until NEXT Halloween.

I hope you enjoyed this! Have a lovely Halloween!

Monday, August 24, 2015

Have an Animated Halloween - Cartoon Halloween Costumes: Part 2 - Warner Brothers

Cartoon Halloween Costumes: Part 2 - Warner Brothers

(For Part 1 featuring Disney, Click HERE)

Are there any cartoons as well known as characters from Disney? Possibly characters from Warner Brothers! And there are a lot of Warner Bros. licensed cartoon costume patterns out there.

Let's take a look, shall we?

Who's the most famous Warner Brothers character? Bugs Bunny, of course!

McCall's 2744

Here's a cute Bugs Bunny costume available from Vogue Vixens (Child Size) and Find Crafty Patterns (Adult Size.)

With as popular as Bugs Bunny has been over the years, surprisingly I couldn't find any costume patterns dating back further than the 1970s. Maybe WB wasn't as liberal as Disney about licensing their characters... or maybe Bugs and his friends are too difficult for a home seamstress?

Butterick 6348

Via the Vintage Pattern Wiki comes this 1970s Bugs Bunny costume. It seems Butterick has kept the Looney Tunes / WB license consistently over the years.

Butterick 5044

Apologies for the picture quality... apparently this pattern of Bugs and Lola(?) bunny is a little hard to find. The image is from an unknown source.

Okay, that's all the Bugs Bunny costumes I could find... let's check out some other characters!

Find Crafty Patterns also has these two Sylvester and Tweety Bird costumes in stock, Butterick 5043 (Kids) and McCall's 2745 (Adult.)

Also available at Lonestar Blondie and Rose's Pattern Treasury.

Via the Vintage Pattern Wiki are two more Tweety (Butterick 6350) and Sylvester (Butterick 6349) costume patterns.. I think the sneakers and human hands are a little weird, personally.

McCall's 2746

McCall's 2746 is this pretty bizarre-looking Porky & Petunia Pig pattern, available at Pattern Matters.

McCall's 2747

Pitter Pattern Place has this Daffy Duck or Roadrunner costume in stock. At least they added feet.

And surprisingly... that's all I could find!

I was really surprised, actually.. that there aren't more licensed WB cartoon costumes out there.

I would think some other characters like Marvin Martian, Tasmanian Devil and Pepe Le Pew... as well as characters like Elmer Fudd, or characters from Tiny Toon Adventures would make really good costume patterns... but I couldn't find any more.

Do you know of any I missed? Which one is your favorite?

Please let me know! Stay tuned for more Cartoon Costume Features.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Have an Animated Halloween - Cartoon Halloween Costumes: Part 1 - Disney

Part 1 - DISNEY

For almost as long as there's been sewing patterns AND cartoons, there's been licensed cartoon Halloween costume sewing patterns. I thought I'd showcase some of the cute and fun cartoon Halloween costumes you can make... Halloween will be here before you know it!

This topic has SO many patterns, I decided to break it up into parts. Disney, Warner Brothers, Hanna-Barbera, Etc... they all have their own licensed costumes!

Probably when most people think of "cartoon," they easily think of "Disney." For decades, Disney hasn't been shy about licensing their characters for sewing patterns. There are imitation and copy-cat costumes out there, of course, but I wanted to focus on officially licensed patterns.

(Oh yeah, you can see some early Disney-licensed Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatter and March Hare costumes at this previous blog entry!)

Let's get started, there's a lot to cover!

How about some Classic Disney?

1.) Donald Duck in Simplicity 7731; Find Crafty Patterns

2.) Mickey Mouse in Simplicity 9386; Vienna's Grace

3.) Daisy Duck in Simplicity 7734; Find Crafty Patterns

How about some more Classic Disney?

1.) Captain Hook in Simplicity 7791; Lonestar Blondie

2.) Pinnochio & Geppetto in Simplicity 8334; Vogue Vixens

3.) Peter Pan & Tinkerbell in Simplicity 7784; Vogue Vixens

Yes, still more Classic Disney.

1.) Minnie Mouse in Simplicity 7730; Vogue Vixens

2.) Snow White in Simplicity 7735; Lonestar Blondie

3.) Mickey Mouse in Simplicity 7729; Laguna Lane

Did somebody say "princess?!"

Who's the fairest of them all?

Princess patterns are in no shortage in the pattern world!

1.) Merida from Brave in Simplicity 1557; People Packages

2.) Rapunzel from Tangled in Simplicity 2065; Grandma Made With Love

3.) Elsa & Anna from Frozen in Simplicity 0733; Wit's End Design

4.) Snow White & Cinderella in Simplicity 2813; Grey Dog Vintage

This is so cute! ^__^

Not a costume, but how about this amazing vintage Cinderella apron from Penny's and Disney, available at Keepsakes Studio? Wow! Really rare and awesome. I haven't been able to find an actual vintage Cinderella Disney-licensed costume, but perhaps one existed? Let me know if you know of one!

So much fun!

1.) Toddler Disney Princesses in 4949; Pattern Matters

2.) Woody & Jessie in Simplicity 9433; MbChills

3.) Jasmine & Ariel in Simplicity 9919; She Finds Vintage

Those dwarf costumes are amazing!

All from mbchills comes

1.) Grumpy & Dopey in Simplicity 7736

2.) Ariel, Snow White & Cinderella in Simplicity 5832

3.) Captain Hook, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell in Simplicity 9844

This is amazing and rare!

Via the Vintage Pattern Wiki is this rare licensed Snow White costume, McCall 558; circa 1930s! Disney has never been shy at licensing to every possible market. :) This one is really a stunner, probably one of the first if not the first Disney-licensed pattern.

I love the fairy costumes! :3

Hard to find pattern Simplicity 8328 via the Vintage Pattern Wiki comes this Sleeping Beauty costume.. featuring Princess Aurora and cutely, the three fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather.

The graphic is beautiful!

Advance 709 in the Vintage Pattern Wiki is this very rare and really beautiful Peter Pan costume! I couldn't find any other Disney-licensed Advance patterns. Please tell me if you know of any. :) I think it is unusual that while most Disney patterns are now licensed under the Simplicity brand, the earliest Disney costumes were licensed to McCall's.. and this one to Advance!

Picture via Vintage Pattern Wiki.

You can bet everyone wants this rare Maleficent costume pattern, Simplicity 8329! RARE! Expensive if you find one.

Oh wow!

Found on The Walt Disney Company blog via Pinterest, this amazing 1930s Mickey and Minnie costume from McCall (#142) is out of control! I have never seen one for sale. This is REALLY RARE and I was so excited to see it.

I'm sure this is only a SMALL SAMPLING of the licensed Disney costumes that have been offered for sale over the years.

Disney has licensed patterns for embroidery transfers, 18" doll-sized costumes, 11.5" doll-sized costumes, even Disney princess costumes for your DOG.

If you know of any other pre-1980s Disney costume patterns that I have missed, please fill me in! I really enjoy archiving this information the best that I can.

Look for more cartoon sewing pattern features in the future!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Focus On: Children's Halloween Costumes

By Sherri from sewbettyanddot

Summer is winding down and back-to-school is on everyone's minds. However, it's never too early to start thinking about Halloween (or, as it used to be spelled, "Hallowe'en")!

Most scholars think Halloween stems from a pre-Christian Celtic festival called Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween), the significant holiday of the Celtic year. It was believed that around November 1 (the beginning of the new Celtic year), ghosts were able to mingle with the living—on that day the souls of people who had died during the year traveled into the otherworld. To help them on their journey, animals were sacrificed and fruits and vegetables were left out (traditions such as bobbing for apples and carving vegetables such as turnips and pumpkins into jack o’lanterns stem from this); bonfires were lit to assist the dead on their journey (and to keep them away from the living!). After the establishment of Christianity, the notion of a day (November 1) to honor souls became All Saints Day, so October 31 became All Hallows (Hallowed = Saintly) Eve (Hallow Evening = Hallowe’en = Halloween).

Halloween is a holiday of many mysterious customs, most of which can be traced back to the ancient Celtic day of the dead. Knocking on doors demanding treats (or threatening a “trick”/mischief) can be traced back to the original notion that ghosts, fairies, witches, and demons were wandering amongst us. Over time, people began to dress like these frightening creatures, disguising themselves to blend in and performing in exchange for refreshments. This is called mumming, and trick-or-treating as we know it developed from the practice. The first report of children “guising” (asking storekeepers for treats while in costumes) dates from 1911, but the term “trick-or-treating” doesn’t appear until the 1930s; it didn’t become the widespread activity we know today until after World War II.

Before the 1930s, the idea of fancy dress costumes for adults were popular for many different occasions, not just Halloween. The Dennison Manufacturing Co.—who made crepe paper and a zillion other paper products—published numerous booklets with instructions on how to make these costumes. Halloween began to become a more child-centric holiday in the late 1930s, and in 1937 the Ben Cooper Co. (Cooper made Ziegfeld Follies costumes before launching his business) began to manufacture children’s Halloween costumes and masks and sell them in stores such as Woolworth’s.

Black-and-white images are crepe paper costumes from various editions of Dennison booklets, "How to Make Paper Costumes,"' from my own collection (I am obsessed!); color image of Pictorial pattern courtesy Tuppence Ha'Penny blog

And of course, for decades, millions of parents have gotten out their sewing machines and made that perfect costume for their children (the earliest pattern I can find is a Pictorial witch costume from the 1920s, pictured above). Early costumes tended to be traditional witches, clowns, ghosts, and devils, but in the 1950s with the advent of TV, pop culture characters became popular. Dressing little kids up as animals has endured over the decades as well, and the princess/fairy/ballerina look is also alive and well. Costumes have seen controversy—especially those that are seen to appropriate cultural symbols or deal in stereotypes—but today Halloween is a bigger holiday than ever, in part because it has become one of the only occasions when adults dress in costumes.

Let’s look at some amazing vintage costume patterns from members of the Pattern Patter team. I’ve focused here on children’s costumes (for the most part). Interesting to note: the different incarnations of aliens/spacemen (the earliest on Etsy is Butterick 3352, from the 1950s, seen here in first collage, fourth row, second image).