DIY Wizard101 Wraith Halloween Costume

My Spencer, the same kid who wanted a Wizard101-themed birthday party this past summer (see post here), wanted to be a Wraith for Halloween.  He likes to stretch my creativity.

The robe is pretty straight-forward.  I used the Simplicity 5512 Costumes for Kids pattern and some black fleece.  (This pattern is awesome, by the way.  I've used it for a number of costumes for my kids over the years!)

 

The staff was also fairly easy.  I already had a wooden dowel from Home Depot leftover from something.  I cut a crescent moon shape out of cardboard and taped it to the top of the dowel.  My husband reinforced it, and made it look cooler, with silver duct tape.  We didn't have time to paint the dowel black, but it worked.

 

The wings were the biggest challenge.  I'll try to explain how they came together the best I can! 

The Wraith in Wizard101 seems to have wings made out of feathers.  Well, feathers are expensive.  So I used some creepy-looking fabric that I had snapped up as a remnant.  The fabric came with "holes" in it already.  (In retrospect, I thought that a black garbage bag would have worked, too.  You could really shred it and it might look more like feathers than the fabric did.  And it would be waterproof!)

 

For each wing, I took a strip of the fabric and sewed it on three sides like a pillowcase.  I just stitched on the top of the fabric -- I wasn't going for neatness here.  Then I snipped the edges with pinking shears.  I draped the "pillowcase" over a black hanger with the open side at the bottom.  I had left a  gap in one side seam for the hanger hook to stick out.

 

My husband figured out how to attach the hangers to something Spencer could actually wear.  He took an old backpack that we had gotten free from somewhere and cut off the backpack part leaving just the black straps and black back.  He pierced a hole in the strap fabric to insert the hanger hook (which he had straightened) and held it there with a zip tie.  (See photo below.)  He also attached the hanger to the back of the backpack with another zip tie at the bottom of the wing.

 

To keep the wing tops separate, he stuck a wire between them. The wire was taped to the hangers and poked through the fabric.  You can see the wire in the photo below, but it wasn't noticeable when Spencer wore the costume.

 

 

Once the wings were all attached to the backpack, I went after them with the scissors and made the fabric into more of a wing shape and I cut strips in the fabric to better resemble feathers.

 

Here's another look at the wings and the robe hanging on a hanger.

 

At trick-or-treat time, with the skull-like face paint, Spencer looked downright terrifying!

 

Quick Mantel Change

Ever notice how time seems to fast-forward once school starts and it doesn't slow down until January?  Yeah, me too.  Before my  kids were in school, I spent a lot more time at home and could play around with flower arrangements and whatnot on my mantel while the kids threw toys around.  Now that they're in school, I feel like I'm never home and my seasonal decorating has taken a back seat to soccer practices and volunteering in the classroom.

Once the end of September neared and I saw that my mantel still sported the red, white, and blue from the summer (see my post on the USA banner made from old jeans!), I figured it was about time to change it up for fall.  But I didn't want to go full-on Halloween; I wanted something that I could leave up there for longer than a month.

I went with owls.  You can't go wrong with owls, right?  They go with both Halloween and fall in general.  Plus they're all trendy right now and I have quite a collection of them.  I arranged some birch logs (thanks, Dad!) and my owls and a feather boa on the mantel.

When Halloween got nearer, I made it a bit creepier by draping a skull printed on cheesecloth-type material over the mirror.  His red eyes went nicely with the red candles that were still sitting there from summer.

Now that Halloween is over, I took down the skull and red candles.  I put up a brownish-orange candle and matching pumpkin instead.  And I put my little fall snowman in the front.  In less than 5 minutes my mantel went from Halloween to Fall/Thanksgiving.

Yes, I live in a part of the country where snowmen are perfectly acceptable as fall decorations.  And I like it that way!

 

Now that I think about it, all the white in the birch logs and owls might work for Christmas and winter as well!  Considering how busy December is, I'm guessing I'll make it work!

Halloween Mini Album

One of the main reasons I scrapbook is that I have a horrible memory.  If it's not in the scrapbook, it's like it didn't even happen.  So when the kids and I were discussing what their past Halloween costumes had been, I was having a very difficult time recalling what they wore!

 

I decided to make an 8x8 album to hold pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes each year.

 

Here's the title page:

 

 

This is my favorite year - when Aaron (jaguar) was 3 and Spencer (Tigger) was one:

And here they are last Halloween as a Special Agent and a Ninja.

 

 

With two simple pages for each year, this is an album I can easily update as I get new pictures.  And this mini album will now become a part of my Halloween decorations!