Sew much fun!

Halloween was approaching, and my almost-3-year-old was consistently saying that she wanted to be Ariel (The Little Mermaid) this year.

Work had been (and still is) crazy, but I'm not sick anymore and Pinterest gave me confidence to tackle my sewing machine with this cute and easy mermaid skirt.  Success!! (Mostly)

I'd never made a ruffle before, but I liked the idea of making a skirt that my daughter could wear beyond Halloween.  I bought a ruffler foot off of Amazon to play with (what a headache that turned out to be), and eventually learned how to make a ruffle by hand (pretty easy!).  Once you get the hang of things, it really is a 30-minute skirt.  I even made a 2nd!

Unfortunately, she decided that the best way to wear this skirt was to hike it up around her waist and show the world that she is potty trained.  So... I added a panel of fabric in front (between her legs and the skirt) and also attempted to make a pair of "finned" leggings that she could have as a backup/supplement to the skirt.  I was really proud of myself for sewing my first skirt AND pants, but the pants turned out to be more like something you might pair with a flower costume and didn't get used.

Ariel has friends, so we decided to make it a family costume, hooray fun!  My  little boy became Sebastian: red sweatsuit, open claw mittens (so he could still use his hands) and a crab hat.

I was Flounder: Yellow shirt with blue felt spikes sewn down the back and stripes hot-glued on, with a felt & hotglue headband.  My husband was Prince Eric: white shirt, blue jeans, work boots & red fabric tied around waist... and a short wig because, like Disney princesses, Disney princes always have full, flowing manes of hair.  My mother-in-law also participated, dressing as another mermaid with a 2nd skirt that I pulled together.

 Of course, by the time Halloween came around (a week after her costume party birthday), she was over Ariel.  Here's some of what she cycled through on Halloween: