Sew Geeky Spectacular! Holo! Hello Kitty! Moogle!
It’s Halloweentime guys!
This is one of my very favorite times of year! Max and I decided a while back that it would be great to do a big free for all geek fest for this month's Sew Geeky. A chance for everyone to sew whatever they want that they love, and the creations by our guests so far have been awe inspiring, to say the least!
This month is usually a time for month long festivities and merriment in our household, but this month started with the most shocking tragedy of my life.
I lost a very, very dear friend and coworker very suddenly by a random act of gun violence and it has left me numb and confused about a lot of things.
I'll never be able to eloquently express how much Mikey meant means to me, he was a loyal friend and one of the kindest, most definitely the wittiest, charismatic people I've ever met. It was a privilege to have been able to be a part of his life. Mikey was my go to geeky friend (among his many attributes).
One of the many things I loved about him (and there was a long list of things to love) was sharing all the Sew Geeky creations I made.
He always knew the characters I was portraying and would get gitty over the chibi interpretations I made for the girls. We would frequently have conversations about Final Fantasy video game stuff (we are big Final Fantasy fans in this house. Heck, Sephira’s name came from my finding “Sephiroth" in an angel dictionary of mine and the description said “see Sephira” and the rest was history).
He mentioned several times to me about wanting me to make him a moogle onesie for himself.
As my fellow seamstresses can relate, getting requests from people for stuff you aren’t sure you could make is always a tricky one and I had sorta put it off a bunch of times.
When I told him on what would be my last shift I’d ever work with him that I was going to make Akira a moogle for Halloween, he gave me this adorable pouty face and said that I was supposed to make him a moogle outfit forever ago.
So we chatted about how I’d make him a moogle beanie for Halloween and then the onesie a little later. And we giggled about how adorable Akira was going to be in her moogle outfit as we checked out my Studio Ghibli Sew Geeky stuff…
Most days I just stayed in bed crying.
Finding the motivation to create was not on the table. But there were a few things that I thought were absolutely necessary to be made immediately for his memorial: a Neutral Milk Hotel dress (was a band we both really enjoyed and which will be blogged about later) and Akira’s moogle outfit because Mikey would have really wanted a moogle there. That I am sure of.
So without further ado, I present to you mommy’s chibi moogle:
Moogle from Final Fantasy
I made a zip up {affiliate link} Bimaa hooded sweatshirt out of this cuddly fur fabric and then made feety leggings for her bottoms.
I covered a Styrofoam ball with red minky fabric and used a hanger wire and custom piping for the little ball on the head.
I hand stitched it like mad between the layers to keep it in place.
I self-drafted the wings on the back out of purple flannel.
I am in love with the way she looks in it!
She pulled a few funny faces during the photoshoot…
I can see his reaction and his giggling in my mind makes the outfit a definite win!
I miss him madly. There will be more blog posts about a couple other Mikey inspired handmades with more stories about him very soon.
But "KUPO" for now!
Holo from Spice + Wolf
Azriella really surprised me when I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween.
Her initial answer was Nausicaä, but I told her that maybe she wanted to do something different since I had just made it for her birthday outfit last month.
She agreed, looked up at the tv in my sewing room, and said “Oooh! I want to be her!!” and pointed to the girl on the anime I was watching, which was Holo from Spice & Wolf.
I didn’t really believe she was serious but every day after that, when asked what she wanted to be for Halloween, every time she answered “you know, that wolf girl from your show!”
My daughter already in love with anime? Warms a geeky mother’s heart!
Holo is a wolf god that has the power to change back and forth into wolf form as needed and is very sassy and smart.
I won’t go into too much detail about the show, but Holo is essentially traveling with a merchant, trying to make her way back home and along the way they fall in love. She loves apples too.
Her outfit consists of the soon to be re-released wide legged {affiliate link} Hosh pants with the new yoga waistband option. I shortened them a lot as Holo pants are more like capris then long pants. To incorporate the sash, I made the yoga waistband out of maroon ribbed knit.
Her shirt was modified slightly from this book.
The tail, was, ahem, a bit of a fail in my opinion. I bought that bright orange fabric that I used for Akira’s Calcifer outfit from fabric.com, never expecting it to be neon as that was not a part of the description online.
I decided to make the best of it by buying brown polyester dye to “tone down” the orange to an auburn color. Let’s just say, if they say brown, they mean brown. Finding affordable auburn fur, especially last minute, is like trying to find a leprechaun. I just went ahead with the tail, attaching it to a matching maroon knit waistband to be hidden under her pants waistband.
The ears are barrettes that I made a tad to high, so I will be reworking them for Halloween.
To be honest, it’s not as perfect as I really would have wanted, but it was hard to even get motivated to get out of bed most days this month so it will have to do. It is super comfy and Azriella is actually quite stoked about it! Come to think of it, I’m the only one in the house that isn’t 100% pleased with it so I guessed I should just tell myself to be quiet, ha!
Hello Kitty Bumblebee Princess
And last but not least, the three year old.
Believe me, she was true to three year old form with her decision on who to be for Halloween.
First it was a magic wand.
Then it was Hello Kitty witch with wings, a magic wand and crossed with a bumble bee.
I even bought fabric for it and then she changed her mind again.
She insisted to be a pink, Hello Kitty flower princess with wings.
I found this perfect pattern and this perfect panel fabric at Jo-ann’s on clearance! I had a lot of fun embroidering the Hello Kitty face on the top of the romper.
I assume it will be a little chilly here in Portland on Halloween, and probably rainy, so I bought hot pink rain boots and made a baby pink long sleeved Bimaa with the cowl option, and little padded white wings on her back.
The skirt I decided to make with a paper bag look waistband and added boning near the hem to make the skirt bell out.
I added a tulle and lining layer for extra poof and drafted out and made the hem scalloped.
Forgive the wrinkles please. she was sitting down while waiting for her turn for photos and this fabric is not very forgiving!
I finished it up with a little glitter store bought headband and made some little ears and a bow for her to keep her locks in place.
She adores it, even though the day of the pictures she told me she wanted to be Doc McStuffins.
meh.
Like I said: three year olds.
Gotta love em’!
I look forward to summer when she can wear the romper all on its onesie.
GET IT!
HA!
Sorry, not sorry for the pun.
I even managed to get a couple of Akira and Sephira together…
even though they pulled a couple of derp faces on me.
So there you have it!
Sorry my post was a little delayed today, but I feel a little like Bambi trying to learn to walk again in regards to life and blogging at the moment.
I plan on finishing up Jon’s Ruronoa Zorro outfit and the rest of my Mizore outfit by the end of the week and will take pictures and blog about it too! Fingers crossed!
But people, you have just GOT to see what all these incredible ladies are making!
So far:
Thouraya made a collection of My Little Pony capes, chibi Aquaman, and a Firefly outfit that left me misty eyed when I saw it because a certain someone was a huge fan about the show.
Melissa made this enchanting Maleficent costume.
Stacey made this super cool Darth Vader pajama set.
Marissa made this friggin’ adorable mermaid Totoro dress.
Jill made this spooky sheik skeleton hoodie and a rainbow zip-up rib cage.
And Max made this awesomesauce Darth Hipster Star Wars outfit for Eddie!
And guys, that’s not even it!
There’s even more geeky creations yet to come! We will have a few more guest posts before Halloween, so be sure to follow us on Facebook to see them all as they arrive! We will have a B I G roundup on the official Sew Geeky website of all the guests on Halloween and the linky party up for you to add your stuff for everyone to oogle at!
Much love everyone!
many many smooches,
kat
Dedicated to Michael W. Olsen 1983-2014