Making Kiki

Last year, before Halloween was even upon us, Akiko had already decided what she wanted to be for Halloween this year. Fine with me. It gives me a whole year to plan things out.

I decided to get a jump start on costumes a couple weeks ago. Now that the craziness of the beginning of school is behind us, there's a lull where I can actually get a few projects done before the craziness of October and the beginning of the holidays hits. This October is going to be a bit crazier than usual, but more on that later.

Simon and Asher are just using hand-me-downs (saves me time on the costume making). Simon will be a mouse and I will be a cat. Asher will be a mummy and Joseph will be a pharaoh (a costume that I bought, *gasp!*). Akiko will be Kiki and Moses will be Tombo.

Kiki and Tombo who?

This Kiki and Tombo...

... from this movie:

If you've never seen the movie, you should check it out. It's super cute and one of our favorites.

I've been working on Jiji, Kiki's black cat, for a while. I had been looking for a stuffed version to buy, and I know they're available, but I could not find any for sale anywhere. I did find a crochet pattern though at this link.

I altered the pattern a bit. The original pattern makes Jiji into a cone with front paws attached. I wanted him to look more like this...

... when he's standing in for the stuffed cat that Kiki lost during a delivery.

I puffed out his chest and made his body more cylindrical. Then I created hind legs to make him look more like a sitting cat rather than a lumpy cone. The rest of the pattern I followed.

Done, but without the details.

Simon loves him:

I just finished him this afternoon. I also made the radio:

Please try to ignore the unevenness of the speaker holes. I'm not that perfect. And sorry about the phone pictures. I took them to send to my sister.

The radio was a fun project. It's just a large pudding box covered in red duct tape, with a little silver duct tape for the window. The antenna is a black straw. The dials on top are soda caps that I colored with a sharpie and glued on. The radio only took me about an hour to put together.

Akiko/Kiki's dress was an interesting project. I'm not really a clothing/garment seamstress. Well, I've never made a dress, anyway. I didn't use a pattern. I used one of Akiko's shirtdresses as a guide.

I totally winged the whole thing. Even the sleeves. As I worked on it, I kept thinking to myself that the dress was either going to be okay or disastrous. It ended up better than perfect!! I'm so pleased with it!

Really hard to see, but it really did turn out well.

It fits Akiko perfectly. It's easy for her to get on and off. The sleeves and the hem are even. I mean, I couldn't have asked for this dress to go any better. I only had to redo the sleeves once.

All that's left to do for Akiko is to make the shoulder bag and the red bow and find red ballet flats. I'm really pleased with how this costume is coming together.

Moses' costume is pretty simple. I can't find a red and white striped shirt anywhere in his size. I'm only finding them for adult-sized Where's Waldo costumes. I'm going to take one of his white shirts and paint the stripes on, ensuring that it'll look just like Tombo's shirt. After that, I only have to dye a long sleeved shirt yellow (because yellow sweaters are also impossible to find).

Moses and Akiko are going to look so cute this year. I'm so pleased with how everything is coming together.

Joseph thinks I should encourage our kids to be characters that are less obscure. I don't. My kids know who their characters are and that's all that matters to us. I could get into a big long discussion about this debate, but maybe I'll save that for another post.

Oh, and if you're wondering, next year's costumes are in preliminary planning already. What can I say? I really love making Halloween costumes.