Thursday, November 18, 2010

Halloween Costume Recap: Catwoman

Best laid plans and having children goes together as well as oil and water. Halloween is a great example. You may recall Princess Fierce wanted to be Darth Fairy for Halloween. Yet she needed the costume made in advance to also be worn while watching the Dragon*Con parade. She loved her Darth Fairy costume and was convinced it was still going to be worn again at Halloween...

until...

well, until...

the boots.

These boots changed everything. Princess Fierce was given a nice $20 bill in her birthday booty. When we head off to Target to spend said money she sees no suitable toys. Instead her newly minted five-year-old self walks down to the shoe aisle. Wha? Did she just turn five or twenty-five? She tries on several things until she spies these black boots on a high shelf. From the minute they went on she was in love. She looks up at me hopefully to ask if she has enough money to buy them. Indeed she did. 

And indeed she did buy them. Then she said something else. Her heart bursting with future joy, her eyes lit up with excitement she says, "and now I want to be CATWOMAN for Halloween!"

But, but, but what about the Darth Fairy I made? *sigh* I had to admit the boots would rock as part of a Catwoman costume. And I couldn't forget her favorite person to find at Dragon*Con to be photographed with was...

Catwoman. However, I asked her if instead of being the Dragon*Con Catwoman I could persuade her to check out a much more child appropriate Catwoman.


Julie Newmar's Catwoman. Princess Fierce loved her. This version would be much easier to create and much more fitting for a little girl of five young years. We had the boots. We had black leggings. We needed only a few things...

The ears. I was going to make these until my daughter found an inexpensive perfect fitting pair at Target. Plus they came with a clip on tail for her imaginary play. We opted against the mask. She would've been wanting to take it off. And since TV's Catwoman often went without her mask, my girl was on board with the idea. Especially if it meant I'd put eye make up on her instead. 

The shirt with gold hip belt. I used a black long sleeve tee shirt. Instead of messing with a gold belt that my daughter would be irritated by having sit on her hips I opted for sewing gold sequined trim directly to the bottom hem. The trim was free since one of my dear friends happened to have a leftover stash of exactly what I needed. Thanks, Jamie! I'd never worked with sewing stretchy sequin trim before. But a backstitch across the top held it securely without puckering and a simple whip stitch along the bottom prevented it from flipping up.

Next the necklace. This is the essential piece needed. I already blogged about how I created it from costume jewlery, a toy lion and a can of spray paint.

Last a gun. Catwoman did indeed have a gold gun in a few episodes. You can see it here if you doubt me. But most importantly, my girl saw another fabulous Julie Newmar Catwoman costume and the girl sported a golden gun. My girl had to have one too. We had a perfect sized old Power Ranger gun in the dress-up trunk that was easily transformed with that same gold spray paint. 

That's it. All the essential pieces to create Catwoman. Princess Fierce was indeed fierce in her costume. Can't wait to see what she comes up with next year.










I had a hard time picking my favorite photo to share. I'm sure you couldn't tell.