Sew Can Do: Cockroach Villain's Battle Emporium

I know Halloween's over, but since the weather didn't cooperate much and having all the costumes done was an 11th hour affair, I've only just gotten the last of our photos taken. After all the work this year's costumes took, I definitely wanted a photo record of what the final results were!

Today's costume was one for my teenage son. This was probably his last year trick or treating so we wanted to make it a good one. It's also harder to come up with costume ideas that are cool for the bigger kids. He suggested a Viking, which was fierce and not "babyish", but still fun.

My husband's foam-smithing skills came in handy on this one. He'd recently finished the horned helmet as a hobby project so we had that ready to go. It's hard to believe the entire thing is made from sculpted flat foam floor mats, but it is!

He worked with our son to come up with a matching foam shield for it. I was impressed that my 15yr old cut all the circles (there were 3 layers) using a band saw and then dad did the texturing and painting to give it a faux metal & wood feel:

My main contribution was coming up with a faux fur pelt cape to complete the look. I didn't have time to get all precise with the pattern so I measured how long it should be from neck to waist and the width to go across his back and around the front and cut a sort of curved trapezoid piece, using a jacket as a rough shape to trace to get the neckline curved right. I was rushing to get it done so there wasn't even time to take pics in progress.

I used some tan sweatshirt fabric I had in my stash to sew the lining. I stitched them together right sides facing and the hand stitched the gap for turning it right side out closed. Having the fabric inside made it soft & warm:

I was too busy trying to figure out how to draft up kid #2's Darkwing Duck blazer to sew a vest/shirt/anything else, so my guy & his dad hit the local Goodwill and found this perfect sherpa vest:

My son had the idea for making a sew-on leatherette clasp to keep his cape on (and cover the modern zipper), so he cut it out and I hand-stitched it in place for him using some more handy brass buttons from my grandma's stash. These had the perfect Viking vibe:

The boots were my husband's idea. He bought a cheap pair of wellington rubber boots and we cut some fur pieces to cover the foot and calf portions. They were glued on with a strong rubber cement. Since we were careful to cut the fur to stay shaggy around the edges, it hid the seams nicely:

And my last costume this year was a cozy wolf for our little lady. She'd gotten some wolf paw gloves last year and was determined to have a full ensemble for Halloween. I did a quick job on hers since I had a grey fleece shirt I'd made for her brother's costume last year.

I used a pajama pants pattern to make matching bottoms and whipped up one of my classic fleece wolf hats just for her. It had been a while since I'd made them - they used to keep me very busy this time of year when I made them for my shop. Thankfully I just needed to do one this time!

I also made a little plush tail to go on the back of her outfit and the costume was complete. My perfectionist self normally would've done a full body costume with more details, but with limited time and knowing I already had part of it ready at the get-go, it seemed a waste of time & materials to just start at zero to fulfill my own crafting ego.

Truthfully speaking, this year's costume-making was more chore than enjoyment since there wasn't much time to work on them beforehand. Next year the kids will either need to do more of the DIY-ing or pick things that are more basic to make since I'll have a 4th costume to do for our little pumpkin on the way. Time will be spread even thinner!

It feels like I blinked and October is nearly over despite there being so much I still want to do. It's always a busy month around here with Halloween, fall activities, full-time homeschool and my oldest kid's birthday, but this year we threw a craft show into the mix, which meant even more madness, so instead of working on new projects & tutorials, this is what I was working on:

My husband has been doing foam-smithing projects as a hobby and decided to take it public at a themed craft/cosplay/comic con show this past weekend. He'd never done a show or sold his creations before so yours truly was in charge of all the show planning, gathering gear, sign making, display and, being a crafter, making a few last minute additions to fill up his booth space. Last week I shared the trials & tribulations of making his shop sign with glitter vinyl.

He got a lot of positive feedback on his helmets & swords though, enough that in the show's downtime he set up his first ever Etsy shop, Cockroach Villain's Battle Emporium!

It's named after a toy my middle son calls Cockroach Villain (no idea why since it doesn't resemble a cockroach at all as you can see from the logo), but the shop's got items like these in it:

He makes and sculpts everything out of EVA foam and hand paints all the details so they're realistic, but totally soft and safe. Good for costumes, cosplay, props and adults or kids.

Our own kids have heavily test it all for play-ability.

For my contribution I made some Halloween-y floral hair clips & headbands and some soft soled baby shoes in some comic-con friendly themed prints.

I've added the baby shoes I had left to my Etsy shop, The Green Hedgehog.

They're all made from custom run cotton knit fabric & coordinating fleece lining for some special little footwear for the smallest of feet.

Let me tell you, craft shows are WORK! Add up all the lead up work, time at the show and driving out of state 2 days in a row, it was exhausting. It had been a while since I'd done one, but honestly, I'll be good if I never do another. This particular event was free so there were a lot more people looking for a chance to wear their costumes in public than actually shopping, which was a shame for the vendors. There's just so much prep and miscellaneous expense and time involved I don't know how people do this kind of thing regularly when it's such a gamble people will even buy your stuff.

How about you - Do you do craft shows? Just attend them? Love or Hate?