I am making Halloween costumes for the girls. Katie is going to be Dora the Explorer. This costume is simple. It is all bought things, pink tee shirt, orange shorts, white shoes, yellow socks and a purple back-pack.
The hardest part was finding yellow socks.
I used jiggly eyes and red sticky felt to make Back-pack's face.

Julie is going to be Boots, Dora's monkey side-kick.
And while the base of the costume is bought, there are lots of little bits that I have to make. In an amazing stroke of luck I found fleece that exactly matches the sweat shirt and pants that I bought for the body of the costume.

Tonight, after the girls were asleep I started on putting the contrasting belly on the sweatshirt and making the two toned tail. (Boots is a very cartoon sort of monkey.)
My sewing machine, a 26 year old Necchi, usually is very cooperative, but tonight it was in serious rebellion. The thread kept breaking and getting tangled underneath.
I was afraid that I was going to have to finish this by hand.
It appears that little hands have been messing with the tension dial. I finally managed to set things right, but when this is all done it's going in for a cleaning and tune-up.

Tomorrow, when I have Julie's head to work from, I have to make the head-piece. If it works, it's going to be awesome.
Wish me luck.

GHR