We had a great Halloween! We went as Olive Oyl and Popeye. We tried to stay as close to the cartoon as possible, and make everything with quality and comfort in mind. Here’s what we did…

Popeye. We patterned the top after the US Navy’s dress blues jumper. I used black, red, and blue twill. The collar I had to construct after I’d sewn the jumper. I added black bias tape and iron-on star patches for the embellishments. The blue on the sleeves is slightly stuffed with poly-fill. The pants are made using a vintage bellbottom pattern and twill dyed royal blue. I made the pockets with flower linings and extra large belt loops. The buttons are large plastic buttons that we spray painted yellow, and the belt is an extra uniform belt that Garth had, dyed yellow. The hat is one of Garth’s uniform hats, and the shoes are his regular brown shoes. Garth made the corn cob pipe from frozen corn-on-the-cob that we had in the freezer (he microwaved it to death) and some scrap wood we found in the garage. His spinach can is made out of a large can of chili (that Garth ate in one sitting-ick!), an old poster re-painted with a spinach label, and some green scrap fleece machine and hand sewn into spinachy clumps. The arms were the hardest. We spent a good afternoon discussing and planning how to do it and eventually we purchased several pounds of Crayola’s Model Magic. We sculpted the arms to the size we wanted over Garth’s and then very carefully used a razor blade to cut them down the sides (I only gave Garth one little cut!). They were placed on Garth’s arms, covered in thin strips of white knit (to cover the transition and even out the tone), then covered with three layers of tights and panty hose, and finally, tattoos were drawn on the forearms using a sharpee.

Olive. Olive is by far the easier costume. I used a basic shirt pattern to make the shirt from a slightly stretchy polyester blend knit. I added the sleeves and collar using a similar white knit. The skirt is an older version of the US Navy female dress blues that I found at a thrift store. I added a wide yellow grossgrain ribbon. Long white socks and a pair of Garth’s old boots, spray painted brown, finished it off. I wore the skirt higher than my natural waist becasue it made my legs look longer, and because my 5-month-pregnant-belly fit better that way.

We had so much fun! Garth re-enlisted in the morning in his costume (I couldn’t take my camera in, but I think we’ll be able to get some of the photographers pics), and we spent the evening giving candy to the trick-or-treaters, carving our pumpkins, watching movies, and eating our homemade pizza and homemade root beer. Yum!

Love to everyone that I love!
Laura. =)

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