Lucy is a girl who loves to read.
And last year she told me early on, Mom I know what I want to be for Halloween.
Oh yea? What? (bracing myself for the variety of teen costume ideas)
I want to be Nancy Drew!
Ahhhhh. Yes! What a fun idea.
It’s the perfect literary snapshot of Lucy.
Like Nancy, Lucy is one who loves to go on adventures. She likes to try new foods (at least a bite or two). She’s up for roller coasters. And she and Casey love to solve riddles and puzzles and all that kind of stuff together….which is funny since I’m more of the, Okay just tell me the answer already so I can move on to something else, sort of person. There’s a need for both in this world? I think.
So we gathered all her Nancy Drew books, and studied the various outfits and accessories that Nancy uses when solving mysteries.
And, Oh. My. Gosh. I want to be Nancy too! Look at her amazing clothing! I’m pretty sure I need the yellow and green dresses in my wardrobe.
This artwork is awesome. Lucy pointed out her favorite dress features and I thought, well….why reinvent the wheel? Let’s just tweak the First Day Dress again (which I also used for her LaLa Loopsy costume).
And what would be better than pairing a ‘60s dress design with BLUSH fabrics?? I let Lucy pick from the collection and she and I were thinking the same thing—-teal Hex fabric.
The dress is kind of a combo of all the dress designs from the books.
And I’m not sure which part I love more….
The back:
Or the front:
I made a few tweaks to the original pattern (which you can find here in the shop)
And this is not a full-on tutorial….But here’s what I did:
• FRONT – I extended the neckline out to be more of a boatneck.
• BACK – I drew the back neckline quite low (but high enough to cover a bra strap) so there was no need for a button closure.
• COLLAR – I added a small peter pan collar by drawing a collar piece similar to the new neckline I created.
• SLEEVES – I made the sleeves even skinnier and smaller, so they’re just little caps.
And I love how it turned out!
We purchased a simple cardigan sweater and cut out the initials ND from felt and hand stitched them to the sweater.
Then we added some accessories: belt, a watch, flashlight, magnifying glass, and a sweater. And Lucy was ready for the night!
I always meant to take more “staged” pics of her costume for the blog, but never got around to it. So this is the only picture I have!…along with her Harry Potter and Hermione siblings. How crazy does Owen look with black hair??
I have to say, her costume wasn’t super obvious. But people loved it when we said Nancy Drew! And she loved it. And I loved that it was her idea. There was a lot of love going around.
She insisted that we trim her hair a bit so it would flip out at the bottom. Again, this is the only pic I have (which I probably took to show her how the back looked). But there you go. And I had to include the post-halloween-candy-sorting pic because this scene just makes me smile. Happy kids, a cozy fire, and the Dodgers playing in the world series (last year). Good memories!
I’m not sure what the kids are going to be THIS year. But after 10 years of blogging I’ve finally got this costume/blogging thing figured out—-just wait a year to post their costumes and then you can do it a month early!….instead of scrambling on Oct 30th to share the details.
Live and learn.
And twirl.
What are your kids going to be??? I need some Clara ideas…..
