She's creepy and she's kooky...

When I was helping Courtney do some fun research for her Avery Costume Inspiration post, I had a few Wednesday Addams images up on my screen. My youngest, Sydney, looked over my shoulder and said, "Who's that?". I took it as an invitation to travel down memory lane, explaining everything about the original Addams Family show, which I watched as re-runs growing up, and then how the "new" movies came out in the early-90's and made the characters "trendy". I thought about watching the movies with the kids, but sadly I only had them in VHS. But, it didn't matter... a few pictures in and she had already exclaimed, "I wanna be Wednesday Addams for Halloween!" YIPPEE!

So, voila!

I used the MODKID AVERY sewing pattern, View C (long sleeves) with a few modifications, which I will detail below. Pattern can be found on Etsy, Craftsy and YCMT.

COLLAR

Since most of the pictures I saw of Wednesday Addams' dress had a pointed collar, I decided it was an easy enough modification to make. I printed off the collar pattern piece and re-drew the rounded edge as shown below:

 Then I sewed and finished it just as instructed in the pattern.

LENGTH 

Since Avery is a drop-waist dress,  I decided to change the proportions a tad so that the dress would look a bit more authentic. I cut off 2" at the bottom of the Front and Back Bodices (as shown below), and added those 2" to the skirt length.

I cut one single width of fabric, instead of two, to make the skirt less poofy. The skirt was finished just as instructed, except the single seam is now at the center back, instead of two seams at the sides.

SNAPS

This was purely for Sydney's sake (and it's not really a modification because the pattern actually states "Buttons or Snaps"), but for this particular dress I opted to use Pearl Snaps (found at JoAnn Fabrics in the Notions aisle) because Sydney prefers them to buttons. They were super easy to install and only took a couple of minutes.

OTHER COSTUME DETAILS

Fabric: I used Riley Blake's True Black and Clean White, which sewed up like butter and have such a soft, silky hand.

Doll: I used my Potty Girl Panel from my old fabric line, Playdate, which is now out of stock and very hard to find, but I have listed just a handful of panels here, so get them while they're hot because once they're gone, they're GONE! I added black buttons to the eyes and sewed some black hairbows over the existing printed ones, to give her more of a Gothic look.

Doll's dress: I used this FREE printable pattern. Even though the pattern calls for knit fabrics only, I sewed this dress with the same True Black (woven) fabric as the Avery. I cut it on the bias and left the neck and arm holes raw so they would get that awesome fraying... I wanted it to have that vintage ragdoll look.

Shoes: Sydney is wearing my old Doc Martens from my college days. Yes, my almost-10-year-old has the same size feet as I do!

COMING UP...

• Don't forget to join in on the Avery Sew-Along! It starts on September 29th. We have lots of great prizes for costume and non-costume dresses. We can't wait to see what you sew up!!

• Also, have you sewn a MODKID pattern as a Halloween costume? Share your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and tag them with #modkidhalloween for a chance to be featured on our blog this coming month. We have a super fun series planned and would love your participation!