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Friday, November 22, 2013

Halloween Recap: Costumes Costumes Costumes!


As Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, here is a recap of Halloweens past, and of the fun costumes I made the kids this year.  How fun to reminisce about these tiny costumes I made in years past, and how much the kids grow from year to year.  I can't believe how big they are getting!

Drake was only 4 weeks old for his first Halloween.  What better costume for the son of a football coach than to BE the football?  I made this pattern up myself....a front and back of brown fleece, a big plastic white zipper and some grosgrain ribbon for the stripes.  And a fleece hat to match.  So of course we went to the football game.  He's soooo tiny!  


Look at the difference a year later!  A little cowboy! I made a tiny little vest, complete with an embroidered sheriff's badge.  And chaps!  Tiny, baby sized chaps!  Again, I just made up a pattern, tracing a pair of his pants, fringing the edges and adding a velcro closure in the back.  Add a hat and boots, a "cool dude" shirt that his Pops gave him, and Viola!  The cutest cowboy in the land.


Curious George has always been a favorite of mine.  For this costume, I followed a pattern, Simplicity 2506, adapting it a bit to make a little George.  The body is a fuzzy fleece type material, with felt ears, hands and feet.  I embroidered the t-shirt and cut it short so it was the correct proportions.  Add Daddy as the Man in the Yellow Hat....perfect! I made the hat and got his pants from Goodwill, and the rest was his!


M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!  His birthday is pretty close to Halloween, so I did dual duty with this one.  I made him a long pants jon-jon with an appliqued Mickey that he could wear to his Mickey Mouse birthday party, and then layered Mickey shorts, hat, gloves and yellow shoes to complete his outfit.  He still loves Mickey to this day!


The year of Robots.  When he said he wanted to be a robot, I did some serious brainstorming.  I just love this costume.  I started with a long sleeve t-shirt, sweatpants, and a milk jug.  I found a tutorial sort of like this one (can't find the original), covered the shirt and pants with duct tape, cut the top off of the milk jug to make the hat, and covered it in duct tape also.  I then added stick on foam panels and shapes on the front and the arms.  I got a strand of LED battery powered Christmas lights, poked holes all around the front panel and stuck the bulbs in there.  I ran the wires through the arm and taped the battery pack in the wrist, so he could turn the lights on and off, and make them blink!  The "eyes" were flickering pumpkin lights.  I attached them with velcro since their on/off switch was on the back of the lights.  He was his very own flashlight for trick-or-treating!  A great bonus was that I could see him really well at night!



My sweet little violet!  I actually had this pattern by Simplicity in my stash.  I added a petal collar, the tiniest green tights you've ever seen, and crocheted her a yellow hat like the center of a violet!  (I'm all about dual-duty...she still wears this hat!)


I feel like my kids have grown 5 years in the last 1.  They just seem so big and grown up!  My sweet boy wanted to be his Christmas elf for Halloween.  The child has a countdown calendar to when "Grady McGee" is coming to visit, the day after Thanksgiving.  He wore Hanna Andersson striped PJs, with flannel shorts and a flannel top I made following this See & Sew PJ shirt pattern, deleting the ruffles, lengthening it, and adding the slits on the sides.  I embroidered the snowflake, and sewed on the belt and bow tie.  


This will probably be my last year to pick her costume, so I chose Dorothy.  I just made this pattern up by cutting out a circle skirt and attaching a bib and straps.  I crossed the straps in the back and had them button to the skirt.  I made matching bows....who can resist these pigtails?!!  And of course, gittery red shoes, a basket for "Toto", who was played by her favorite panda, and a tutu underneath the dress to make it really poofy!


I just love making costumes and creating characters out of my little ones!