I like to make my kids’ Halloween costumes, b/c then we get to be creative and make what we can’t buy, and we also get to choose the materials. The store-bought polyester is such a sweat factory, and when I make costumes, I choose a lighter weight cotton as much as possible. I also like to do theme costumes. Here are some from the past few years.
Two years ago, we dressed as characters from Phineas and Ferb. This is the project I bought my sewing machine for! We even got my parents involved as Phineas and Candice’s mom and Doofenshmirtz.
Last year, little one and I were The Cat in the Hat and Sam I Am, and big one was Harry Potter. Since they also get to wear their costumes in a storybook parade at school, we stuck with the storybook theme. Little one loves Curious George, so he has the whole family hooked. Naturally, we choose Curious George and The Man with the Yellow Hat.
There are a ton of creative people out there, and patterns, so I started with some of their inspiration and guidance. I got
Butterick B3238 for my monkey’s head piece, and
McCalls M4951 for The Man with the Yellow Hat’s boots. For The Man with the Yellow Hat, we had a white shirt we didn’t need and I got a pair of light khaki pants at Goodwill when school started, that we were lucky enough to find in his size, and I dyed these with yellow dye from Wal-Mart following
this method from danamadeit.
For The Man’s Hat, I loosely followed
this tutorial from Melly Sews. My yellow felt was flimsier than felt usually is, so I had to use a craft weight interfacing, and on the brim, I didn’t turn anything inside out since felt doesn’t fray. I just made a sandwich of felt, interfacing, and felt. The Man’s tie was an inexpensive Ebay find, and I painted the dots on with fabric paint.
For Curious George, I used June Tailor
printable fabric (purchased at my local Joann’s) to applique the Curious George logo onto an old red shirt, and added sleeves by tracing another faux layered long-sleeved shirt. The pants were made by tracing an existing pair of cotton pants. Instead of making a separate waistband, I folded the fabric over at the top and inserted the elastic that way.
The kids had a great time wearing their costumes to the Halloween event at our local Goldcoast Railroad Museum as well as Trick or Treating. For our Train Museum visit, my original goal was to get to the museum early to get some "golden hour" pics there, but then I would not have gotten these amazing shots right outside of the Lime on Kendall drive, where we had dinner with the family. The boys would have been too busy with the bounce house and the trains, and this railing, although not sexy, turned out to be a great spot for the boys to stop moving for a few minutes and participate in a photo shoot for me! And I love how these images captures that childhood fascination with sitting and climbing on railings. Sometimes, the best plans are the ones we didn't make!
