Halloween costumes this year were a mix of homemade and storebought. I would have liked to have made something for everyone, but maybe next year. I already have some ideas in mind...
But first this year, we had a dragon, a costume that has made an appearance a couple of times before.
The little boy had no idea what was happening to him, but he enjoyed the attention from wearing the costume for sure.
Then we had a fairy/butterfly. The wings were new and thanks to a 70% off Halloween sale at Target. The dress was one I made for girl #2 when she was teeny tiny, and here is the proof.
This butterfly fairy has work to do.
Then we had Gandalf (or Dumbledoor, or Merlin, depending on who you ask), who took by far the most time to put together. The post about his tunic is here, I got the plan for the cloak here, the "silver" scarf pattern is here, the beard is here, the hat came from the Halloween store, and the boy is mine, for now.
The cloak was made of polyester suiting, and the pattern was the oval-shaped cloak rather than the semi-circular Hobbit version. I followed the design for the hood too, but scaled down for a 5 year old. The directions weren't all that specific, so I really pieced the whole thing together without using the tutorial. The fabric desperately wanted to fray, so I ended up hand rolling and sewing the hem of the whole thing, and I used hem tape where the hood meets the body of the cloak to cover up that seam entirely.
Without the beard, I think he looks more like Gandalf the Jedi.
All in all, I like the look, and since we didn't have an elvish leaf clasp for the cloak, I used a gigantic button from the Grandma Stash.
Next up, we had Last-Minute-Pumpkin. Lesson learned-Even if you let your child use glowy fabric paint on her spider costume 3 days before she goes trick-or-treating, the paint might not actually be dry by the time you need the costume.
The last-minute plan was pieced together from Target. Hooray for sales!
Finally, we had a butterfly. The dress was made from a huge adult T-shirt that we cut down, and the wings were from another one. I love that the big girl mirrored her wing pattern with the fabric paint. I also think she deserves bonus points for making it a stylized butterfly instead of having to be totally realistic.
So that's it for this year. Next time, maybe a family of bearded vikings? Maybe owls? It's never too early to start thinking...






They look great. A is wearing some super cool tights. I'm a little jealous.
Posted by: Carrie | November 08, 2012 at 08:25 AM
gandalf turned out really great! i can't believe you hand rolled that whole hem. even though it once a second choice, A's pumpkin is super cute. looks like they brought in a pretty good haul!
Posted by: tammyo | November 13, 2012 at 11:18 AM