The Costume Run Down

I love for my kids to have handmade Halloween costumes. I love when they can express their personalities and be excited about their costumes, too. I don’t love, however, spending days and weeks stressing and making said costumes. Therein draws my fine line. Handmade but doesn’t take days to make. Can be tricky but also increases my resolve to find that fine line.

The Clown

Little Miss Clown was supper easy. About as easy as it gets. I just had to dig it out of the costume box with fingers crossed that it would fit. And it did! This little beauty was worn by one of my mother’s babies. She’s still hasn’t gotten back to me on who actually wore it. But I know someone did. It was one of those things that my mother couldn’t bear to throw out (which usually means one of her babies touched it) so she gives it to me for safe keeping from the sister who likes to throw stuff away. Little Miss totally rocked it. The only thing we struggled with was the face paint. Do you know how hard it is to paint the face of a squirmy four year old. Who has siblings that keep talking to her. It’s very hard. Don’t try it if you value your sanity.

The Painter

A few weeks ago she had gotten a new paint set and smock that she was smitten with. I suggested that maybe she could be a painter for Halloween. She was equally smitten with the idea. Her only request was a special hat to wear. I did some searching and found some crochet beret patterns. After 3 tries I finally found one that turned out. She loved the pouf on top. It was a last minute idea to add a rainbow colored one. I think it fits her personality just a bit better.

I found a boys size 14 dress shirt at the thrift store for $2 (which, by the way, is all I spent on all Halloween costumes this year). It was sitting on the first rack a little by itself and was the first thing I saw when I walked in. It was like it was waiting for me. I smudged washable paint all over the shirt and stuck some paint brushes in the pocket.

I made the pallet out of a cardboard box and squirted paint on it then sat to dry (which even though it was up high still managed to get smudged). I almost forgot to do it. Have to thank Amy for reminding me. She was the only painter we saw that day, which we pointed out to her, and got lots of compliments on her costume.

The Pizza

It’s hard to pick favorites among my children but can I just saw how thrilled I am how this turned out? I saw the idea somewhere (pinterest, one of the twenty-four million craft blogs I frequent, etc.) and from there just worked out how to do it in my head. I had a huge piece of tan colored fleece. Which, I know Amy, is weird. A long time ago I had it in my head that I should make felt food. So I bought a bunch of stuff to do it then I got distracted. Shocking, I know.

So I had this huge piece of fleece. I folded it in half then cut it into a triangle (so opened up was a big diamond) then I cut a hole for his head and reinforced it with some stitches. I cut all the pepperoni, olives and cheese out of felt. I didn’t have enough “mozzarella” cheese so it ended up being a cheese blend. I wasn’t sure how it would look but I think the “cheddar” pops of color make it look better. I glued all the toppings on with hot glue. And while I had the idea in my head how it would be it turned out even better than I had envisioned.

The Boy was thrilled beyond belief when he saw it which made it even better. He, also, totally rocked it.

So there you have it.

Huge hits all around!