It's that time of year again - preparation for Halloween. At this time last year L was obsessed with "Where the Wild Things Are", so I decided to make her a "wild thing" costume for Halloween. I grew up in a time when your parents (or you) made your costume. I have seen pictures of my own halloween costumes as a kid - I don't think I ever had one that was store bought. It made me a little sad when I was teaching 1st and 2nd grade to see that pretty much all of the kids in my class (or maybe I can truthfully say all - I don't remember) were wearing store bought costumes.
As a parent of two toddlers, I can certainly relate and don't want to judge parents who buy their kids costumes. Who has the time or energy to put into making elaborate costumes, especially when there may be more than one child to "costume" for the big day. Plus, kids change their mind every 5 minutes (at least mine do) about what they want to be. Who wants to spend a week making a lion costume only to find out that their son, who was obsessed with lions 8 days ago, suddenly wants to be a race car driver and hates lions now?
Anyway, last year I made L a "Wild thing" costume. Trust me, I looked everywhere online for a shortcut. I was really hoping someone else made a homemade costume that I could buy on ebay because their child already wore it. But I had no such luck, the time of a stay at home mom, and the necessary sewing skills.
So this is the photo I used as inspiration:
Here's what I ended up with, after about 2 weeks of work. See if you can tell which "Wild Thing" I was going for.
The problem with going all out last year is that now I feel like I really should be super creative this year for both kids. Neither one are old enough to have a consistent and definitive idea of what they would like to be. When I ask L, she answers with whatever she happens to see or be doing at that exact moment. B, of course, would like to be "car" or "shoe". I think I'm just going to decide and they are going to go together - 2 pirates, 2 animals, etc. But I need to decide now -- if I am going to sew costumes again, I need to give myself enough time to actually finish without causing myself serious stress in those final days!
If anyone has a great costume idea for a 2 and 3 year old boy and girl, I'd love to hear it!
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ReplyDeleteYou did a nice job on last year's costume. I usually make my kids' costumes as well. Homemade ones are such better quality & you can always pass them down.
ReplyDeleteI suggest Raggedy Ann & Andy, I wanted to do this one for my kids but my 7 year old thinks he's too old for that.
The question is: what are your kids into? And how much work do you want to put into it? If I answer the question for my daughter, I have to dress her up as a shrink (she wants to be a doctor who helps people talk about their feelings). ;)
ReplyDeleteThing 1 & Thing 2; 2 Little pigs (a stuffed animal can be the third); Red riding hood and the big bad wolf; Bert & Ernie (not sure how L will feel about being a boy though); cheerleader and football player... that's all I've got off the top of my head. I've been looking at "family" or "group" costumes a lot lately to come up with ours. (Which I am in no way talented enough to make!)
ReplyDeleteLast year's costume was awesome! I always try to remember cute handmade costumes, but at my age, it only lasts about 2 hours. Maybe because it's the worst school day and I block it out. I need to talk Tori's daughter. ;)
ReplyDeleteGood luck! Can't wait to see what you end up with!
That's a very cute, recognizable costume! We opt for ultra-simple DIY costumes for halloween. Last year we were princesses/fairies, which were dress up clothes we already owned). The year before we had a cat and a mouse; I just cut out printable masks from paper and quickly "sewed" tails.
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