Ta da! Here’s my costume for Halloween this year. I’ve dressed as Frida Kahlo more than once, and I’ve been known to rock a (smaller!) flower crown in summer. My entire costume was made from what I had around the house including a dress I’ve worn here and here with flowers in my hair left over from my front door wreath. I felt like a queen!
Happy (almost!) Halloween! Here’s what my kids wore this year for Halloween. (We did a pumpkin carving party Sunday night and that’s probably going to be it!) Now that Felix is finally old enough, he decided on his own costume. He wanted to be a firefighter, which gave me a head start thanks to his red fireman’s rain jacket we already had. I saw the rain boots at Rural King a month ago and he needs them anyway. Yay for practicality! That left me to just DIY his tee shirt which was a five minute project. I used 1″ yellow duct tape to make suspenders (on the front only) and an iron on fire patch on a plain black tee shirt. He was so stoked to hold our fire extinguisher for photos too!
Lil Miss Bea is…. a honey bee! Her costume was also a quick DIY and came together in a half hour or so. I used multiple layers of tulle to create the wings, including some interior stitching to give them a natural sort of look. I sewed those to a plain black onesie. Then I finished it off with that same yellow duct tape! I left her snaps undone, which gave her bottom the look of a bee’s abdomen. She wore that over a long sleeve onesie and leggings. I made her headband using one leg of an old pair of my tights (it’s the perfect length and softness for a baby’s head!) and threaded a curled pipe cleaner underneath. Bada bing, bada boom!
Adam went as a farmer. Truth time = he wore the exact same thing the day before when we were doing chores around the property. So I’m giving him an A+ for realism!
I started both kids costumes the morning of the party we went to yesterday… so if you’re throwing together a child’s costume tonight - you can do it!
See more of my homemade Halloween costumes here! I’ll post my costume tomorrow!
Happy Halloween y’all! If we’ve been friends for a while, you know I LOVE DRESSING UP but this year, I opted to put all of my energy into Felix’s costume. Rookie mom mistake!?! Five (plus) hours of work for five minutes worth of photos, but at least we got those, right?
For a month or so in advance I asked Felix what he’d like to be for Halloween. A monkey? An astronaut? Thomas the Train? Every time he’d proudly say “FELIX!” so that left the decision up to me. I enjoy making costumes myself, so I took on the challenge of our favorite really useful little engine.
I’ll be honest - I approached this one far too literally and gave myself a lot of stress over it. There are some moms who did amazing jobs on Thomas costumes I found online. I like my version, but once I decided to just go for the look and feel of the character, I had much more fun putting him together. And that’s what Halloween is really about to me anyway! Just embracing the spirit of the character without pressure to be exact. And he’s two, so he got the picture!
Here’s the breakdown: Thomas just a couple cardboard boxes, poster board, a hat box lid, craft paper and paint and some red duct tape. And a bucket load of hot glue. I actually made him in our cabin while on our vacation in the woods!
Underneath he kinda/sorta looks like a train conductor, using stuff we had around the house - a striped tee shirt, khaki pants, a red bandana and a whistle (which he really loved tooting!!)
I wanted to match my look (when don’t I want to match!?) so I went for an easy peasy Rosie the Riveter (see my non maternity version here). All it takes is a denim/chambray top and bottom and a red head scarf. Check check check.
We won’t be trick or treating tonight, but we did take Felix to our city’s downtown Trick or Treat on Friday night (minus our cardboard Thomas). We stopped by half a dozen local businesses handing out candy, decided it was too wild for us (I hate crowds) and went to celebrate our favorite day of the week (Fry-Day) with a dinner out.
Here’s the breakdown of my costume:
Hair: On Halloween morning, I washed and set my hair in perm rods. A half an hour or so before we left for the night, I took them out, ran my fingers through them and used a half a bottle of hairspray. I pinned in ¾ yard of veiling, just using bobby pins.
Makeup: It took me over an hour to get this ghastly look! I started with cheap-o white grease makeup from the Halloween store and topped with baby powder (which yuck, I wouldn’t use normally, but for one night a year - whatever) all over my face, neck and chest. Next I did a purple shadow beneath my eyes and topped with a mix of black powder shadow and black cream liner. I mixed a purple lipstick with some of the black liner for my lips. Finally I did a slight bit of purple contouring on my cheeks. Voila!
Dress: As I mentioned above, I wore my actual wedding dress. Because I’ve had a baby and am still nursing, I had to adjust the fit, which I did by pinning in wide elastic to either side of the zipper. I made a matching off white lace jacket which I criss crossed and pinned to the front of the dress. I topped it off with a black sash that I also made for the costume.
Accessories: A bride can’t walk down the aisle without a bouquet! I found these faux flowers and greenery on clearance at Michaels, and along with a few twigs from the yard, sprayed ‘em black (but not all of the way… I liked the grayish-lavender blooms!) I called it my ‘spooky bouquet’ all night. I also wore opera length black gloves (from previous costumes) and a pearl necklace and earrings. I wore comfortable boots and socks underneath, as we did a lot of walking!
With the grandparents in town, we had the whole night to ourselves! We started off getting beers at The Tap and then walked up Kirkwood to one of our favorite restaurants, Finches. Lucky us, someone from the Jacobs School of Music was having a birthday party upstairs, so we had the loveliest string background music from world class musicians in the background. The meal was excellent! Afterwards we took an Uber to Cardinal Spirits and when the clock struck midnight (err… 10:30) we scooted back home to see our baby. Such an epic date night, which the handsomest of grooms!
Voted most likely to say “I could make that!”
Sewing & knitting obsessed, loves baking, making and spending time with my family.
I love shopping secondhand first and upcycling fabric into new creations. Check out all of my sewing projects here.
I love historic dress! See my costumes here!
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