Saturday, September 12, 2009

Halloween Costumes

So, I'm trying to save money and re-use the pieces that are incorporated into Bella's costumes. Last year she was a kitty cat.


Simple to make: Black shirt and black leggings. I already had a cat hat, all that I had to do was sew the white felt onto her shirt, make a ribbon collar and sew on her tail that I made with a scrap of black fabric and 2 pipe cleaners. Once Halloween had passed, I removed the felt and she was able to wear her shirt again.

Our friends' son, Jacob, had his 5th birthday party in May. He wanted a costume party theme. Again, I didn't want to spend a lot of money because more than likely Bella wasn't going to be able to fit into it for this Halloween and I didn't want her to get hot at the outdoor party. So, I made her a hula girl.


I had just bought her bathing suit and so all that I needed to get was her skirt. I found this one at Five Below. (BTW, I love that store!) Since it was made for a tween/teen-aged girl, I had to cut the length. I did have 2 plastic leis on her earlier but they didn't stay on for too long. Bella had so much fun at the party and unlike the other kids dressed in full head-to-toe Halloween costumes, she didn't get overheated that day.

This year for Halloween, I'm making a penguin costume. She really LOVES the Penguins of Madagascar show on Nickelodeon. I know it'll be similar to her cat costume from last year but what can I do?


I used black pants, black zip up hoodie and black, white and orange felt. I stitched a huge white oval on her chest. I had to cut the felt into 2 pieces so that I would still be able to use the zipper. On the hood, I added the eyes and beak. Then I created little webbed feet that I attached to her Mary Janes. They just slipped over the straps so that I could remove them easily.

Just let me tell you that it was very difficult for me to find a plain black hoodie. So many were covered in huge appliques that I was glad that I started my search in August. It took several outings but I finally found one in Wal-Mart. It has a tiny double heart design but it was easily covered by the felt.

I helped Mary with Lexi's costume. She wanted to be a day-of-the-dead skeleton girl. Lexi wanted a homemade costume so we got her black hoodie jacket and created this beauty...

We just printed out pictures of arm bones and a ribcage. Traced them onto fleece and cut them out. I hot glued everything on because we had less than an hour before Lexi had to go out. She wore one of Mary's old black dresses and tights with leg bones on them. She finished it off with her glow in the dark bones Doc Martens. She did her own make up. It looked better earlier but we didn't take pictures before she headed out to her friend's house. (This is after she'd been out in the rain)

I'm already trying to think of what I'll do for next year's costume...

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