Chaos. Halloween always turns into chaos for us and trying to get a photo of the girls as trick-or-treaters are starting to arrive is sure to be a bust. My house is a wreck, but I managed to get both kids into DIY costumes yesterday. I have my priorities.
Here we have Mary and her little (completely uncooperative) lamb. I made a little lamb costume for the dog, but he hated it and just continued to jump and twist around trying to bite it off. The dress is Burda 9702 and the staff is a coat hanger wrapped in quilt batting and stuffed into a fabric tube.
And my older daughter was a gumball machine. We saw the idea over on Dollar Store Crafts and made our own version using two plastic bowls, pom-poms, an embroidery hoop stuffed and covered with fabric for the top and aquarium tubing in the skirt. Parenting tip: when you have to make air holes for your child, you probably haven’t picked the best costume! We only let her wear the top for 10 minutes at a time, and there is also a vent in the bottom part with mesh for breathing — I tried it on and it’s hot, but breathable. (Just so you know that I am not a completely terrible parent.) She won Funniest Costume at our school carnival and was a big hit last night trick-or-treating, never mind the fact that she could barely see anything after dark.
This is the same kid who went as Violet Beauregarde a couple of years ago. I begged her to be a headless Barbie this year, but she wasn’t interested. Maybe next year. You can read my post about costume lessons learned from a couple of years ago here. I am so ready to move on from Halloween. Onward to the next holiday!
Wow! I think the costumes turned out great. The gumball machine is very clever and I’m glad she won a prize. (I appreciate the parenting tip too!)
Love the headless Barbie idea. My husband is trying to talk our daughters into being the little girls from The Shining next year.
Cute costumes!!
The gumball machine looks amazing! And, I can’t wait to see what you create for the upcoming holidays!
I had to laugh several times while reading this blog entry. Depending on what my kids want to be, sometimes I make and sometimes I buy. This year, I made a snake costume for my son. He wanted to be a snake 2 years ago and my first attempt at one was a complete disaster. I made sort of a snake robe thingy and no one knew what he was. This year, I made my own version of a snake costume I saw in a catalog (it cost $100 and for once, I think I actually managed to make it cheaper). My daughter wanted to be a dressy black cat and that is the one I should have bought. 8 yards of tulle gathered to fit a 5 year old’s waist–what a nightmare. My costume making secret–my serger! It made all the difference in getting these costumes DONE!
Awesome gumball costume!
OK, where to begin…..the Gum Ball machine, is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it. Mary and the (uncooperative lamb) are great too) and Violet!! Wow. Wolfie, my son, is notorious for not wanting to ever dress up on halloween but this year he went as a Meatball (his decision) which your little Gumball Machine girlie might get a kick out of, haha!
This was him:
http://modernkiddo.com/?p=6205
next year you MUST send us some pix for our Modern Kiddo Homemade Costume parade!!!! You are amazing!
http://modernkiddo.com/?p=6186