...Homemade Halloween Costumes - Part I

Every year around this time I begin scrounging for some semblance of a costume to wear for Halloween.  It's never that I have somewhere to go that requires one, I just hate letting go of all those wonderful years of trick-or-treating, the cute homemade kids' costumes, and the days when pillowcases full of candy did not turn immediately to extra pounds upon my belly (that's what we all miss most about childhood, isn't it?).

When we were little, our parents put together awesome Halloween costumes for us.  It is a lot easier to dress up a child, and a lot less money.  Kids are cute in anything, and depending on the age, don't care as much about looking silly.  Case in point, me and my brother rocking the camo:

The ladybug:

The creepy clown and boy Raggedy Ann:

Okay, so not all kids are cute in anything.

As I got older, and my parents stopped making us homemade costumes, I had to start figuring out my own makeshift Halloween disguises.  They also had to be free, since I was still technically a child.  Some of my not-so-proud moments in costume-making include (sorry, no pictures):

-The Bathroom Bandits  A group of us at a youth group Halloween party put toilet seat covers around our necks, applied some warrior-like face paint, carried a few rolls of toilet paper...and then went trick-or-treating.

-Dead Cowgirl  Because I could only find a cowboy hat that year, but with pale makeup and extra eyeliner under the eyes.

-Deerhunter / Person in the Army  My dad's camouflage jacket.  Jeans.  Yes, the costumes were getting worse every year.

Creative, right?  So now that I'm all grown up, maybe it's time I start making those awesome little kid costumes that actually require forethought and real supplies.  My friends have two little boys who love Veggie Tales, so what better costumes than Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato.

All great costumes start on a tiny piece of paper on a very cluttered desk.

I had a coupon for Jo-Ann's just begging to be used, so I headed over there after work.  Twenty minutes and twelve tiny dollars later, I had three yards of fleece (one red, two green) for the bodies and four sheets of black and white felt for the faces.  Bob and Larry are simple vegetables, after all.  I was really excited about this project.  I pulled out Grandma Judy's sewing machine the next morning and got to steppin'.

I didn't have a costume pattern.  I was going to wing it.  One thing I knew though was that I wanted the boys to have little hats to top off the costumes, because let's be honest, kid hats are so cute.  I found a free little hat template online at Tracy's Treasury and printed out a couple copies.  I had to cut them smaller to child-size them, because my printer wouldn't reduce the print size, but it worked great anyway.

Easy paper templates, anyone can do it!

Once I had all the fabric cut down to size, it was time to start assembling the hats.  Sew the front two triangles together, and sew the back two triangles together.  Larry's hat didn't require any special toppings, so his was a little simpler.  For Bob, though, I really wanted the cute little stem and leaves.  Those need to be pinned in between the front and back panels before you sew them together...right sides facing, of course. Sew them together and flip right side out.

Inside out hat and some unsewn earflaps.

Leaves and stem sewn in.

Sew your two earflap pieces together along the curvy side, and measure the distance around the base of the hat to determine where you need to sew the ends together.  Larry's needed a little adjusting, as the earflaps were somehow both toward the back of the head, so his has a little seam down the front and back of that piece where I had to remove extra fabric.  Bob's fit perfectly around the hat.  Again with right sides together, sew the earflap piece around the outside base of the hat, then flip right side out.

Before

After

It's that easy!  Three or four seams on the machine and you're done!  The hats turned out so cute, I knew I had to go all out on the actual costumes, but you'll have to wait a couple days to see if it all comes together in time for Halloween.