Another Homemade Year..

It is that time of year again.. Time to start thinking about what we are going to make  Halloween this year.  I will let you in on a little secret.  I majored in Textiles & Clothing in college.  While I was never planning on being a fashion designer,  (I am not a big fan of sewing)  I do enjoy making costumes.   My kids LOVE the fact that they can come up with a crazy idea every year, and I will figure out some way to put it together.  I also like that I claim that I am using my college degree.. LOL!   Here are some of our favorite costumes from years past.

Last year Kara insisted on being one of her favorite woodland animals.  As you can imagine, it is extremely difficult to find a fox costume, so we made our own.  You can see how we made it at this link HERE.  This year she wants to be a raccoon or hedgehog, so we better get started.

Last year Kyle took it easy on me.  He was just threw on a cape and some fangs, and went as a Vampire.  In 2010 though, it was another story. He wanted to be a flying chameleon.  Yes, I said flying chameleon.   I found an idea on how to make a dinosaur costume on Michaels.com which I was able to alter to become what you see in the picture.

It was quite exciting when his costume won grand prize in our  neighborhood's  first Halloween costume contest.  You can see how we made his flying chameleon costume at this link HERE.

That year Kara went relatively easy on me, and had me make her a Cream the bunny costume from the Sonic series.   I made a simple shift  dress out of orange fur which she wore over a white sweatshirt and silver leggings.  They were not exactly the right colors, but when you are trick or treating in the dark, it really doesn't matter.

In 2009, she wanted to be a hatching chicken.  A what???   Yes,  an actual hatching chicken.  Where she got that idea, I have no idea.  Kyle wanted to be a dinosaur.  I had the idea to make a dinosaur head without a pattern.  It was much harder than I thought it was going to be.

 I found a bird pattern and used it to make the top part of the chicken which was made out of yellow fleece.  The beak is made from orange craft foam.   The egg bottom was made from white felt and held up with yellow fleece suspenders.  We added the orange and black tights because we thought it was a cute addition to the chicken.

   Kyle  wore a blue sweatshirt and sweatpants.  I made the dinosaur head, but it did not turn out exactly the way we would have liked.  I had to literally sew him into his dinosaur head, so it would not fall off. His head is  in the mouth area, so he could breath with no problem.

In 2008 while at Target, Kara first heard of the character Domo. It was Target's theme that year. She instantly fell in love, and insisted that is what she wanted to be.   As usual, there were absolutely no Domo costumes available.  We had to get creative.  We made the square base with PVC pipe and covered it with felt.  While it was a fun costume, the PVC pipe did become a bit heavy after awhile.

Not to be outdone with his sister's unusual ideas, Kyle asked to be a praying mantis... Again, I have no idea why..

I love that my kids are now starting to do some designing on their own.  In June, Kara designed this bird costume for the school musical.  You can see how she made it (with  a little help with mom) HERE.

My oldest daughter really likes the cartoons she used to watch when she was younger.. (think Kids Next Door, Dexter etc..)  She debated between being one of  the KND kids or Dexter. Once again one of my kids wanted to be something that was not in the stores.    She put together this Dexter costume with random things she did find, a lab coat, rubber gloves, fake glasses, a cropped red wig, and black boots.  

After writing out this post, I am now excited to get started on this year's costumes.