Happy (belated) Halloween!

We hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween. We LOVE Halloween around these parts, as you might remember from years past. This year was no different!

Elliott and my costumes this year were totally inspired by the cutest Garden Gnome costume I saw over on Ravelry. I thought that was the cutest idea for a toddler costume and despite the fact that I already had two perfectly good costumes at home for him to wear...I couldn't help myself. I kept thinking about what I could do and pretty soon I just had to make it!

My costume was also born from my desire to be something pretty this year. If you notice from costumes from previous years linked to above, I am rarely a girl for Halloween and when I am, I'm not usually a 'girly girl'. So this year I was determined to be pretty :) When I saw that cute garden gnome costume it reminded me of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, so I took that and ran with it!

I ended up making myself a simple elastic waistband skirt out of cheap quilting cotton and modified a cheap $4 Joann's t-shirt into the 'bodice'. I cut out the neck, cut off the hems then added elastic to the bottom of my sleeves for a little poof. I also sewed up a quick red cape (also from quilters cotton) using the play cape tutorial over on Sew Mama Sew. I used a yard and a half instead of a yard and got a pretty respectable length cape.

And of course a black Hallowig! This knit up super quick using almost one entire ball of black Patons classic wool. I had planned to have it flip at the bottom like in the pattern photo, but when it grew after washing, I hemmed the bottom instead making a cute little bump. I finished it off with a bit of red ribbon.

Elliott's dwarf costume was crazy simple to put together. He wore a pair of brown cotton pants, an oversized long sleeve green shirt, and a pair of fleece 'boot' slippers as well as a 'belt' that I sewed together from a piece of black 1 inch elastic. (I tried to get him to wear a real belt...but apparently that was very traumatizing and involved lots of tears. Since this is supposed to be a fun holiday, I opted for a more toddler-friendly option ;)

I improvised a beard bib using some 'santa beard' fur fabric from Joann's. I just put right sides together traced the upper part of a bib directly onto the wrong side then made a beard shape at the bottom. I pinned, cut and sewed without messing with anything because this stuff shed like crazy. Once I turned it inside out, I added snaps and presto: a beard that a kid will keep on!

The hat was equally improved and easy. I sewed it together using some knit fabric with a tad of spandex. I measured Elliott's head, subtracted (maybe 3-4 inches) for some negative ease and used the natural tube of the fabric so I only had one seam to sew. I just made a straight tube for about 6-7 inches, then tapered it down to a rounded 'point', sewed the side seam and added a rolled hem. Easy peasy! And the best part? He actually WORE it! This kid hasn't kept a hat on his head for longer than 2 seconds for almost a year!

We had a great time this year and it was so fun to see Elliott start to get into it. He helped me carve pumpkins and really seemed to enjoy wearing his costume to my office potluck and his Gymboree class. All in all a super great Halloween!