When my big kids were little, they would always ask me to make them costumes for Halloween and I would always say “no” and tell them to find something in our enormous collection of dress-up clothes… but then, just days before Halloween, I would cave and agree to make their costumes. And let me tell you, they were never easy. One year I spent countless hours on a maddening mermaid costume that Regan had to have, only for her to decided, once it was all finished, that she was going to dress up as an Indian and wear one of the many Indian t-shirts the kids had made in preschool! There was the time I drafted my own pattern and made a rapunzel dress for Tallulah. And last year I made these costumes for the kids to wear to the fall festival at school.
Inspiration/tutorials found here: Peacock, Parrot, Gumball Machine, Thomas and Thomas.
This year I think I have finally learned my lesson and I actually started making the kids costumes October 1st! Tallulah is in the musical Little Mermaid next month and so we went with an underwater theme for the 3 youngest kids. We have an octopus, a mermaid and a jelly fish! All three costumes were relatively simple.
For Kai’s octopus costume I found these kid’s knee high socks in the Dollar Spot at Target (score!) for the tentacles. I stuffed them with fiber-fill leaving about 4 inches un-stuffed at the top. I folded the top over about two inches and sewed them to create a casing for the elastic waistband. Once stuffed, the socks were pretty heavy, so i would definitely recommend a wide (1″ or even more), stiff elastic to support the weight. I threaded the elastic through the casing, and sized it to Kai’s waist. I bought the stocking cap at Walmart and used felt to make the eyes.
For Emmy’s mermaid costume I use this tutorial to make her skirt and cut sea-shells out of felt for her top. I used a basting stitch to sew on the shells to the shirt so they can be easily removed.
And the piece de resistance, the bio-luminescent jelly fish! For this I bought a clear, domed umbrella, some LED lights, and 3 yards (1 yard hot pink, 1 yard white, 1 yard pale pink) of sparkly tulle. I cut the tulle into 2.5″ strips the width of the fabric and Addie sewed a gathering stitch down the center. We just tucked the strips of ruffled tulle between the plastic and the frame of the umbrella. The hot pink sparkly shirt and leggings came from Target. I will be adding more LED lights when she wears the costume but I didn’t want them to all get all tangled up between now and then.
This costume really shows its beauty best at night when you light up the LEDs.
Only 4 days into October and I’ve only got one costume left to make! This is definitely a record for me!
