HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2014

Happy Halloween - one day late! To be honest, I have never been that into Halloween, but now that we have kids, it has a whole new meaning. We took Ellis trick-or-treating to a few houses last year, but she was so little that she really didn't understand it and I doubt we even let her have much for candy at that age. This year she caught on real quick and she couldn't have been more thrilled to be getting treat after treat after treat! Pure joy, I tell you!

The kiddos had two sets of costumes this year. Ellis went as Miss Piggy (VERY fitting) and Lennon went as Kermit the Frog to the kids Halloween party at my work. I bought Ellis a princess crown at Target for $.99, made some pig ears out of foam and felt then sewed them onto the crown, made her a piggy nose out of a toilet paper roll and felt, bought her a boa and she wore a tutu she already had and a strand of fake pearls of mine. It was cheap and totally did the trick! For Lennon, I took a pair of Ellis' old white leggings that had a hole in the knee and a stain, a white stained onesie and two pairs of Lennon's white socks (one for his hands and one for his feet) and died them all green with Rit liquid dye. I cut green felt to make the scalloped pieces around his neck, feet, and hands and my super talented sister in law knitted him the most adorable frog hat (in one night)! Oh, how I love homemade halloween costumes!

It ended up being freezing on Halloween here in Wisconsin (surprise, surprise) so we went to plan B for costumes so we could incorporate coats. I ended up pulling out a bunny costume that my mom made me when I was little for Ellis and I put Lennon in a hand-me-down snow suit that just happened to be brown. I looked at them and thought..... hmmm.... this is totally Ralphie and Randy from A Christmas Story! We went with it! ;)

UNICORN COSTUME TUTORIAL

I will always be the mom who bakes and decorates my children's birthday cakes and crafts them homemade Halloween costumes because I.LOVE.IT. These are the things that I was so excited about while I was pregnant. I couldn't wait for all of the holidays with her and I CANNOT wait for her to really understand Christmas and get excited about Santa! We are going to do it all --- the cookies for Santa, the reindeer food, Elf on the Shelf, cookie baking, etc. Oh boy! Just writing this makes me excited for Christmas! I am that person who listens to Christmas music from the moment is starts and legitimately gets upset when Christmas is over and it stops. I have been known to play the Glee holiday CD in my car on repeat for an extended period of time and even bring it out once in a while off season. :)

Anyways, let's hit the breaks b/c it's not Christmas yet. It's Halloween! Plan #1 for E's costume was Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty. My friend gave me this ADORABLE little vintage camo jacket and pants suit, but it ended up being way too big for her. I plan on using it next year possibly. It is seriously wayyy to cute to not use it at some point. So then I was on to plan B. I literally thought up this costume in my head on the way to Hobby Lobby last Friday. I seriously had so much fun making it that I have started to think of all the different costumes I could make in the future! Oh the possibilities are endless. Really, anything flies and they do not have to be fancy. I still remember the picture my mom has of my brother on Halloween when we were little. She must have been scrambling for a last minute costume b/c she put a brown sheet over him with a brown beanie hat and attached a sign that said snickers to the front of him. :) It may not have been fancy, but it is the one that I remember!

So here is what I came up with - Ellis the unicorn!
I made this costume one afternoon and it only took me a few hours.

Everything listed below (except the sweat suit) you can find at your local craft store.  The costume was pretty basic. The only two parts I included a tutorial on are the horn and ears. Beside that, I basically super glued or sewed things to the sweat suit. 

I sewed the cone onto the top of the hood with embroidery thread and then covered the bottom of the cone with the mane to hide the stitches. 

To create the mane, I braided several strands of the yarn together and hot glued it around the horn, onto the hood and down the back of the sweatshirt. 

I attached the tassel to the arms and legs with hot glue. Easy peasy! 

For the tail, I opened the seam in the back of the pants and inserted strands of tulle just like I attached the ears to the hood. (see tutorial below)

To finish off the look, I attached a piece of purple ribbon to the zipper as a pull and tacked on two ribbons for strings with my sewing machine. I wanted to be able to tie the hood tighter around her head in hopes that the cone would stand up straight and she wouldn't be able to pull off the hood.  

Did you craft an awesome homemade Halloween costume this year? If so, send me a picture of it!! I am thinking about doing Halloween wrap up post of DIY Halloween costumes and I would love to share all of your costumes!

Also, I am selling this costume after Halloween. Do you have a little one that is going to be 18-24 months next Halloween? This sweat suit is a 24 month size.

Email me at katieannebuell@gmail.com to send me your pictures or inquire about buying the costume!