Happy Halloween, everyone!
It’s no secret that Halloween is my favorite holiday. I LOVE it. And after we had my daughter and she was ready to go trick-or-treating for real (about 2.5), I decided it would be fun to be in theme with her.
The first year we did this, she was Anna and I shelled out way too much on a nice adult version of an Elsa costume. I finished that Halloween filled with regret over the money spent, the itchiness of the dress, and the knowledge that I would never use it again.
The next year, she was Wonder Woman. I bought a Super Girl t-shirt with a cape, and wore that with my jeans. It was far less expensive than the Elsa costume, but I never wore it again (and in fact, just put in the donation pile yesterday!)
Next, she was a Ninja Turtle. My husband and I both bought TMNT t-shirts. My daughter’s costume came with all 4 masks and armbands, so my husband and I chose out of the 3 leftover and wore the masks and armbands with our t-shirts. I actually still wear that t-shirt. 🙂
Last year, she was Hermione. And this one was super easy and free for me… because I’d already bought Gryffindor robes and a wand at Universal many years before.
This year, she is going to be Light Fury from How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. This kid loves dragons above all else, so this is no surprise. When she first decided, I did browse some HTTYD t-shirts, but decided that with my increased focus on minimalism this year, it was silly to acquire a new t-shirt just to be on theme.
But because I’d set the expectation in previous years, about 2 weeks ago, she started asking would I please be a dragon or dragon rider. Please, Mommy!
So what do you say to that? I guess I better figure out something.
Here’s the thing, I don’t just love a theme for Halloween, we go all in on the theme for birthday parties, too. And when she was 5, she had a HTTYD party. I scoured the internet looking for options on how to make an Astrid costume for this. My biggest inspiration was this post. I went to the fabric store and bought brown felt, faux leather, and Model Magic.
And it turned out great! She looked awesome.
And then she pretty much never wore it again.
So after she asked me to join her in the theme, I was thinking, I already know how to make this costume, I could go back to the fabric store, buy all that stuff again and make an adult version.
And then I thought, that’s crazy. Why would you spend a lot more time and little more money on something you will wear literally an hour?
So I didn’t. I decided to make an extender strap for the current Astrid skirt. I decided I could round out the costume with things from my regular wardrobe – I have lots of striped tops to choose from, leggings, and fuzzy boots.
I pulled out the spare brown felt I had from my daughter’s skirt and cut out some extra strips. I removed one side of the velcro from the belt on the original skirt, and moved it to my new felt piece so I could attach it around me. And then I called it a day. It took me less than 15 minutes and cost me no money. Sure, the back isn’t going to look as lovely as the front, but it is going to cover my butt in leggings. 🙂 And the front looks pretty great.
Now the only problem is that the weather looks like it’s going to be terrible today. Fingers crossed it will be better than I think.
If you’re interested in how I made my daughter’s costume to begin with, here’s what I did:
Bottom layer skirt
I took my daughter’s waist measurement and then I sewed a very simple skirt with an elastic waistband out of the dark brown felt, cutting the ends into a jagged pattern.
Top skirt
I cut 2″ strips of faux leather about 12 inches long, and rounded the ends. I cut a longer strip for the main belt part, based on my daughter’s waist measurement. I folded the edges under and sewed them, and the finished dimension for that was also about 2″ wide. Then, I sewed each of the strips to the belt. I finished it off with little pieces of velcro on the end to make it easy to get off and on.
“Spikes”
When it came to the spikes, I thought they were pretty impractical for a 5-year-old, and also for sitting down. I brainstormed about what I already had in the house that I could use. I had purchased some wall polka dots – the removable adhesive kind – and hated them on my walls. So I decided to cut smaller circles out of them in various sizes. This had the added benefit of already being adhesive, and just required me to peel and stick.
Skulls
I made the skulls out of Model Magic, and after they were dry, dabbed them ink from brown and black stamp pads to age them. I then hot glued them to the belt.
In fact, the only thing I would change about this costume is the skulls. If I were to do it over again, I would not score them quite so much, or maybe not at all. Though it definitely looks like Astrid, the score lines made for a prime weak spot for the skulls to snap, and I have hot glued more than one of these suckers back together, mostly after my daughter bent over or tried to be more active in the outfit. I suspect this is why she never really wanted to play in the outfit after the party was over.
Headband
I used some leftover faux leather to make a thin headband piece – essentially just a long strip I sewed the raw edges under on. Then I made some even smaller circles from my wall adhesives. Peel and stick!
Shoulder armor
I bought some craft foam from this, with the intention of doing a similar thing to the post I referenced before. I was going to use some more of my wall adhesive to make the bumps. But my daughter never really showed any interest in me making this, though I offered several times. So it was never made and is not part of either of our costumes!
knitsnips 