Ruben Yesterday

Halloween 2012

After changing his mind daily for weeks, Julio finally settled on a character from his favorite movie.  His idea for the costume revolved around the scene where he carries a torch into a cave, so the torch was most important.  Fortunately, everything else was already in our dress up arsenal.  He is not unhappy in this picture, by the way, just seriously in character.

 Diego underwent a major transformation on Halloween.

Wasn't he scary?

Strange Characters

I think I've mentioned a few times that our boys like to dress up.  We've got an overflowing bin of capes and scarves, homemade Halloween costumes and strange antique dress-up bits (wigs! cowboy vests! lederhosen!!!).  They often disappear for long stretches, shouting "DON'T LOOK!" every few minutes.  When they reappear, they're wearing something like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Diego was the designer of all of these wild get-ups, aren't they amazing?

Oh, Those Dinosaurs.

Kids aren't the only ones into costumes around here.  Just look at what I found our plastic dinosaurs wearing:

Non-Stop Halloween

Julio LOVED his super-special Halloween costume:

But, after so much excitement, he happily got back into his boring old everyday clothes:

(Ladybug costume made with aluminum wok cover, red spray paint and black tape, held on to the back by a tiny backpack taped into the inside. Pipe-cleaner antennae stitched on to jersey knit hat.)

Eleventh Hour Halloween Ideas

Happy Halloween, everybody!  In case you need a last-minute costume change, here are some very fast ideas from the archives for you:

The Fastest Capes

5-Minute No Sew Skirts for Witches, Wizards, Pirates and Fairies

Tin Can Tin Man

Cats and Mice

Fork Fangs

If you make the skirts or capes, remember to save the t-shirt sleeves to use for super-easy matching doll or toy costumes!

Tin Man

If you listen very carefully, you can hear a rusty voice barely whispering, "Oil me!"

Ruben made the hat with one of the parents at his school out of a paper plate, tape and aluminum foil.  He taped the cans and lids to his shirt.  (We have a nice can opener that removes the lids of cans without any sharp edges.)  I love how the big tomato cans fit right over the tops of his cowboy boots.

It is non-stop Wizard of Oz around here!

Make Your Own Kid-Sized Clothes Hangers

Here are some free and easy wire hangers that I just made for our dress-up area:

Watch out when you cut.  My wire end went flying!

I am hoping that the electrical tape wrapping will make these more durable and will keep any sharp wire safely inside the cardboard.  It's time for me to teach them to hang up their own capes!

Firefighter Birthday Party

Ever since Ruben's preschool took a field trip to the fire station, he has been very interested in acting out fire scenarios at home.  Although it isn't at all difficult to find a good preschool-sized firefighter costume, we didn't have one, so over the past several weeks I have sorted out a firefighter costume for him with things from around the house.  He wears jeans and a matching jean jacket with yellow electrical tape stripes on it, black boots, and a hat made from: newspaper, packing tape, a piece of red origami paper and the sticker that they handed out at the fire station.  His tools include an axe (spatula), hose (piece of rope wound on an old 16mm film reel), and phone for dialing 911 (stickers on the wall with numbers written on them).  We wave red bandannas to pretend there's a fire and he comes right to the rescue.  When the whole family gets in on it, he LOVES it.

For his birthday, we took it all to the park, and invited two of his friends and their parents to get in on the action.  We acted out the fire rescue scenario over and over, including trips to the hospital (picnic table) where we were treated for broken limbs and smoke inhalation.  He had requested a cake "shaped like a house on fire with snow on the roof," so I made a banana cake with cream cheese frosting and topped it with little people for him to rescue.

Just before serving, I poured some heated rum around the base of the cake and lit it on fire for a little flambé excitement.  (It sort of worked, but would probably have been more dramatic in a dark room.)  It did soak the bottom of the cake with rum, so that part was for the parents, and the kids got the top layer.  I'm pretty sure that Ruben loved everything about his little party.

A Special Visitor

A couple of days ago, I told Ruben to put the gift that he made at preschool under our tree as the first Christmas present.  He said, "Okay!" but then disappeared for about 10 minutes.  From the other room we heard, "Everybody close your eyes!"  We closed our eyes and then heard a few minutes of clomping around, rustling under the tree and then receding footsteps.  Then, again from the other room, "OKAY! You can open your eyes now."  The gift was there (we cheered), but the boy was not, so we called him to come out to us. 

Turns out that while our eyes were closed, this jolly fellow had paid a visit:

Of course, some of us had to take turns sitting on his lap and telling him what we most want for Christmas.

(Another rubber duck)

(A slingshot)

This Santa costume was made out of a red silk suit from Hong Kong, black cowboy boots, a Santa hat and a pipe cleaner beard and glasses.  Ruben wore it every day last January and February, and many, many times since then.

The Bat

Shhh!  He's sleeping now, but just wait 'til the sun goes down...

Cat and Mouse Costumes

A few years ago, I made this simple mouse costume for Diego:

                                         Photo by the great Sharon Montrose (Lucky us!)

He was also wearing matching brown pants and brown sandals.  A 14" long, tapered tail that was made out of the same fabric as the ears was tucked into the back of his pants.  He was absurdly cute in this costume, especially when he got into it and acted like a mouse, which he did EVERY SINGLE DAY until Christmas.

I think some fantastic toddler costumes can be made very simply using solid colored matching pants and shirts, with just one or two other accessories.  That way, if the costume does become a favorite, it's easy to wash, easy to get on and off in a hurry, and comfortable for play time.

Here's a picture of Ruben from last year, when he needed a quick NEW costume right before a Halloween party (!):

                                                                  (photo credit unknown)

I grabbed some kitty ears that we already had in our dress up box, and made very simple sock paws with white stitches out of some of Joe's black socks.  He wore a black turtleneck, black pants, black shoes and black eyeliner whiskers.  He had another long black sock safety pinned onto the back of his pants (I think I just stuffed it with another sock).  The paws were a great success for Ruben.  I think that because they were the part of the costume that he could see and interact with all the time, they really brought it alive for him.  When he put them on, he clearly felt like he became a cat.

This year our costumes will be a little more elaborate, but I do love the simplicity of these old favorites.

Halloween Costumes (part 1)

We've been making a lot of these:

Involving these:

and this:

 

I think I've talked them out of this:

So, I was playing around with another XXL t-shirt, when I discovered that this could be the perfect (!!!) body for Ruben's BAT costume:

Does my drawing make sense?  The t-shirt is upside down.  I put elastic through the bottom hem, just like in these skirts.  I turned it inside out and stitched it along the dashed line.  I cut two arm holes where you see those two vertical lines.  His legs come out of what were once the t-shirt sleeves.  This is so simple that it has already taken me much longer to write this post than it did to make the costume!  This is just the beginning for our bat, but it would be a very cute body for many toddler-preschooler animal costumes.

It's really stretchy around the neck, which you need for easy on/off.  He says it is very comfortable.

He gets into character as soon as he puts it on.  I love that.  I'll show you more pictures when he has wings!

Fork Fangs!

I just remembered this old cafeteria trick:

 BWA-ha-ha-ha-ha!

T-Shirt Skirt for Little Witches, Vampires, Pirates & Fairies

This has got to be the easiest skirt you can make.  A three year old could make this skirt.  It requires NO SEWING, uses materials that you already have in your house, and is a great way to recycle an old t-shirt.  It looks brilliant in black or stripes, and would be perfect for a Halloween witch or pirate costume.  You need:

It is so soft and comfortable... perfect for flying!

WAIT!!! GO OUTSIDE!!!  NO FLYING IN THE HOUSE!!!!!

Some Tips & Tricks:

I used a men's medium shirt in these pictures.  I think it would fit most kids aged 2 - 10.

An XXL shirt works just as well, it will be fuller and can be made a little longer.

If it is going to be worn a lot, I recommend using elastic in the waist.

A t-shirt that doesn't have seams on the sides works best.

The bottom of the skirt will tend to roll up a little bit.  If you're going for the jagged look, don't be shy, you can cut it pretty severely.

Big men's t-shirts are available in many colors at most thrift stores for around one dollar.

Use the sleeves of the t-shirt in exactly the same way to make a matching doll skirt!


You can see some more costume ideas in the "Dress-up" category.

Enough with the gloves, already!

Here are the gloves we gave to our little friend for her third birthday:

I wish I could tell you that a five-year-old did the stitching, but no... that was me.  The kids did help with the design, though, and we picked colors to match her cape.  She was very excited when she saw them, and said, "These could be my pirate gloves!"

Up, Up and Away!

I have to take back what I said about favoring the all black gloves.  Diego really had a vision for these, and they rock.  I love how he thinks that he might catch Julio.