Halloween 2017

Happy Halloween from a Pineapple, a Garden Gnome and the Coca-Cola Polar Bear! Every Halloween, the kids choose their own costumes and this year - for the first time ever - I ended up making all three. So, I thought I'd share how each one came together.

Abby really loves pineapples (and has the pineapple backpack to prove it) so I wasn't too surprised by her choice. Oliver thought the gnome costumes we came across online were funny and that was that.  He really got into the character and was making funny faces and shifty-eyes during his school's costume parade - hilarious! I'm pretty sure Evelyn's costume was inspired by her beloved bunny costume that she wore in preschool so I made her polar bear in a similar style. I think my sister-in-law, Julie, suggested the Coca-Cola aspect and Evelyn was smitten.

Oliver is wearing a red wool felt hat based off of an old (out of print) toddler pattern, Simplicity 2527. I enlarged and lengthened the pattern and lined it in a red broadcloth. Because white, child-sized gnome beards were surprisingly hard to find, I made this one out of faux fur and a thin elastic band. His shirt is purchased and I made his pants (essentially pajama pants with a faux fly) out of a brushed cotton herringbone from JOANN. The pants are tucked into a pair of navy Kamik Stomp rain boots.

To create Abby's "Pineapple Dress" I returned to a beloved pattern, Oliver + S' Playtime Dress (previously made here), and used Robert Kaufman's 21 Wale Corduroy Citrus to make it bright and sunny. The pineapple "crown" is made out of 2 colors of green craft foam, a cropped toilet paper roll, a green satin covered headband and hot glue. I cut three sizes of leaves and hot glued them to the toilet paper roll before glueing it all to the headband. Easy-peasy! Green striped tights and gold converse complete her costume.

Evelyn's snuggly polar bear costume starts with the Cozy Winter Hood from Oliver + S Little Things To Sew in white faux fur from JOANN. The fully-lined faux fur dress is a bubble hem play on the A-line First Day Dress from MADE. After failing to find a child-sized Coca-Cola scarf for Evelyn, I made my own. Her scarf is a six inch wide strip of red fleece, fringed on both ends. I carefully traced and cut the logo out of white knit and fused it to the scarf. Red striped tights and red Kamik rain boots complete her costume.

Cutest trick or treating crew! They were such good sports about putting on their costumes again over Thanksgiving break so that the wonderful Jessica could get photos of their costumes for me (outside of parties and costume parades). Love them so much I just might do it all again next year! 😉

Photography by Jessica Peterson