This year, Ethan all of a sudden turned into an opinionated and imaginative little boy. When we asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween, he insisted he wanted to be a dinosaur… that lasted for about one week. He changed his mind several times after that — a doctor, then a monster, then back to a dinosaur. Since I was too lazy to make him a dinosaur costume (they’re a lot of work!), I scoured the net to find him the perfect dinosaur costume. I finally found one at Pottery Barn Kids, only to find out they were out of his size! Ugh. So I asked if he wanted to be a dragon instead and he willingly agreed. I ordered it from Old Navy. Done!
So when we had a Halloween event to attend and the dragon costume hadn’t arrived the day before, I panicked … just a little. It was a costume party and my little boy didn’t have a costume to wear! I thought fast and came up with something fairly easy – I’ll make him a crown, cape, and pants, and he will be a royal king! He could always wear these simple pieces again when playing dress-up! This was actually already on my project list, so it was one thing I could finally cross off.
For the crown, I used felt, muslin, and elastic for the band. I made up my own pattern for this one. I traced my pattern onto the felt, cut out two of the same pieces and sewed them together. I cut out three diamond shapes and sewed them on to the front of the crown for a regal look. I also sewed some pretty gold rickrack along the bottom of it. I then made a muslin tube and ran elastic through it for the band. It was super easy. I know I’ll be making more of these in the future.
The cape was made out of a crushed panne velvet found at Joann – on sale and super cheap. It’s basically a big rectangle with elastic for the neckband. I sewed some of the gold rickrack along both sides of the cape. Simple and easy and it looks great! I’ll probably be making more of these in different colors too.
The pants were made using the simple pants pattern by Lotta Jansdotter in her book Simple Sewing for Baby. It’s basically two pieces sewn together along the outer sides and inside curve of the pants. When I first saw this pattern, I couldn’t believe how simple it was. They really are simple pants! I only made a few changes. I sewed the casing for the elastic a half an inch from the top of the pants to create a little ruffle effect at the top. I did the same for each of the pant legs so that they could be hiked up just below the knee. Of course Ethan didn’t like this idea – he kept trying to pull both pant legs down so they ended up being an awkward length! But I think they still looked cute on him.
And that completed the outfit! I didn’t have time to make him a scepter like I planned – but he wouldn’t have held on to it anyway! Total cost of costume was less than $5. My kind of project!!
Happy Halloween!
xoxo, Jen
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