i wanted to make her costume again this year since i don't know how many more years she'll allow me to do it. i also wanted her to be something cute that she liked, so i decided on an owl. it seemed appropriately halloween-y, but still kid-like. she came home from school one day asking what she was going to be (mental note to relish the moments where she's asking me instead of telling me...). when i proposed owl, her eyes lit up and she seemed pretty pumped up by the prospect, so i began construction.
the costume is not the most well put-together thing i've ever sewn, but it made it through the night. i bought some fat eighths of grey and black fabric and justin helped me cut out all the feathers. i sewed feathers on to the front of a plain black body suit. then, i got some basic grey fabric (i was actually going for some fleece, but the fabric store was gangbusters the day we went to buy it, so i ended up with a discounted bit of pre-cut grey velvet-ish fabric that worked just fine). i cut out two wings and sewed feathers on them. i attached them to the body suit with black buttons on ek's upper back (i thought about tying ribbon around her neck and realized she was absolutely NOT going to go for that). i also attached a little bit of elastic where the wings would meet her wrists so she could flap. i found a simple pattern for a jersey pilot's cap and sewed that out of the grey base fabric as well and stuck some little ear feathers on them. not surprisingly, the first hat i sewed (for a 24 month old, according to the size instructions) was super tight on my baby's giant dome. so, i sewed another one. that one ended up being a little big (flappy around the ears), but it worked and saved me from having to whip up a third owl hat. anyway...i loved sewing the hat because i got to use a new stitch - double overlap. very exciting for me. we threw on black tights and black shoes, and that was the costume! i did also make her a pair of felt glasses to get the big owl eye effect, but she wanted no part of those either.
for trick or treating, we drove down to our friends' neighborhood that goes all out for halloween. it was quite the trek dealing with traffic - it took me and emme 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there, during which she told me she had to potty and there was nothing i could do. i felt awful about being the cause of an accident when she's been doing so great with potty training. anyway...we finally made it down. justin met us and we got ek changed into her costume. she was jazzed. i should mention that the night before halloween, we carved a pumpkin and ate homemade chili, so she was pretty excited about seeing more jack-o-lanterns. she loved her own jack-o-lantern so much that she made us bring it (lit up) into the bathroom for bath time. jenny, our hostess, had sandwiches and sweet potato fries and fruit for the kiddos and delicious korean tacos and edamame salad for the adults, so we tried to get her to eat a few bites of real food before trick or treating began.
she started off in a wagon, but ended up walking most of the way holding my hand. she was SO serious about saying trick or treat and walking up to the doors. she would delicately take just one piece of candy and it was so so cute. she would place it in her little bag and then run to get me and justin. at one point, i asked her if it was time to head back and pointed back to our home base and she pointed in the opposite direction and said "maybe go this way?". i think it's fair to say she loved it.
when we got back, she got to eat her first ever kit kat. i'm not sure she even chewed - she loved it. her daddy gave her a tootsie pop mid-trick or treating, and she was a fan of that as well.
this morning, she slept until almost 8:00 and woke up talking about all the fun she had. she even told me she dreamed about halloween.
and now for the pics - some from the real camera, some iphone shots. you take what you can get when there are that many distractions....
LOVE the costume!!! You did a fantastic job!
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