Homemade Pumpkin & Dragon Halloween Costumes!

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Halloween Traditions: I love Halloween! I have very fond memories of the holiday growing up. Dad took us trick-or-treating, and we always visited some special people like my Great Uncle who gave us each a bucket (literally) of candy, and Mrs. Lopez, a woman my dad did handy-work for when he was in college.

My crafty and talented mother would ask us what we wanted to be and then make us any costume we desired. I remember looking at a picture of one of the costumes in The Thorn Witch, and getting a beautiful replica straight down to the fluffy tulle skirt with gold stars on it. Truly a magical childhood. I lack her level of talent, but she did teach me to use a sewing machine and with the right pattern and tutorial I’ve managed to surprise myself with what I can create.

Following in her footsteps, I asked the boys what they wanted to be for Halloween. I waited until the response kept being the same, and then found some easy online patterns and brought the boys to the fabric store.

My little helpers: The kids helped pick out their fabrics, approve the pattern selections, and assisted with little steps along the way like placing the pumpkin face, removing pins, and drawing different pictures of ideas for dragon spikes. My 5 year old even pushed the sewing machine pedal for me on the straight seams. (I get a bravery award for this, right? He was so happy, it was unreal.)

I’m so grateful for the number of amazing craft bloggers there are out there on the internet creating free tutorials and reasonably priced sewing patterns. What would have taken a trip to the fabric store and a lot of time flipping through pattern catalogs is now a quick and easy search on the internet. Their time, energy and creativity has improved our Halloween!

Dragon Costume: For Will’s costume, I modified a free dinosaur tail pattern by Stephanie, The TipToe Fairy: http://thetiptoefairy.com/2014/04/lets-make-dinosaur-tail/ I simply omitted the dots, added a barb to the end of the tail, and created curved individual spikes for a more dragon-y look.

I used a free dragon wing tutorial written by Louise of imfeelincrafty: https://feelincrafty.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/dragon-wings-tutorial/ Her directions were easy to follow, and the dragon wings are  stunning. IMG_0434.JPG

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Pumpkin Costume: For the pumpkin costume, I chose a Simple Pumpkin pattern that only cost $4.99 on Etsy from preciouspatterns. (I’m just sharing where I got the pattern because it’s cute, I don’t have any affiliations with this seller or these bloggers.) I decided not to make the matching hat, and instead will use a green hat. Andrew will wear a black shirt and pants under the costume for trick-or-treating. The pattern really was simple, based on two rectangles without overly complicated shaping. (Some pumpkin costume patterns have you sew individual wedge pieces together to make a more real sphere… I just am not there right now.)

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Funniest moment: When Jake asked me if I had time to run 8 miles yesterday and I told him I didn’t have time because I needed to make a dragon costume by Thursday. Yeah. He moved it to Saturday for me. If I don’t have the final touches on the costumes done by Saturday, I’ll be running those 8 miles real fast, away from my disappointed kiddos.

Time to stuff the dragon tail…

Do you have any fun Halloween traditions or plans?

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2 comments

  1. The wings look awesome! So glad the tutorial worked out for you! Hope the kiddo enjoys them!

    1. Thanks so much Louise! Things like this are why I love the internet; your brilliant pattern made our Halloween wonderful, AND you got to see them!

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