Flops of Halloweens past

Hopefully like most, I have had my fair share of attempting costumes for my kids; most were flops, with a possible triumph.

70's era leopard costume

You know you have the vision in your head, but the outcome was not even a shadow of what was envisioned.  Oh well.  Guess in the end the kids were happy with what they got....maybe.  

I think my mom had better luck with costumes than me.  At least I have this photo laying around to prove it.  That's me...forever ago as a leopard. I think I am three in this picture so that's 31 years ago.  Like I said for-ev-er ago.

This was one of the few costumes that got recycled between three growing sisters.  There is a Mini Mouse costume picture somewhere in a shoe box. 

The strange thing is that my mom made us our costumes. As in she sewed them!!!  Why is that strange?  Because I've never seen her use a sewing machine.   Very strange.

I'll start out with a triumph, and go figure I don't have any good pictures of it.   This costume  was my triumph of any costume I've ever made.  Three years ago my sister asked me to make my nephew a costume, but not just any costume.  She wanted Max from Where the Wild Things Are. 

This was a huge request.  Something I agreed to, but without the confidence it would turn out.  It took some time to think it through (This was the year prior to the movie coming out).

I used the below seen Spider Man suit as a template for the body.  The tail was free hand with faux fur, and boy was it an awesome tail.  You can't see it from this angle but the shape of it was amazing.  Then the hood was trial and error.
You could also see in the picture to the right that the hands/claws were removable, but still attached.

My sister was soooo happy with it.

Let the wild rumpus begin!

Here we have my little boy.  (Aw I miss the kids at this age...so juicy and cute.)  This is a simple costume I was pretty happy with.  This was my son's first walking Halloween. He was the perfect Bam-Bam.  At this age my sons hair was practically white too, but it's hard to see in this picture. 

Constructed out of a couple small pieces of fabric, with some black felt for the spots, and a bone shaped dog treat painted white.

This next one, below, was a flop  He wanted to be a bat AND I wanted to make his costume.  I used hangers for the wings that didn't stay on his arms and the hat was a flop too, but he was happy with it. 

 

 The good thing about this Halloween is that he had two costumes to wear; one handmade that he wore to
daycare (the bat) and the one he wore out trick-or-treating; over-sized Super Man.








Now obviously this is not a costume I made,
but one year my son decided to be Bat-Spider-man.  The Spider-Man suit with a Bat-Man cape.  It was his decision to combine two costumes, and boy did he get a lot of remakes regarding his incorrect costume by confused treat givers.  Seriously!  Is it necessary to cretique kids wearing costumes?  He's a boy.  HE knows Spider-Man and Bat-Man are two different super heros, and HE wanted to be both at the same time.

 Now my daughter has been lucky by being able to dodge me making her costumes, but one year she couldn't avoid it.  She wanted to be a horse, and this is all I came up with.  She had a tail of yarn and a mask made out of those foam sheets.  It looks sad, but once again another happy child with their homemade costume.  And once again there is my son, a bat, but this time it's a legit bat costume.  This was an awesome costume, it has a pull string that popped open the wings.

This year the only costume I'm attempting is my own.  A (crafty thrifty) gypsy.

Now in the past I've tended to lean towards something with wings, and have made my own wings, which I've been extremely happy with.  If I get around to posting my gypsy costume I'll try to remember to get pictures of my wings as well.

So what have been your flops and triumphs costume wise?