Halloween Preparations

Okay, so I know I swore off making Halloween costumes for this year, but ... when Katie Anne finally settled on the idea of Dora and Boots as the costumes for her and SJ this year, I had to do just a little crafting to make them perfect and authentic! 

The Dora costume wasn't too hard to come up with ... my parents had given Katie Anne the purple Backpack last year, so we were all set there.  We found a pink shirt and orange shorts on sale at Target at the end of the summer season, and Katie Anne had yellow socks already.  (That Dora really knows how to match her clothes!)  The only thing that we had to make was Dora's bracelet - you can't really find the classic combination of yellow beads and a big blue flower in stores.  However, we found all the needed materials at Hobby Lobby, and Katie Anne did a great job of making the bracelet!

I also grabbed some pink tights and a new teal windbreaker (sticking with the mismatched tropical colors theme that Dora rocks) in case the weather was chilly, so Katie Anne was set!

For Boots, things got a little trickier.  They do make a Boots costume that you can buy ... but it is hideous and does not look like the real Boots at all.  So, I was going to have to whip up a comfortable, authentic Boots costume for the boy.  Sewing for an infant boy isn't something that I've ever done, and I researched making a onesie with all those snaps ... and that seemed very hard and crazy.  So, I found a white romper made out of sweatshirt material online for him.  I also ordered a hat (which I wound up not using after all) and some gray dye.  When the package arrived, I was very happy with the romper, not so happy with the hat, and very nervous about the dye - which was supposed to be used in the washing machine!  

 I debated doing putting the dye in my washing machine - which is relatively new and nice - because I had visions of every load of white clothes coming out gray forever, but I finally decided to just do it.  When I saw this, I was really regretting my decision...

but everything came out fine in the next white load!

I wound up not using the little hat - it came out a different color gray and didn't fit SJ really well.  So, I made him a little fleece Boots hat, and then I bought him some red socks to serve as Boots.  I sewed a yellow patch on his gray suit for Boots' belly and made a long gray and yellow tail for the back, and he was all ready, too!  I think the costumes came out really cute ... pictures in another post!