Once You Pop, The Fun Don't Stop: Baby's First Halloween

I never got around to sharing these photos last year and since Halloween is approaching, I felt it was an appropriate time to share them!

​I'm a big fan of Halloween, and dressing up in general. As mentioned in previous posts, I am also a fan of group/coordinated costumes so it was a no brainer that I was going to coordinate a family costume for Lennon's first Halloween last year. He was only 2.5 months old at the time (and being born 5 weeks early, he was more like a 2 month old). At this age, he basically slept all day, therefore, it made sense to use the carrier as part of the costume. The first babywearing costume that came to mind was Alan from the Hangover (played by Zach Galifianakis):

I wasn't crazy about dressing like Alan and I was hoping for something more unique, so I resulted to Google and Pinterest for some ideas while also requesting suggestions from my friends on Facebook. A former colleague of mine shared a suggestion she found on Pinterest:

I really liked the idea (found on mommyblogger Kate's blog This Place is Now A Home) and definitely thought it was unique but didn't know if I would have the energy to make it happen. I went to our local fabric store to see if they had the supplies and when I found everything I needed, I decided I was going to make it happen....and appropriately enough, I made it happen while babywearing!

I was basically going for the same look as seen on Kate's blog but wanted a little something extra for Perry's costume. I am all about the details when it comes to costumes....and this is how it all turned out:

To say I loved everything about this costume is an understatement. I was extremely happy with how it came together and it was a bit hit in our neighborhood as well. I can't even recall how many times we were stopped so that people could snap our photo.  The best part was that Lennon was a part of it. Even though he slept the whole time, it was a lot of fun and very special making him our little popcorn! And it wouldn't have been possible without him!


The How To:

The costume was extremely easy to make and didn't require many supplies. The most time consuming and tedious part was gluing all the popcorn on the toque and paper bags but that could be done while watching Netflix (as long as you are careful to not burn your fingers). Unfortunately, I didn't take step by step photos so hopefully this tutorial makes sense. The above photos should help!

All I used was:

- red felt material
- white felt material
- a white toque/beanie for Lennon's head
- popcorn
- Poly-Fil stuffing
- a cardboard flat
- popcorn paper bags
- gluegun and gluesticks
- black duct tape

I basically cut out the base that would attach to the carrier out of the white felt. It was a rectangle that I cut to fit the carrier and then I cut little triangles out of the top edge to make the zig-zag pattern.  I then cut strips out of the red felt and glued on top of the white base to make the stripe pattern. The base as attached to the carrier using large safety pins in the corners and pinning them to the straps of the carrier. If you have an older or more active baby, I would advise against using the safety pins. There are plenty other ways that you can attach it (ie. thread or glue string in the corners of the base and then tie around the straps of the carrier etc)

I then cut out the P-O-P-C-O-R-N letters out of the red felt and then glued them onto a piece of the white felt. Once that was complete, I cut the white felt around the letters, leaving a border to give it the effect I was going for. 

I didn't have a red apron but had so much of the red felt material that I decided to make one. I took an apron that I had and placed it on the red felt material and traced the outline to make the red apron that Perry is wearing. This can be done freehand as well as it is a pretty easy shape to make. I cut two strips out for the straps and used buttons to sew them on, but they can also be glued on with the glue gun.

The bow ties were bought from a costume store but they can also be made very easily (lots of no sew bow tie tutorials available online)!

The extra accessory I added to Perry's costume was the snack tray. I made it out of a beer/pop can flat and just covered it with black duct tape. I also made the straps using just the duct tape. I bought the popcorn bags from the dollar store and filled them with some Poly-Fil stuffing I had leftover from a previous project just to fill them out and give them some weight (you could also use newspaper or lots of other things to fill them out) and then I glued the popcorn onto the stuffing. I glued the popcorn paper bags to the snack tray so that they would stay put. I also used the Poly-Fil for Lennon's toque. The Poly-Fil worked well because it is white and fluffy so easily camouflaged when gluing the popcorn on (and then you don't need to use so much popcorn...gluing all that popcorn on took some time and was a bit tedious). My favorite addition on Perry's costume was placing trick-or-treat size candy and chocolate into the snack tray and when we saw little trick-or-treaters while out in the town, we would offer them some (and also sneak some ourselves now and again).

What do I have up my sleeves for this year's costume(s)?!? You will have to check back and see! 

For now, I leave you with two more photos from Lennon's First Halloween...funny enough, we found someone dressed as John Lennon! Enjoy!