Real Mom Confession - Halloween Costumes, the Hard Way

Whew, it's been a weird and busy week. And I have written down a bunch of ideas for posts, but haven't actually made it to the computer to post any of them. Any time I try to sit at the computer, LT tries to climb in my lap and color, which seriously does NOT work for me. And since she doesn't take naps on a regular basis anymore, I find it very hard to find time for myself. Don't tell anyone, but a few of the previous posts were written within the confines of my locked bathroom, on my iPad! Anyways, enough of that... although, I do think that counts as a confession! You are in luck then, it's a two for one day!
Since Halloween is fast approaching, I wanted to touch a bit on LT's costume from last year. She wanted to be a Tiger, "like Muppet and Baby." Hubby and I took her to Walmart and Target (I think) to look for costumes. We found plenty of Tiger costumes, but mostly for babies up to 18 months. Those were a no go.


After what felt like hours, we finally found a Tiger costume... But it looked like Muppet. It was orange and cute and totally in our price range. Only one problem, LT didn't want to be Muppet. She wanted to be Baby.

Okay, fine. As I searched the Internet in the middle of the Halloween aisle at Walmart, Hubbs kept running ideas by me of how we could make our own. After not finding a single white Tiger costume, I was beginning to feel like it was our only choice. LT was not budging on her choice to be Baby and not Muppet.

We went to the clothing section on Wally World and started to look for white sweats. Clothes makers are not stupid by any means. They sell white sweaters for babies, teens and adults... but not a single white sweater or pair of pants could be found for kids or toddlers. These guys know what they are doing. I wouldn't buy something white for my kid knowing that it is going to get dirty within seconds of being outside, but I NEEDED some for this costume. I finally settled on ordering them direct from the manufacturer for slightly more that I would have liked to pay, but I was happy when they finally arrived and actually fit LT.

Time to pick out black fabric for our tiger stripes. Hubby, LT and I spent a good hour or so in the fabric section of a craft store trying to find a fabric that was fuzzy on one side, could be cut without making a huge mess all over the table, and actually looked like something you would find on a tiger.

After picking out the fabric, cutting and singeing the stripes by hand, and pinning them on the sweats, it was time to start sewing. A few days, a few cups of coffee and a lot of pin sticks later, I was done!!!

We were told this fabric would cut cleanly... What a joke!

 It was time to try the costume on and do a test run with makeup. We took LT to the pumpkin patch in full garb and she had a blast growling at everyone she saw and telling them that she was a tiger, in case I did such a bad job that it wasn't obvious what she was.

Test Run!! 

Halloween finally came and LT was ready to get dressed and go trick or treating. I have never seen a kid so happy. I'm pretty sure that she would have slept in the costume if we had let her.

I may have cursed a few times during the creating process, scoffed at the idea of making a Halloween costume from nothing but an idea and a few Tiger pictures and even been slightly angry that I could sew.. but in the end, the look on my daughters face, fully in character and totally happy, made it all worth it. I'd even do it again. In fact, she wants to be a dinosaur this year. Oy Vey!