How now brown cow

Normally I’m into decorating for Halloween (seen here, here and here) but this year I am celebrating the fact that I was able to make a costume, even if that is the only Halloween-related project I have to write about!  I introduce to you our little brown cow.

And, holy cow (pun intended), it is hard to take a posed picture of this toddler these days.  I was able to bribe him with a cracker to stand still for 30 seconds.

Those of you who follow along with me on Instagram and Facebook might have seen the progression of this costume over the weekend.  We had 12 hours in the car, which allowed me more than enough time to start and nearly finish the costume.

Here’s what I used to make our toddler cow costume:

• a matching set of toddler-sized sweats (a hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants)
• craft felt in white and brown
• embroidery floss and corresponding needle
• one large pink button
• some plastic wiggly eyes
• fabric adhesive/glue (to attache the wiggly eyes)
• fun fur from the yarn aisle (I used this brand) for the tail and “hair”

I cut out the white patches one at a time, just making it up as I went.  I decided to hand-sew the patches on with embroidery floss since I was in the car and all, but also because toddler pant legs and shirt arms don’t have a lot of room to maneuver with a machine!  Plus, I thought the stitching added a little something, even if it’s not super realistic.

As for making the face, I also made that up as I went along!  I started with the nose, attaching it as close to the front of the hood as possible.  I tried the hood on my little model once or twice, which revealed how close everything needed to be to the front of the hood.  The ears were made a bit more sturdy by stitching together two pieces of felt.  Then I cut small slits into the hood, and sewed the ears into the hood (if you looked from the inside, you would see just a small bit of the felt sticking through).  This was enough to make them stick out, yet still flop in a realistic way!

I had to distract Ike with his letter magnets to get a picture of the costume behind.  How cute is that little bum patch with the tail!?

Despite not wanting to pose for pictures, Ike was actually thrilled with his costume.  He walked around saying “cow pants” and “cow jacket,” which was super cute.  And I was thrilled that this costume helped him solidify what a cow is…before that he would look at a picture of a cow and say, “baaaaa.”  Now we’ve got “cow” mastered.  (And in case you were wondering, Ike thought that “baaas” said “mooooo.”  He was a little confused.)

Ike had his daycare Halloween party yesterday and tonight we’ll be taking him out trick-or-treating for the first time.  There is a great neighborhood street in Bar Harbor that closes and the residents kindly put on a great Halloween show for the kids.  We’re excited to see the madness!

I wonder if I’ll have to bring a cracker along…

Happy Halloween!