back with O’s Halloween costume!  for a long time he had told me he wanted to be a vampire this year, which i was pretty excited about.  thought it’d be fun to have a classic Dracula little guy.  but the week before halloween, AFTER i had already bought fabric for a cape and black trousers, he said no, he actually wanted to be a vampire BAT.  like the animal.  so i sort of went with a hybrid.

i started with his cape/wings, which i insisted on lining with the red nylon i had gotten at Mill End to look more “vampire” like.  i drew the pattern out on a big sheet of easel paper, making the wingspan match his armspan and sort of echoing the style of last year’s Toothless costume.  then i cut it out of some microsuede type fabric my mom had given me plus the red, sewed right sides together then turned, and quilted the lines in from the neck to each point of the wings.  

i sandwiched elastic loops into the ends to go around his fingers, and added two little strips of velcro to hold the wings just under the neckline of his sweater, where i added the corresponding velcro.

his sweater colors lean more toward “real bat.” i upcycled two of my husband’s old cotton sweaters for the gray arms and brown body.  the pattern is the Oliver + S field trip raglan tee, which i made in a size 4 and didn’t hem.  i used some rib knit for the neckline rather than trying to use the sweater knit.  nice to have various colors of rib knit in the stash for occasions like this!

his cozy pants, which i had serendipitously made a couple weeks before halloween because he needed some, are of course Mini Hudson Pants by True Bias.  man i love that pattern (did you see Kelli just came out with a Men’s Hudson Pant pattern?  oh yes she did).  these are made in black sweatshirt fleece with oatmeal accents and a gray drawstring.  once he wasn’t going to be Dracula, I opted out of making new fancy black pants and just used these.  doesn’t he seem comfy?

the bat ears (which you can see best in the first photo) are a headband spray painted black, with the brown sweater material and black felt ears hot glued to it.  his treat bag is another Hobo Sack made from the same red nylon…my goal there was for it to look like he was carrying a drop of blood!

O had picked out the fangs weeks before halloween, and we also got some fake blood to dribble out of the corner of his mouth that day.  i also did white makeup on his face with heavy black eyebrows (his request!).  poor kid though, when i added the blood before trick or treating, it was a little TOO realistic and it totally freaked him out!  he scared himself!

sign of a good costume, i guess!  😉