Melanie’s 2013 Halloween Costume

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2013 was Melanie's very first Halloween and, since we live in a rural community and I wanted her to be able to trick-or-treat, I organized a street-wide trick-or-treat and hayride. It was all kinds of fun and Melanie loved the chaos (and her Mommy and Daddy luuurved the candy). Wanna see her costume? Here it is… Melanie's 2013 Halloween costume inspired by “Rise of the Guardians“!

Recognize it? Let me give you a little visual hint:

That's right! She was an elf from “Rise of the Guardians“. I watched the movie shortly after finding out that I was pregnant and (in addition to buttloads of hormonal crying) LOVED it. I walked out of the movie theater and announced to my husband that our baby was going to dress up like one of the elves for it's first Halloween. Then I forced him to head straight to Target and buy a giant jingle bell for the costume (I knew they would be hard to find in October but everywhere then since it was late November).

This was a SUPER easy costume to pull together. I bought the ears, the jingle bell, and the long-sleeve onesie and DIYed the felt costume plus the little tights. Here's how I did the felt costume and tights part:

• I folded a huge piece of red felt in half and then laid it out. I used a Sharpie to draw a huge triangle (with a taller point and narrower sides). Then I cut out the triangle.
• I didn't move the felt and laid my baby right on it to mark the face hole. I made sure to lay her further down the felt so her legs hung over the end. I used a Sharpie to mark general lines for the face opening. Then I cut out the face opening (after removing the baby!).
• I sewed two straight seams along the longest sides of the triangle. I clipped the extra felt fabric from the top of triangle right by the seam.
• Turn the triangle right side out and sewed on a ribbon and buckle. I also stitched the ears on because my baby was too little to wear them.
• For the tights I used this tutorial to make teenage knee socks into baby tights. It was incredibly easy and so cute that she actually wore them under dresses well past Halloween.

What is your baby rocking for their first Halloween?