Contributed by justin.amy.west
Things we want to share...
I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween this year!
When I became a mom, I decided to keep a tradition. Just like my mom did for us, I decided I would make my kids' Halloween costumes every year. Kyle's first Halloween, he was a Pirate, complete with a pirate ship umbrella stroller.
Last year I sewed a dog costume.
This year, I undertook the project of building a Thomas the Train costume for him, and a simpler Gnome costume for Tyler. The Gnome was an easy costume: I simply cut a round-bottom triangle out of red felt, sewed it into a cone-shaped hat, attached a jagged triangular shaped piece of faux fur to the elastic under his chin and voila! He's a gnome. That costume lasted....minutes. Tyler was not happy about having something on his head!
As for Thomas the train, it took a lot of thought to figure out how to do this one. I did some online research and got some ideas at Coolest Homemade Costumes. During this time of thought, we had to get a new car seat because Tyler outgrew his old one. Perfect! There's the main part of the costume! So the first thing I did was I taped it open, cut holes in the top and bottom of the "train" for Kyle, and I added another box (using hot glue) that we had lying around to the back. I also gave my sister the charge of sewing a conductor's hat for Kyle.
After a lot more thought, I got some poster board. I cut 2 slits in the top of the train to slide the rounded posterboard into, and I put a small piece on top of the small box in the back to give it a rounded roof. I then spray painted everything with gray primer, then blue. Once it was all painted, I added the black poster board to the front of the engine. I also cut a circle out of cardboard to put inside the rounded cardboard to add support, and then created the blue front from the rest of that piece of cardboard. I used white poster board for the face and spray painted it gray. I also backed it with cardboard for support. Then, I painted the face (I used a drinking glass to trace circles for eyes, freehanded the rest). I left tabs on the poster board outside the face so I was able to fold the tabs into the black part of the engine and glue the face in place. I used dinner plates to trace partial circles for wheels and a glass to trace round windows. The rest of the painting was done freehand. Some of the paint I had, the rest I got from the hardware store (sample paints). Kyle helped me to paint rocks black and we hot glued them to the back of the train for coal. After realizing that the train was really too bulky for an almost 3-year-old to carry around, I found some castor wheels at the store and we were able to screw them right into the cardboard on bottom.
Throughout the course of creating Thomas, Kyle spent a lot of time asking for "Thomas the Train for Halloween?" I had the costume downstairs in our spare room, and Kyle often asked to "go downstairs to see Thomas." I'd let him go, he'd be gone for 20 minutes or so and come back upstairs. Finally, one day, I went downstairs to see what he was doing when he asked to see Thomas. I sneaked in the room, only to find Kyle sitting on the bed, staring at the train costume.
We went for a trial run when we went Trick-or-Treating at the zoo on Saturday, Oct. 30. Everyone thought he was adorable! We got a lot of compliments on it. We had two problems: The cardboard collapsed around one wheel so it made it difficult to roll. I also forgot that I had painted a funnel for the front and forgot to glue it on!
On Halloween, we glued on the funnel (a Gerber puffs container painted black) and added dry ice and water to it (which was a cool effect, except we added too much ice and it froze the water, so the "smoke" didn't last long) and Justin reinforced the bottom with a wooden frame. This made Thomas heavier, and because we forgot to cut out some of the poster board that was in his way, Kyle found it very cumbersome to walk around the neighborhood. We ended up spending a lot of time pushing Thomas while Kyle walked from door to door.
All in all, I would say that Thomas was a success, even if it was cumbersome. Kyle still got his candy, and now he has a new friend in his bedroom (he wouldn't let me leave it in the garage).
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