DIY Family Costumes: Russell and Kevin

Even though Halloween is a good three weeks away and it's like, 102 degrees around here, we have already started celebrating! We went to Mickey's Halloween Party last weekend and we had SO much fun!

This year's family theme was Up!

Doing an entire family theme seems daunting at first, but once I made some lists and broke it down, it really wasn't that bad.

This is how I made the Carl and house costumes. In this post, I'll share how I put together the Kevin and Russell costumes.

They were pretty easy, and actually a lot of fun!

I'll start with Russell, mostly because Giuliana was so cute! :)

 Here's what you will need:

1- Iron-on Transfer paper, similar to this. Note- it has to be made to iron onto dark fabric.
2- A yellow T-shirt
3- Khaki shorts or if you want to make it girly like I did, a brown tutu. I got mine here.
4- A yellow hat. I found mine here.
5- Brown felt. How much will depend on who you're making the costume for, but for G (who is a pretty big 2 year old), I didn't need more than half a yard.
6- These Carter's socks (but that's just a small detail, not necessary to complete the costume)
7- An orange bandana (I found mine at JoAnn)

Basically, all I did was find a scout sash shape that I liked by Googling "scout sash template." I eyeballed it and cut it out of the felt. Next I googled to find some Wilderness Explorer badges, and I found them here! I also found the WE logo for the hat. I cut everything out and ironed it onto the felt.

  Because the sash is made for a toddler, I couldn't fit a lot of badges on it, so I picked out my favorite ones and made sure I left room for the all-important Ellie Badge.

I cut out the WE logo and basically used baste stitching to secure it to the hat. I just eyeballed it, so it's not perfect.

Like I mentioned earlier, I wanted G to be able to feel a little girly in her costume, so although I brought the khaki shorts just in case, she wore the tutu. I also didn't want to stress about finding a yellow polo shirt, so i just used a yellow T that she already had. And of course, she didn't want anything to do with the bandana, so that got left out of the night's festivities. :)

Now for Kevin...

1- I already had a yellow skirt, but any yellow or blue tutu or skirt or dress would work just as well!
2- Kevin-colored tulle
3- An elastic band the same color as the skirt
4- Kevin-colored feathers
5- A bird mask I found in the kids' dress up section at JoAnn
6- Pipecleaners
7-Blue leggings (or tights) and a blue tank top (or shirt)

At first Kevin was stumping me. I knew I wanted Kevin to be my costume, but I had no idea how to pull it off. I thought about making a paper mache mask, but I have never done that before. Then I stumbled upon that bird mask and figured I could make that work. Paper mache will have to wait until next year! :) I tweaked the mask a bit with some paint and scissors, added the pipe cleaners and feathers, voila!

It's not exact, but you get the point- it's a bird. A bird that looks a lot like that bird from that movie Up...

:)

Then I sewed the elastic to the shirt at a couple of different points across the waist band- just in case I decide to wear the skirt again.

Next I went around the elastic, making a no-sew bustle.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but I made the dark blue longer, the light blue shorter.

Then I hot glued the feather to the ends of the tulle, to give the skirt some weight, texture, and of course, bird-like qualities. :) Simple. And fun!

Love that kid!



Psssst... if you're looking for other Halloween ideas, HERE's our family theme from last year!