ring master-o-saurus

I went back and forth on a Halloween costume for Lane this year.  I finally settled on him being a ringmaster and Scout being a lion!  After searching Pinterest and finding nothing, I just old fashioned googled "homemade ring master costume" and found a couple of cute pictures and one tutorial on how to sew a ringmaster jacket.  Since I can't sew I had to get creative!

I ended up buying a red hoodie from Target in a size too big.  I cut off the hood and zipper and then just cut along the pockets to make it look like a jacket with tails.  I bought some gold fancy ribbon and fringe and hot glued the trim, chest pleats, and shoulder fringe.  I found a foam top hat from Michaels and used a white collared shirt with a black bow-tie from Target for under the jacket.  The pants are girls leggings that I bought last year for Lane's referee costume and didn't end up using and I attached a black strip of fabric as a belt using hot glue.  I finished the costume off with some black rain boots and a painted on mustache!  I found Scout's lion costume in the dog section of Target, and I used a hula hoop wrapped in Christmas tree garland for the flaming hoop!  I just love how everything turned out!

*There are about a thousand pictures, but I couldn't narrow it down!! :)

Lane had been telling people he was going to be a dinosaur for Halloween (a triceratops to be exact,) and told me after I made his ringmaster costume that he wasn't going to wear it and wanted to be a triceratops!  I figured I could construct something to make him happy and he could wear it to one of his Halloween events.  I used a baseball cap, tee shirt, and brown pants that he already had for the base of the costume.  On the hat I painted and glued 2 large styrofoam cones and one small one.  I cut a small styrofoam ball in half for the eyes.  For the "frill" I cut some sheets of foam and glued it to a black headband.  I cut scalloped strips from felt and alternated them on the shirt using hot glue.  I used a sheet of felt to make a long cone for the tail.  The same foam from the frill was used to cut some claws that were glued on to a pair of gloves, and I found the dino slippers at Carter's.  He loved it!

He ended up wearing the ringmaster costume to his school picnic and trick or treating, and wore the triceratops one to a Halloween story time at Barnes and Noble.  I thought he looked adorable in both!