Project: Baby/Mom: Happy Halloween!! Plus a DIY Shark Costume Project!

Oh my gosh you guys. I thought holidays were fun before. Now with Owen, holidays have just taken themselves up a notch. I am so excited that the holiday season has officially begun!! But before I start waxing poetic about Thanksgiving, we must talk about Halloween and all of it's festivities!

Thursdays we have Mommy & Me Yoga so we had two costumes for Halloween. It was too hot during the day to get into his final costume, so we started with...Superman! And his two biggest fans, of course.

Only one other mommy/son duo showed up at class so we had a semi-private costume/yoga/pumpkin muffin/dance party. There was Monster Mash thrown in with our stretches and it was a great way to start the day.

But as the sun started to set and the weather started to cool...a shark came out for feeding...cue Jaws theme...

Attack of the cute!!!

I saw an adorable baby shark costume on Pottery Barn Kids but when I went to order it...all sold out! So we had to improvise, which I think ended up being the way to go. Not only was it less expensive but it felt more special to have made it. I'm sure as Halloweens progress through the years, I'll change my tune. But this year, it felt good and I think it turned out pretty good too.

Here's the easy DIY of it all!

Easy DIY Baby Shark Costume

Supplies:

Gray Hoodie

Stiff Gray Felt

Stiff White Felt

Regular White Felt

Regular Red Felt

Regular Black Felt

Fabric Glue

Scissors

Safety Pins

Martha Stewart template

Pencil

Foam Paint Brush

I was super lucky and found a Shark Hoodie mixed in with the regular gray hoodies at Target. It didn't have a price tag, it was in Owen's size and there were no others to be found. It already had eyes, gills and four little teeth. Plus the inside of the hood was red. It was clearly a sign. So I embellished an existing shark but using a regular hoodie jacket will work just as well.

Print template from Martha's design, cutting out the features.
For the teeth and the fin, use the stiff white and stiff gray felts, tracing the template onto felt with pencil. Do two traces of each so that you have two sets of teeth and two fins.
For the eyes, follow template instructions.
Draw an oval on the soft white felt and cut out.
Cut the oval in half so that you can still use the zipper on the jacket once glued onto the belly of the jacket.
If the inside of your hoodie is not red, add red felt to the inside for the appearance of a mouth.
Using the foam brush, paint the fabric glue along the teeth's edge and adhere to the inside of the hood.
Let dry, using pins to hold in place if it starts to curl up at the ends.
Do the same thing for the row of teeth on other side.
Use leftover red felt to make gills.
For the fin, glue the two pieces together, leaving a quarter inch unglued at the bottom.
Once that is dry, you can fold the unglued portion and flatten it against the back of the jacket. This way, if your baby is riding in a stroller, you can take it off if it is bothering them.

Voila!

And if you and your honey want to get in on the action...you can be your shark's victims! I went down to Venice Beach and grabbed some of those tacky bathing suit covers with bikini/muscle bodies painted on them. Used the foam paint brush and fake blood to add some bite marks and we were officially, "Spring Break Shark Attack":

Which made for fun photos! And speaking of, if you'd like some more time to kill, here are a few more photos from the evening. Our neighborhood has a big Halloween party so my fellow mamas came over with their families and we took the kiddos over. Then we came back, greeted trick-or-treaters, and ate some delicious pumpkin chili...which I'll tell you all about tomorrow! Trust me, you want this recipe. Hope you had a great time yesterday too! And now...let the holiday season...BEGIN!