This one was a little harder to make work, especially on a 4 year old’s body, but she is more than happy so I am happy! The shark boy seems to be very hard to do the fun and everything like I said I’m definitely not crafty! I guess it’s now a Halloween tradition, and I’d hate to break that tradition so I guess I will continue to complete costumes late the night before we need them.

This year, against my recommendations and trying to nudge them in a different direction, my kids decided they really wanted Sharkboy and Lavagirl Halloween costumes. I had never even heard of Sharkboy and Lavagirl until a few months ago when they discovered the movie on Netflix and became instant fans. Maybe I’m just tired of this project and ready to move on to the next one (does anyone else do that too?The costume comes with a bright pink jumpsuit that has plenty of details from the movie, like printed lava patterns on the chest and legs.

I made my husband a Thor costume a couple years ago (still one of my favorites ever) with the same techniques. The outfit may not give your child any real lava superpowers, but it will certainly make her feel ready to face off against any bad guy who threatens the Planet of Drool.I used 2 layers of felt glued together, the open shark mouth was cut out of the top layer, then I layered design elements on top with another layer of felt. So I had her put on the sweatsuit and used my fabric marking pen to mark out the general design (referring to a picture on my phone frequently). Each project begins with a passion for true quality–embroidered patches, faux fur cut with care, and hand-selected fabrics that are as durable as they are comfortable. Between work, school, grandparents, and the birthday party we will have an entire week of Halloween fun! To make the “lava” really look like it was on fire, I also added a single string of gold sequin ribbon right down the middle.

These costumes needed extra textures and 3D things coming off them, so I used my Halloween favsof felt, cardboard, hot glue and fabric glue! There’s just something about a homemade costume, something full of love, and a little frustration, that makes the holiday more fun.I’m not going to do a full tutorial on how I made the costumes, but I did take some pictures of the process and can give you some pointers. This diverse selection of costumes and accessories are all artfully designed and expertly crafted by our talented team of artists, designers, and developers. I guess the kids could wear any of their dress-ups, but they might as well get to wear this year’s costume as many times as they can, right? Just use a measuring tape to get an idea of how much you would need to wrap around their bodies with extra room to allow for movement. It saves me so much time, especially when I am layering different cuts of fabric to get 3 dimensional elementsto the costume.

This year the hubby and I have decidedto reuse Halloween costumes from years past since I was running out of time and we couldn’t decide on something for us to dress up as to match the kids costumes. And my son is insisting that he needs arm cuffsfor his costume, I told him I would try to make some before Halloween.

The top is a little tight to get on, I may have to add a zipper if she wants this to remain part of her dress-ups, so I choose to just use some fabric painton the pants (we need to have the stretch and movement in the pants).