Bean’s DIY Halloween Costume

Last Year, I spent hours turning my little Bean into a little Owl for Halloween.  I pinned, I glued and in the end I could not have been happier with her DIY Toddler Halloween Costume!

(when will I learn to rotate pictures?)

 This year, I had my heart set on turning her into a Peacock.  I am not certain where the bird obsession came from but  I was pricing feathers and looking for blue leotards when my mom stopped over with this hat that she had picked up at the mall.  I took one slightly disapproving look at it and immediately thought “Yes mom, that is exactly what a 2 year old needs…a hat…that she will wear for a picture and never again”.  Then I tried it on her and in a split second any dream of turning her into a peacock disappeared.  It was adorable and immediatly reminded me of an equestrian helmet (which on the head of toddler is too cute for words.  I began googling pictures of equestrians and a picture of the American Girl equestrian doll set me on a path of turning Bean into a little mini Equestrian.

As I thought it through, I realized, this was going to be the easiest DIY Halloween Costume ever and that while it would cost me money, everything could be worn separately again and again, well except maybe the hat…the hat really is not the most practical toddler accessory.

I began by simply taking sticky tape Velcro and attaching it to the insides of the hat, in front of her ears and adding a piece of black ribbon to make the chin strap.  I did not take pictures because it really was so simple. While I would normally post a full DIY Halloween costume tutorial,  here was literally no crafting needed (except for cutting 2 pieces of Velcro, which you can see in the picture) so I am instead going to post a list of items that I needed to pull it all together.

Hat - The Hat came from H&M but any little round bowler hat could be adapted.

Jacket - I bought a boys, black velvet jacket on Ebay for $5 (originally from Target)

Shirt - I had a white button down shirt with a ruffled color that I had found at a garage sale during the summer

Pants- Now I had my heart set on these adorable Ralph Lauren “riding pants" with the little patch on the inside of the knee, but they kept selling on ebay for $30 and I simply couldn’t do it.  So I used a pair of white stretch pants she already had.  I bought suede Iron on elbow patches to replicated the look,  but in the end I didn’t think I needed them.

Boots- To be honest Bean ended up with 2 pairs of boots, I found a pair that I thought would work and a few weeks later stumbled across these black boots with the patent leather toes and heels on a clearance pile at our Gap Outlet.  They were technically a size 8 (and she was still comfortably in a 7) but her feet grow like weeds so I bought them anyway and they worked perfectly.

Note:  I also bought a little red ribbon from the party store but I forgot about it until the day after Halloween so it never made it to the costume,  still, it would have been cute.

The piece that really sold it was the stick pony, we found it for $12 at a toy outlet and gave it to her a few weeks early so she could “practice” playing with it.  Seeing her “gallop” up and down the sidewalks Halloween night made us realize that was the best decision ever.









 In the end, I loved her DIY Halloween Costume so much that I let her wear it for way more than Trick or Treating.  I think we ended up celebrating this  Halloween costume for a good week and half by letting her wear it everywhere (from the grocery store to Mcdonalds)

I could not have been happier and since every item can be worn again all winter long,  even my husband was happy as a clam! 

Update:  I have stumbled across a miniture pony farm that gives pony rides.  With winter coming to an end,  I am planning on letting her wear the costume again for a trip to the farm because I am DYING to have pictures of her dressed like an equestrian on a miniture pony *SWOON*