Emma has enjoyed studying various versions of the Little Red Riding Hood story with her wonderful first grade teacher, and she has been telling me for weeks that she wants a Little Red Riding Hood costume for Halloween this year! We made her riding hood out of fleece (it’s cold at Halloween in Massachusetts!) using this free robe dress pattern and tutorial from the always-wonderful Lier at ikat bag – one of my all-time favorite bloggers! I added triangle panels into the skirt to make it nicely twirl-able (like Emma’s winter toddler dress from four years ago when I was a brand-new blogger), and changed the sleeve pattern so that, instead of tapering in they open out at the ends for a more dramatic look. I also put the hood on incorrectly (LiEr, don’t look too closely if you see this post!). I didn’t have time to change it because I cut everything out Friday night and sewed it up Saturday morning, finishing up about ten minutes AFTER we were supposed to leave for a Halloween party! All this time I’d been thinking that I had until Wednesday to make it, and so I was happily procrastinating by making baby doll carriers. Then Friday night I realized that all the other kids would be dressed up for Saturday’s party. Oops! I was going to fix the hood after the party, when I hemmed the sleeve ends and the skirt edge, but Emma is perfectly fine with it the way it is and doesn’t want me to touch it, so it gets to stay.
This costume was an instant hit with Emma, and I especially love that it will double as a play outfit for these increasingly cold autumn days!
How was your week? Are you making Halloween costumes for your kids this year?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
I’d say fleece is a good way to go most of the US. It’s pretty cold many places. And unlike many costumes I think she’ll have fun wearing that way after the 31st.
What a lovely costume/cosy play outfit! Love it!! You and LiEr are so clever…
So gorgeous! Emma’s smile in that first photo says it all!
Another awesome costume! How crafty and clever you are–altering the pattern to fit your needs. Wow!
What a nice costume and thanks for hosting the linky
That is so cute! I want to make one for my little girl. I made a purple mermaid outfit for my four year old last week. It’s the very first year that she’s excited about what I made for her-such a relief.
LiEr’s pattern makes this outfit very easy!
What a great idea to use it as a costume and dress after! She looks so excited, really cute!!
Yay! It fits! And it’s warm! So clever. Unlike the spaghetti-strap fairy mini-skirted outfit I made for Emily this year. Why? Why?
Thank you so much for sharing that pattern, LiEr! I have no idea what I would have done without it! Still can’t believe I didn’t follow the hood instructions properly…
What a great costume! It definitely looks very cozy.
The costume is adorable, and I don’t see anything wrong with the hood. Yes, Lars, is making costumes again this year – actually he made two. One is a witch dress for the parties, and another one is a ghost for trick-or-treating on Halloween itself.
The hood is fine, but if I had followed the instructions it wouldn’t have had a seam showing on the inside. A small detail that doesn’t really matter; I’m just disappointed that I missed out on LiEr’s clever way of concealing that seam!
I’m sure Anna will enjoy wearing both her costumes!
I’m delaying Batman’s costume as long as I can. He keeps changing his mind. Right now he wants to be a soldier, I think, it might have changed, but I don’t remember the new one.
Luckily my kids haven’t switched up on me like this. Just waiting for that to start…
That looks cozy! We ended up buying a fleece hooded cape from a woman on etsy last year when Ingrid was Red Riding Hood last year. I was feeling lazy!
What a fantastic costume!!! You did a wonderful job!
Thanks, Megan!