Baby’s First Halloween Costume

Halloween is almost here!  Just because Baby Monkey hasn’t been born yet, why should he miss out on all the fun?  After all, as much as he hops around in my belly, it is clear that he is ready to jump right into family life!

At a recent fall party with my local moms’ group, I wore my favorite orange T-shirt and joked that the baby was going to dress up as a pumpkin for Halloween.  The more I joked, the more I thought, why not?

I tried in vain to find another orange T-shirt to use, since I love this one so much, but strangely, maternity shops (online or brick-and-mortar) don’t seem to have a lot in the way of Halloween gear.  So in the end, I decided to sacrifice my favorite tee for the cause, since after all, even here in California it won’t be warm enough to wear it much longer!

Here’s how we did it:

1. To get started, we drew the basic outline on the shirt while I wore it, so that way the pumpkin would fit squarely (roundly?) on top of the belly.
2. Then I laid the shirt flat and went over the pencil drawing with a black fabric marker.  Be sure to use a piece of cardboard in between the layers of the shirt, so the ink doesn’t bleed through.  For an extra touch, I added the green stem and leaf on top.
3. I let it dry completely then turned it inside out and followed the instructions on the package of fabric markers to set the color.  (This may vary by brand; for mine I had to iron it for four minutes). 

That’s it!  Simple but so fun!

Be sure to follow the instructions on the package about how to wash and dry the shirt once you finish.  I was pleased that mine still looked great after the laundry.

All set for Halloween!

What was your baby’s first Halloween costume?

This post has been shared at Bowdabra’s Saturday Showcase and My Life’s a Treasure’s Our Favorite Things.