Halloween and sewing a bat costume in less than an hour

That the kids could come to school wearing a costume, said the note on the class door. That this meant I had about 2 days left to make a costume, sounded the alarm bells in my head.

A quick search on the internet using the terms ‘easy’, ‘diy’ and ‘halloween costume’ showed me this bat costume. And our little boy was up for it too. Phew!

But would it really be a quick ten-minute project, as the post promised? Since I usually need more time than that to lay out my fabric, I figured it would take a bit longer. Would an hour be enough? The test:

• Measuring up my son: 5 minutes (tip: tv)
• Finding the right fabric in the stash: 10 minutes
• Carrying out the instructions and sewing it all together: 25 minuten

Total: less than an hour! Score!

Since it all worked out nicely in so little time, I decided to add a mask as well, based on this pin. I used 2 layers of black felt, which I sewed together using contrasting yellow. Not my best idea, since it was getting late, and it was getting harder to see what I was doing. So yeah, the stitching is rather crooked. Not that my son cared. He just wanted to get to school dressed like a bat.

So, wings – check, mask – check. Only one little problem left… The wings are worn like a cardigan. To make the look complete, you need to have a simple black t-shirt. Something I didn’t have lying around, since all plain t-shirts are decorated with heat transfer as soon as they come into the house. Hence the cars on the t-shirt in the picture. So last Friday, before he left for school, I put my son’s t-shirt on backwards. Perfect b(r)at.

Mission Halloween: accomplished!

How about you? Do you finish your costumes weeks beforehand? Or do you thrive on last-minute stress? Or do you skip the whole Halloween thing completely (and if so, what’s your secret)?