The Little Mermaid Halloween 2017

Every year, since the beginning of my mom time, we have coordinated a Halloween costume theme. Some years it's just kids, other years it's all of us. 

2017 our entire crew joined in on the fun under the sea. 

For this theme it was a hodgepodge of homemade costumes, thrift store finds, costume accessories, and help from friends. I'll break it down for each costume individually!

Freya as Ariel

Freya's gorgeous costume was knit with love by my good friend Linsay. She did her tail and sea shells. She did an AMAZING job of it, using sparkly yarn. I don't know any knitting lingo other than "yarn" so I couldn't tell you much more about this part of her costume. All I know is that Linsay is a pro knitter, she test knits people's patterns before they sell them, she's the real deal and this is the best possible Ariel costume as a result of her talent!

 Now an Alaska girly cannot wear sea shells alone in October. Brrrr. So to give that "nude" look I bought nude swimsuit fabric at my joanns store and created a little shirt out of it to keep her warmer. Her wig was the Ariel one sold at Target (I just added bobby pins to hold it out of her cute face), and her sea shell slippers I ordered from amazon. 

Thayer was our little flounder. I wish I had taken pictures of the process of making his costume, but I didn't. SO here's what I can remember. I picked fleece (because Alaska) in both the yellow and blue colors. When making little boy costumes I always hold up a pair of pajama pants to the fabric to get the right size. I use them as a rough pattern, I cut the fabric out and piece it together. This one I figure out as I went to add the details of scales and fins. For this costume we ended up holding the back together with safety pins so that the fins could cover front and back. 

Declan was our ferocious little shark.

His costume came from a friend at church, as a hand-me-down from her son's costume the year before. Her son was 12, and Decs was 5, so I had to alter it a bit. Originally it was a one piece costume. Cutting it at the waist removed a ton of fabric that we didn't need for him. I sewed a pocket for elastic at the waist of the paints so they'd stay up, and I cut off the excess length on the pants and on the sleeves. It was a very quick alteration and he was comfortable in it for all our festivities!

Little Leland was our Sebastian.

I found a red shirt and hat at target. The fancy little red pants I lucked out in finding at our local thrift store. For the rest of his costume I bought red fleece and batting. To make his crab shell I looked at pictures of Sebastian for inspiration, and I just eye balled the whole thing, stuffed it full of batting and sewed it shut. Then I made it into a backpack by added straps so he could easily take it on and off. His little pincher mittens are cheap $1 gloves inside. I cut the shape I wanted out of fleece, sewed around the edges leaving an opening for putting his gloves inside. I hot glued those babies in there nice and snug and voila! Cute little crab.

Payton was Chef Louis

Older boy costumes tend to be a lot easier (most of the time). Payton's was a breeze to put together. I found his shirt at the thrift store costume cast offs. I liked that it had more flair to it than a plain white dress shirt. Check out those beautiful 1990's puffy shoulders. I made him a red tie out of some scrap fabric in my sewing closet. We used his church dress pants, and just tucked them into his socks. Church shoes. Costume store chef hat. Totally easy!

The not so easy part was that his mama tried to make him memorize all the lines from the movie to randomly say haha. 

Rylan as Scuttle the seagull

Rylan is fun. While most kids would probably cringe at the idea of being a big white dorky bird for Halloween, Rylan was overjoyed. He is the bird watcher of the family and completely embraced this role.

His costume was a little time consuming, but not at all hard. I used white fleece. (by this point you might have noticed it's my go-to costume fabric) First I measured the span of his arms to figure out his wingspan. I then cut a large piece of the fabric in that size- straight cut on top for the longest measurement, then I just eye-balled a curve for the entire bottom of the wings. Next with the remaining fabric I cut "feathers" They don't have to be precise or perfect, I just cut them all roughly around the same size. Then I hot glued them to the wings. I used safety pins to connect his wings to his white shirt. Next I made him white shorts out of the other fleece, with elastic at the waist and at the bottom seams. He wore black leggings from the girl's department under his shorts. His hat was easy easy easy. It's a feather boa, hot glued around a white beanie. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 

Avery as Prince Eric

Avery's costume was EASY. Prince Eric has such a classic look that took almost nothing. His shirt was another thrifted piece, again it brought something more to the table compared to a classic white dress shirt. Look at that gathering at the wrists; it was exactly the right style for this costume. He wore regular old jeans, and I made a waist sash with the same scrap fabric that I used for Payton's tie. To complete the look we used the colored hairspray in black. This boy went back and forth about using actual hair dye, and in the end we decided he wasn't up to that kind of commitment and just went with the spray.

 I was Ursula.

I think she was my favorite character I've done for Halloween, in terms of getting to act the personality. It's kind of fun to play the part of a villian for a night!

I started my costume by finding a classic strapless black dress. Ursula has a very va-va-voom look, which works great in a cartoon, but I struggled with how to bring that to life while (a) not freezing body parts off while trick or treating (b) remaining modest. I am not a fan of things hanging out. So I decided on the strapless dress with the purple long sleeve shirt underneath. Both were thrift store finds. Next I bought glittery purple tulle, and made it into a big fluffy long tutu for underneath the black dress. The dress had a cross over slit in the front, so the tutu made it's way out of that. I could have made it all into octopus tentacles but honestly that seemed like too much work at this point of the costume creation. I wore black leggings under all of this. To complete the look I got a purple-grey wig at target. THEN the week of Halloween our target got an Ursula accessory kit and I couldn't resist. That's where the crown and the little shawl came in. Notice the tentacles on the shawl. Good thing I didn't make my own anyway huh? 

Foolishly I forgot to take individual pictures of Jason as King Triton

Put I'll explain his costume regardless!

His wig and beard were from the zon. I had planned to his old Gandalf wig and beard from 2014 but sadly discovered they were donated many moons ago, so amazon to the rescue. I got his manly abs and chest at our thrift store in the costume section. His beautiful merman skirt is actually a mermaid skirt. I bought the largest size in women's and since he has no hips it was perfect. This man deserves a major round of applause for wearing a skirt on Halloween and rocking it, I just need to be clear that he did wear pants under it. He was NOT willing to wear the skirt alone, understandably! His shirt was made from the same fabric as Freya's. Whatever you do, do not search for a nude man costume shirt online. It's not pretty and you can't unsee some things. 

I think I covered most of it, but if you have a specific question about anything please ask! 

Happy Halloween planning!