Halloween- Circus Style

The Bell Family Circus!!  The most RIDICULOUSLY cute circus you will ever see!

Starting with Ethne the Clown!

Strongman Talmage!

Hazel the Trapeze Artist and Tightrope Walker and Trick Rider!

And Jethro the Ringmaster (who I very sadly did not get a picture of by himself) /Lion Tamer, and no circus is complete without a Lion (Wyatt) and an Elephant (Orrin)!

We were lucky enough to go to the Embassy Halloween Party again, where the kids had fun and got plenty of candy.

So I wasn't planning on doing new costumes this year.  Hazel had the idea of being a baseball player because when our friend Josh Davis moved, he gave his baseball uniform to us.  Ethne was going to wear the Maid Marian costume, and Talmage the Robin Hood one.  I could have put Orrin in the Friar Tuck costume, so really the only people who didn't have a costume were Jethro and Wyatt.  So I kind of wanted to do a little theme with Orrin and Wyatt, so I called Kami and told her to give me some good, EASY ideas that I could do for them.  She gave me some cute ideas, and I was considering Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer since that would have been really easy, but she also had mentioned a lion and a lion tamer, and I thought that was just the cutest idea, so I decided to go with it.  Then when I thought about it a bit more and talked about it with the kids, I thought - and Ethne could be a clown.  And then I thought- and Jethro could be a strongman!   And then I had to jump in whole hog, because the idea of a strongman was so great the whole thing needed to be done right.  

So for the costumes I did no ACTUAL sewing.  It was mainly gathering things together.  And I am a verrry good copier, so I just got lots of pictures to be my inspiration board, and pulled the little things that I liked from each of them:

Like a button and flower hat:

This was the original makeup scheme we tried on Ethne, but it looked way too creepy with the white and black, so then we wiped her whole face off and started again.  It still looked too creepy just with the black, so then I changed the top to blue and it was great.  I wanted to change the bottom of her eyes to blue too, but it was too late and she was done with getting makeup.

Had to have gold thingees across the shirt.

Shoulder pads and the facial hair from this.

Again, with the thingees across the front of the shirt and the shoulder pads.  And obviously a top hat.

Chest hair and lots of it!!  :)

Tattoo.

Hair parted down the middle.

 

Isn't this the coolest necklace?

Flapper-style feathered headband: 

Umbrella

Suspenders, tie, and tutu.

and the link to the youtube tutorial on folding a paper umbrella is here.

So, for Jethro I bought the black pants, red turtleneck, and black boots at a second-hand store.  I bought gold ribbon and black ribbony-things at the craft store.  I bought gold spray paint and spray-painted some shoulder pads and stitched on the gold fringe stuff. I glue-gunned all the ribbons onto his clothes- gold trim on the sides of the pants, around the wrists, and the shoulder pads.  We bought his top hat new which was the most expensive single item.

Hazel borrowed a dance leotard and skirt/tutu from her friend.  I bought the feathers and sequins and glue-gunned her headband.

For Ethne, I was really not sure how things were going to turn out.  I thought for sure I would be able to find someone with a clown costume that I could borrow and use as a 'base' for a costume, but although I called everyone I know with kids (even had Brett ask his boss if his kids had one) we didn't find one.  So then I decided to make the tutu -which did not take long at all- and she had her polka dot shirt.  I bought a few things at the craft store ribbons and whatnot, without knowing exactly how they'd come together, but in the end I almost couldn't have planned it better had I had an exact idea in my head to start with.  I bought a half-circle of styrofoam  and glued it to cardboard and spray-painted it black and added the button and flower of course.  Brett lent his tie and it was perfect.

For Talmage's costume, I found the black shorts and a red-and-white striped shirt at the second hand store.  I cut the shirt into a tank top and sewed it together and that was that.  I bought black balloons and Brett made them into the dumbbell.  (At first Jethro was going to be the strongman, but then he said, "Wouldn't Talmage be better for that?" and it was perfect.)

Orrin was going to be another clown, but our friends (Jamina's family, who gave the dance leotard too), had sent a bag full of costume things that they had, and it had the elephant head thing in it, so I decided to do that instead.  All I did for him was put on some gray pajama pants and a gray-blue shirt inside out.  Orrin only wore the elephant head for the pictures and that was it.  But that was enough for me!

For Wyatt's costume, I searched online for a free lion hat to crochet, I found one, and I made it.  http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L10581.html  It was quick and easy.  Then he also wore some pajamas and an inside out shirt.

It came down to the wire with getting all the kids in their costumes and ready with faces painted and everything in time for the party, and we were crazed and late, but STILL- oh my gosh, I was absolutely elated with the outcome.

And that is the story of the 3-days before Halloween circus costumes which, when completed, I was absolutely THRILLED with.  :)