At first, I was trying to talk him out of the black, because I was thinking it would end up a little too evil looking for a 2 year old. But black has always been his favorite color, and I guess he was thinking of the main dragon in "How to Train Your Dragon."
But now I'm really glad he wanted black because it was easy to find cheap black sweats at Target, and it just looks super cute with the blue and green accents. He absolutely loves it, and I think it's my favorite costume yet as well. It really is more fun to make what they want. (Last year he was a fox, and he spent his first Halloween as a garden gnome.)
The tail is sagging here, but usually it's very um, erect. I used this tutorial, which is awesome. For the rest of the spikes up his back, I just cut the hoodie completely in half, attached a row of spikes and sewed it back together.
For the wings, I just drew the shape I wanted on to the felt and cut, added a little black trim and the decorative black stitching, and hand stitched them on the jacket.
Before I sewed the two halves of the hoodie back together, I also cut into them from the top to halfway down each side of the hood, about an inch back from the edge. Then I attached the ears and horns and sewed that back together. This of course took the hood in a little, which is why it doesn't quite cover his huge noggin. But it still stays on fine. I stuck pipe cleaners inside the ears to keep their shape. I think it's definitely the ears that keep the whole costume cute and not too black demon-ish. Nick says they are dopey ears.
I also added the blue felt on the front for a belly, first stitching decorative scales onto it. I love the way that detail looks.
The feet just tie around his ankles with black straps. Let me know if anyone would like more details about those or the ears and horns. Those things could be adopted to lots of easy hoodie-and-pants costumes.
I really love Halloween. Like a lot. It's probably taken the lead over Christmas as my favorite holiday since becoming an adult. I grew up in Florida and I just don't remember it being as much fun there as it is up here. Probably because fall is kind of non-existent there. Here in Ohio, there are so many Halloween and Harvest events going on in October you couldn't possibly do them all. I love it and I'll be sad when this month is over and the holiday blur begins. I mean, I love Christmas too, but Halloween is still about fun and not stress. Anyhow, that's my unsolicited opinion on holidays, so stick that in your back pocket.
When Hendrix first put this on, he immediately said he had to go fight in the sky. Love this kid.
