Kid Friendly Katy Perry Costume

Hello, hello!  Are you loving fall so far?  Are you ready for Halloween?  Halloween seems to be a month long celebration around here and we kicked off this weekend with a children's Halloween party on Saturday.  I get a little nervous letting my girl wear her costumes to these parties because I try to make them and I worry that they will get ruined before the actual day arrives.  Some years she's had multiple costumes.  These are one time wear costumes, not well made, and will not survive a spin in the washing machine.  My time is more limited than ever and I didn't even start to make the costume until Friday night.  Between being sick last week, my husband out of town, blah, blah, blah, let's just say it was a rough week and the last thing I wanted to do was make this costume on Friday night.  I asked my girl if she would wear an elephant costume that we have as part of her dress-up clothes and it bummed her out big time, so I RSVP'd yes to the shin-dig, took some Mucinex, and put the sewing machine pedal to the metal.

She wanted to be Katy Perry, but I wanted more modesty than most of the Katy Perry costumes offer.  At first I had grand plans to make an entire dress, but I was too pooped.  I modified my original plan and made this apron.  I took inspiration from this costume.  She wore the apron on top of a white button-down tuxedo shirt and a red and white plaid skirt that she already had.  It worked out great and it was easily removable when it came time to get down and dirty and play.  Removable = not ruined.  Saturday morning my husband took her to get a candy cane mani and pedi.  You should hear how that went down.  I don't think my husband had ever been in a nail salon.

For the bodice of the apron I started with the ice cream cone on the right shoulder, made out of felt that I wove together and stuffed with batting.  Then I added the cupcake and candy canes, a lollypop, then a couple hard candies, and the name "Katy" to finish it off.  For the skirt of the apron I sewed together strips of random, brightly colored fabric. I didn't even hem the bottom of the skirt.  I had almost everything on hand for this costume.  The only items I had to buy was the wig for $5 at Wal-Mart, the headband from Macy's (It was on a Christmas tree and I thought it was an ornament that I would have to glue to a headband, but when I pulled it off the tree it was a headband disguised as an ornament!  Just what I needed!).  I also bought her the blue bracelet from Target and her costume wouldn't be complete without a pretend microphone.  She LOVED this costume.  Anything that involves nail painting and makeup is up her alley.

Once we got her costume situated we headed to the party.  There were three different activities for the kids to do, including pick and paint pumpkins and decorate your own cupcake.

I haven't been to a neighborhood function in a LONG time and it's like a whole new neighborhood, so many new faces!

The lady that coordinated the party arranged to have a reptile guy come to entertain the children.  He brought a tortoise...

a tarantula, snakes, a bull frog, and a bunch of other gross reptiles that the kids were fascinated by.  Apparently tarantulas shed and the one he brought had just shed the morning of the party.  What is in his hand is just a shell of a tarantula.  Entertaining and informative.

Hope you all are enjoying fall this far!  We have a big plans this week.  My daughter is going on her first field trip to a pumpkin patch that involves riding on a bus and we're going to wrap up our week getting real fall weather in Nor Cal, where we'll be apple picking, pumpkin patching, and maybe a little wine tasting:)  Have a happy week!