Halloween 2012: Little Brown Bat

He was so happy with how his costume turned out. My husband found the original idea here. I actually liked their more anatomically correct wing better, but I couldn't imagine my son being able to carry the 10+ pounds (about4.5 kg) of candy he would get that night with the wings sticking out past his hands. He made my day when he first looked over the costume and noticed the lines of stitching on the ears. He looked at me and said, "Nice detail mom. Good job." Such a sweetheart...

If you decide to follow the first tutorial above, measure the length of your child's arm first and shorten the umbrella appropriately. I didn't and just went ahead and used the full length of the spines of the umbrella. Even thought it was a small folding umbrella it was still much too big for my eight year-old's arms. I had to shorten the spines considerably. After cutting the spines and serging the raw edges of the umbrella fabric (it really started to fray,) it worked perfectly, and he had a ton of fun flying through the neighborhood on Halloween night.

Yes, we weighed the candy and he had every bit of ten pounds, as did his sister. Friends of ours, who have five children at home, came home with a total of 58 pounds (about 26 kg.)  It wouldn't surprise me at all if they were still getting Halloween treats in their lunch boxes!