About the middle of summer is when I have a very important conversation with my son…Halloween costumes. We brainstorm all the possibilities and I let him stew on the options. Yup, I use food puns whenever I can.
Two years ago, I made my son a wearable firetruck costume out of a UPS shipping box. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of keeping the costume AND in plain sight (in the garage). So, of course he asked that this year’s costume be made the same way!
If you know any preschooler these days, it’s all about Paw Patrol. My son is obsessed with Chase the police pup while my daughter loves Skye, the Amelia Earhart of the crew. And voila, Halloween costume decision made!
So, knowing that my by-the-book firstborn son would be checking my work, I got started right away. I have no time to waste! I kid you not, he seriously checked my progress each day and said “yes, mommy, that is good. Yup…Mmm-hmm, that’s correct. Great job mommy.”😳
With my Silhouette cutting machine, I was able to replicate many of the designs on Chase’s vehicle, Skye’s pup pack, as well as their pup badge designs. If you ever wondered how much you can create custom work with the Silhouette for your project needs, this is 100% proof right here.
How I made the Chase costume:
- Spray painted a UPS shipping box (12in x 12in x 20in) blue with multiple coats. Cut out a hole to fit my son in the middle and stapled elastic straps to make “suspenders” for a wearable costume.
- Create custom pieces that were cut by my Silhouette machine, such as the head/tail lights, wheels, decals, front “winch” box, and badges.
- Inserted these submersible LED tealights into The Container Store’s Amac colored boxes to create the back “flashers” as well as put two bike flashing lights on the front.
- Sew hand-cut blue craft foam (similar to this one from Amazon) onto existing black baseball cap. Glued on yellow ribbon, hand-cut felt ears, and paper badge. He wears this everrrrrrrday.
Want to make this exact same Chase Vehicle for your Paw Patrol fan?? The DIY Chase Vehicle Printable Kit is now available. Previously sold on my Etsy shop (check out the happy reviews), you can purchase them directly from me. Just send me an email!
Update: The DIY Marshall Vehicle Printable Kit is also available so please email me if interested in purchasing the printable kit.
How I made the Skye costume:
- I already had a dark pink tutu dress (bought from Old Navy) from my daughter’s 1st birthday party. Surprisingly it still fit her…a little on the short side but we just add bottoms and it’s all good. I sewed the paper Skye badge over the glitter “one” HTV that was on the front of her dress. Hooray for this quick hack!
- To make Skye’s pup pack, I wrapped a software box (no joke!) with pink craft felt and hot glued another paper badge on top. For the wings, I simply cut out cardboard from an Amazon shipping box, wrapped it with silver poster board, and added some pink trim. Lastly, I hot glued both the wings to the back of the pup pack as well as two elastic bands to form a backpack. I also stapled the elastic bands for extra security.
- The last accessory was the headpiece. Luckily, I had a dark pink fabric headband from one of my daugher’s baby headbands (one of many she never really liked wearing 🙄…). I cut out the “googles” out of light pink felt as well as little pup ears out of light brown felt, and sew both of them onto the headband. That was easy and quick to pull together! Whew!
All in all, everyone’s happy. The kids are stoked and I couldn’t get my son to take off his hat or vest (even with the insane heat wave last week!). I’m pretty happy how both costumes turned out and I’m also pretty happy to be done working on them! Ha! Looking forward to seeing how these costumes hold up on tonight!
Hope you’ve enjoyed the month-long Halloween craft/DIY projects on the blog! Happy Halloween!! 🎃