Making the most out of Halloween - Bulbasaur, Ash Ketchum, Minecraft Steve and The Flash - Homemade Pokemon Costumes

Every year before Halloween, we ask our kids what or who they want to be. In most cases, they choose costumes that do not exist. Even though, they seem to spout off the first character that comes to mind, they seem to get their hearts set on that particular character. Despite the fact that most of the time there is some major work involved in their costumes, I enjoy that our boys are usually pretty unique in their choices. When we attend our annual trip to Boo at the Zoo, school parades, or even trick or treat, we usually do not see any other characters dressed the same.

This year our youngest son, Noah, did not really get to choose his costume on his own. Mostly, because he is three and he constantly changes his mind. In fact, for our first Halloween event, he made a last minute costume change because again he is three and he has no idea what he wants. So this Halloween, Noah was dressed as either Flash or Batman. Both of these costumes were hand-me-downs from his older brother Alex. He looked super cute as both superheroes but personally, I preferred Flash.



Our five year old, Chase, wanted to be Bulbasaur. Now, I did see that there were Bulbasaur costumes on Amazon; however they literally consisted of a hat and a backpack. I wanted him to have more of a full effect of Bulbasaur. So, I consulted Pintrest to browse ideas. 

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Now Alex, wanted to be Ash Ketchum. Ash was actually pretty easy (once I figured out my best plan of attack). Now, I know that the Ash costume is also available on Amazon; however sometimes I have a hard time justifying cost when the materials that are used for most Halloween costumes are pretty flimsy. So, to start with Ash, I did the easiest part first. 

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Bobby decided to give me the ultimate challenge this year. He wanted to be Steve from Minecraft complete with iron armor. I read a few pinterest pages where these costumes were made by printing sheets and adhering them to cardboard. However, our printer isn't the greatest and it certainly cannot print 11x12 pages. So, I went with my only other option...Steve was hand painted. 

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I managed to get these costumes done in time for our boys to attend a Halloween party and Boo at the Zoo. We received many compliments on them. Unfortunately, for Chase, we had a bit of a warm front that weekend and he got a bit sweaty in Bulbasaur. Alex did great in Ash and Noah did good with both Batman and Flash. Bobby a.k.a Steve loved his costume but I'm not sure he loved wearing the head. I ended up carrying the head most of the way through the zoo. When I wasn't by his side, Bobby would receive compliments on his costume such as, "nice Tetris piece, or nice computer chip". These comments were pretty funny and made the Steve costume all that much better.

Ash Ketchum Homemade Halloween Costume - Brick Building Kids Alex Pokemon Costume 2016

Now Alex, wanted to be Ash Ketchum. Ash was actually pretty easy (once I figured out my best plan of attack). Now, I know that the Ash costume is also available on Amazon; however sometimes I have a hard time justifying cost when the materials that are used for most Halloween costumes are pretty flimsy. 

So, to start with Ash, I did the easiest part first. I went onto Ebay and ordered an Ash hat (say that 5 times fast). The hat was pretty basic and only cost about $5 or $6 with shipping. 

For Ash's jacket, I went to our local Children's second hand store (Once Upon A Child) and purchased 2 shirts. I purchased a long sleeved button up white shirt and a long sleeved button up blue shirt. The white shirt was a size smaller than the blue, which was perfect for my costume. I spent about $5 for both shirts. I left the white shirt as is (I know Ash has short sleeves but we live in Ohio so I wanted to leave the sleeves long). 

For the blue shirt, I removed the buttons and the sleeves (I cut the sleeves off right after the seam on the shoulder so that sewing a new seam was not necessary). I then sewed the collars up. Ash has a white collar so I pulled the white collar over the blue so the white was on top and the only collar showing. I then sewed up the front opening (the button side and the button hole side) of both shirts together. The only remaining part of the shirt was the yellow edging. I purchased a roll of yellow ribbon for about $2 and sewed it along the bottom of the shirt. I also used about a 2" strip of ribbon on each side of the shirt to make an appearance of Ash's pockets (I did measure these the seams of the shirt to make sure that both strips lined up acculturate on both sides. 

For Ash's gloves, I purchased a pair of green gloves from the dollar store. I cut the tips off each finger and then sewed up a seam on each finger to keep the gloves from unraveling. I did try to sew some yellow onto the cuff of the gloves to make them look like Ash's gloves but I ended up removing it. Since the cuffs of the gloves are elastic, it is difficult to work with. I thought the perfect addition would be a pair of yellow wristband sweatbands, but I never found any. 

The backpack was pretty easy for me because I actually had a green backpack (it was actually the backpack I used in high school). I then sewed a strip of yellow ribbon on the top of the bag and a strip of orange fabric over the top of the bottom pocket. Alex already had a stuffed Pikachu that he stuck inside the bottom pocket of bag just enough that his head kind of stuck out. 

The rest of Ash's costume was pretty basic. Alex wore the items I put together with a simple black t-shirt and a pair of jeans. We did end up seeing another Ash at the Zoo, but it was obviously one from Amazon. Alex made sure to tell me that he preferred my homemade one. :) 

Minecraft Steve with Diamond Armor - Brick Building Kids Bobby Halloween Costume

Bobby decided to give me the ultimate challenge this year. He wanted to be Steve from Minecraft complete with iron armor. I read a few pinterest pages where these costumes were made by printing sheets and adhering them to cardboard. However, our printer isn't the greatest and it certainly cannot print 11x12 pages. So, I went with my only other option...Steve was hand painted. 

The best part about the Steve costume is that it was by far my cheapest costume. The only items I needed to purchase for this costume were some various colors of paint (priced at about .77 each) and a roll of kraft paper which I picked up at the dollar store. The worst part about the Steve costume was the time it took to make it. It was incredibly time consuming but the end result was well worth it. Steve's head seemed to be the best thing to start with. I started with a square box to use as his iron helmet. I actually took a small Steve figure we had to determine exactly how the helmet needed to be cut on all sides. 

Once the helmet was cut, I covered the outside of it with kraft paper (I used masking tape on the outside of my pieces and a tan colored duct tape on the inside). I then cut all 4 sides out of another box to put up inside each side of Steve's face. These pieces were obviously longer since Steve's face is almost twice as long as the actual helmet. I left the flaps on these pieces though so that I could create a border on the bottom of Steve's head. The border would allow Steve's head to sit better on his shoulders. For the face piece, I set the cardboard up inside the helmet to determine where the eyes would need to be in comparison to the nose guard. 

Once, I located the place for the eyes, I used a pencil and ruler to mark the area that needed to be cut out. For this, I simply used an exacto knife and cutting mat Once my pieces were cut, I covered them in kraft paper. After, the helmet and the face sides were covered, I went to work drawing my squares with a pencil. I made each square 1"x1". As soon as the squares were drawn, I began adhering all the pieces together. For this step, I used hot glue where I could. However, this step was a little challenging since the glue dries so fast. I tried to get as much glue as I could as quickly as I could. Afterwards, I used duct tape on the inside to make sure the face was nicely secured to the helmet. Once, the head was assembled, I went to work painting the helmet and then the face. I chose 4 different colors for the armor. I used 2 different shades of turquoise, a light sea green color, and white. 

When I looked at the way Steve's armor appears, I noticed that the edges tend to be more darker than the center. So, I tried using my turquoise colors on all of the edges. I did not use a pattern with my colors. For the face, I used a dark brown, light brown, tan, and white. After several hours painting, Steve's head was complete. 

For Steve's body, I basically used the same procedure. I found a box that was perfect for his body. I cut a hole out of one side of the box for Bobby's head and a hole out of the front and back of the box for each arm. I used packing tape to tape up the flaps of the box since the top of the box was actually going to be Steve's back. Once all of the holes were cut, I covered the body with kraft paper and drew all of my 1" squares. I used another taller more narrow box for the arms. I cut the box in half and used each half for each arm. I again taped up the seams of the box with packing tape and cut 1 side of each box out for Steve's arms. These sides would go up against Steve's body. I then covered the arm pieces with kraft paper and 1" squares. 

Once everything was cut and covered, I began painting. When I painted Steve's body, I did paint larger areas with the same color. For instance, I might have painted 4 or 5 in the same line turquoise. I did run my areas in different directions though so that I could keep a pix elated appearance and not a striped appearance. After everything was painted, I used duct tape to secure the top of the arm to the top of Steve's shoulder on the inside (however I also ended up using clips to keep them together better). I only attached the top portions so that way the arms could flap up when Bobby needed to put the costume on or take it off. I impressed myself with this costume. 

Making Steve was frustrating and fun at the same time. Despite the amount of time these costumes took and the actual lack of time that I had, everything came out incredibly well.

Bulbasaur Halloween Costume - Brick Building Kids Chase Pokemom Costume 2016

Our five year old, Chase, wanted to be Bulbasaur. Now, I did see that there were Bulbasaur costumes on Amazon; however they literally consisted of a hat and a backpack. I wanted him to have more of a full effect of Bulbasaur. So, I consulted Pintrest to browse ideas. 

To make Bulbasaur work, I first went to Target and purchased a girls light green hoodie with matching sweatpants. Luckily for me, these pieces happened to be on sale for $6 a piece. The hoodie however wasn't ideal because it had a giant raccoon face on the front. The color though was perfect so I had to make it work. I then went to Hobby Lobby and purchased some dark green fleece (I almost always use fleece for costumes because I love the softness of it). 

I used the dark green fleece as patches for Bulbasaur's body. I did not measure my patches or use any kind of template (I hate measuring). I cut each of my spots freehand so that each spot would be unique. I did have to make one big spot though to cover up the raccoon face. I used my sewing machine to sew as many of the patches on that I could. Some of the spots on the sleeves and pants legs had to be hand sewn since the area was too narrow to fit over my machine. 

For Bulbasaur's ears, I purchased a remnant of light green fleece that came pretty close to the color of the hoodie and pants. I made sure to measure each ear so that both sides matched in size. I also measured the distance from the seam on the top of the hood, so that the ears lined up correctly on both sides. Once I had most of the ears sewn on, I filled each one with a little bit of fiber fill to give them some bulkiness and depth. Then, of course I sewed up the remaining gap on each ear. 

Once, the spots and ears were complete, the only thing left were the eyes. I used a piece of red felt that I had on hand to cut each eye. Once again, I did not measure. I simply cut out the eye shape and set it on the hood to make sure it appeared to be an appropriate size. Once I had the right size, I then used some white felt to cut out the shading and center of the eye. I made adjustments to my sizes until all my pieces seemed right. After, I had my eyes cut out, I sewed the white felt onto the red and then the entire eye piece on to the hood. I did do some measuring again from the seam as well as from the front edge of the hoodie to ensure that they eyes lined up correctly. Once the eyes were sewn on, Bulbasaur's body was complete. 

For Bulbasaur's backpack, I used the dark green fleece. I folded the fleece in half and I cut out half of a leaf shape. This way, when I opened the fleece up, I had a full leaf shape that was equal on both sides. Once, my leaf looked good, I used that leaf to trace and cut out 5 more leaves. Once, the leaves were cut, I sewed them all together by only sewing one side of each leaf to the next until they were all attached to another (be careful not to sew all the way up to the tip of the leaves- at least an inch or two will need to be used for the bulb). Then I flipped the backpack over so that I could sew up the backside or the bottoms of each leaf. 



For this part, I pulled two sections of leaves together and sewed a bottom seam. I did this until all the sections were sewn and the back was completely closed. After, the back was closed, I filled the backpack with some fiberfill. After, the filling was placed, I took the tips of each leaf and pulled them together in the center. I then used a string or rubber band (I actually ended up using a hair tie) to secure them. After the pack was sewn and secured, I cut 4 long narrow strips to use as the backpack straps. I sewed 2 strips together for each side. Then I sewed both sets of straps onto the backpack at the top and bottom of each strip (a different material may be more suitable for this step since the fleece does stretch). 

Out of all the costumes that I have made over the years, this costume is my favorite. Chase looks awesome in it and he has already received so many comments on it. We've definitely caught ourselves a Bulbasaur!!