Trick or Treat!

If we had not already established that I am one of those dog owners, this should seal the deal.

I have a thing about candy corn. Every year at this time, I absolutely crave it. And when I get it, the first handful is the most delicious thing in the world. The second handful tends to be so sickeningly sweet that I don't need to eat candy corn again for another year. It's not a perfect system, but it's mine.

But this year I thought I would try to find a safer and craftier alternative to the second handful of candy corn. Laural from thimble has been kind enough to collect all kinds of Halloween project ideas and post them on her site. Candy corn seemed to be a recurring theme (makes sense - it is a pretty easily recognized symbol of the season and you can't get a much simpler pattern than a striped triangle).

And then poor Madeline walks by, thinking we were going to play fetch only to become the victim of my craftiness.

So $0.60 worth of felt and $0.25 worth of embroidery floss later, here is Madeline modeling her candy corn costume.

You probably could make a more elaborate costume using a dog sweater as a template, but I think it is easier to justify making your dog wear a Halloween costume if it costs less than $1. This is how Maddie's is constructed:

Simple felt stripes stitched together with embroidery floss. You could glue this, but I had a little cross stitch nostalgia going on. Crisscrossed elastic bands hold it in place across her chest.

For people or dolls, you could just make two of these and stitch them into a simple smock. I thought this would be a fun little costume for one of those American Girls dolls that are so popular, but I'm not a 9 year old girl or the parent of a 9 year old girl, so I had to embarrass my dog instead.

Happy Halloween!