For Halloween this year, I got it into my head that Harper should be one of the monsters from his favorite book, Where the Wild Things Are. I wanted to make his costume again this year, and when I couldn't find a photo of commercially available version to use for a reference, I was left with no choice but the DIY route anyway.

The top was the easiest part. I found a sweater with stripes in the perfect width, if not the perfect colors, on eBay--new with tags and a matching knit cap thrown in.

For the hat, I traced the hood on one of Harper's jackets and sewed up a duplicate in curly black faux fur. Rather than attach it to the sweater, which I want to get more than one wear out of, I attached a drawstring that we could tie loosely around Harper's neck--that way, the hat could hang down like a hood and still be visible even if he refused to wear it on his head. I then made two horns out of felt stuffed with cotton and stitched them to the top of the hat.

The pants were the most complicated but also the most rewarding part of the costume, and they turned out almost exactly as I envisioned them. I started with a pair of brown stretch legging-type pants. Then I cut standard sheets of grey craft felt into sixteen equal rectangles each and trimmed the pieces down into rounded-triangle "scales." Then out came the glue gun, and onto the pants went the approximately 175 felt scales. This is when I lit a candle and said a prayer of thanks to the gods Netflix and TiVo.

I had two worries about this costume: 1) That Harper would outright reject the hat, rendering the costume unrecognizable, and 2) even if he wore the hat, that people would not understand what he was dressed up as. (Wasn't that the worst thing as a kid, when someone would ask you on Halloween, "What are you supposed to be?")

This weekend, we participated in our neighborhood children's parade and attended two Halloween parties. Surprisingly, Harper tolerated the hat for periods of time sufficient for others to see the costume in full effect. And people got it! At the parade, we heard several people say, "Hey! Look at the wild thing!" One dad even came up to tell us that Harper's costume was his favorite of all the ones he saw. Of course, one person also asked me if Harper was dressed as a yak. A yak, people.

Next up is the costume contest at Six Apart, where Harper's dad works. You may recall that last year Harper fell just short of winning for best costume, since the judges decided that all non-employee partygoers were disqualified. This year, there is a children's category so Harper will have another shot. Of course, he will be going up against Miss P. Trott, the one-month-old baby daughter of the company founders, so there is some pretty stiff competition.