Halloween Brainstorming: Mary Poppins, Bert and the tapping Penguins

As many of you know one of my all time favorite things to do is to make costumes for my husband and nieces and take weird pictures as evidenced here, here and here.

This year for Halloween I think I want to do Bert from Mary Poppins and the penguins. L has an awesome penguin walk down already. And lucky for me she was really into the idea. T on the other hand has not agreed to be a penguin but she did seem cool with being the little girl from the movie (you know frilly outfit and parasol). I do plan on making myself a Mary costume but I will leave that to last and won’t be disappointed if it gets dropped after all it is my busiest time of the year for the shop (I might just do a real basic thing, most places we’ll be it’ll be dark anyways and I can carry a parasol).

This is what I’m thinking. I saw some absolutely awesome animal coats from Little Goodall on Etsy. The panda above was the closest to the penguin idea that she has in her shop. Every year I want to make the girls coats but I never get to it. And as fun as costumes are, besides Snow White (which is still worn almost daily 2 whole years later) the Halloween costumes (since they are usually weird ones I convince them of) don’t get much action. But I figured they could use the coats all winter or longer if I make them long and a little loose.

So yeah I may be crazy trying to make two kid coats and a full sports coat during my craziest time of the year but it sounds really cute. Plus the musicmaker’s jacket just has to look decent and stay on ;) .

I’m pretty excited. But I figured before I set sail on this adventure I’d see if you guys have any suggestions. For the penguins, I’m thinking of doing the hood kind of the the head of this cute penguin, have an outlined white tummy (so some black on the front but mostly black) the back and sleeves all black and definitely orange or/and yellow beaks. And bow ties probably ones that can attach to a top button or just be safety pinned on.

I’ve got some bright stripe that I could use for Bert but I’m not sure If I should just use white and then sew some ribbon on instead, that’s probably overkill right? And of course he needs the blue tie. (Yeah don’t mind the pebbles and bam bams they’re all over my house.)

Mary and little Jane will be ‘fast’ dresses. And I’m going to trick T and make her a penguin coat and since it’s almost always freezing on Halloween here she’ll still be a penguin bwahahahaha. Oh well I can’t find a good picture of Jane, but I think a white dress yellow sash, parasol and a hat will do, but I’ll consult the trusty VHS. And for Mary a white dress with some lace and red around the waist and little red ribbons? I’m totally open to suggestions -especially good ideas on how to cheat and get the look but fast and easy.