One Deer Down, One Clown to Go

This year for Halloween, my baby wanted to be a "baby deer." Good luck finding yourself a toddler fawn costume at a costume shop, but we are crafty people, and we can make that happen:
Once again, as with Willow's zebra costume last Halloween, I used a long-ago thrifted Old Navy fleece romper as a pattern to sew a Sydney-sized romper out of tan stash fabric. I even sewed in a zipper, for goodness' sake--
--referring back to a handy zipper tutorial or two (the glue stick method=AWESOME!).

I ironed some stash white flannel to Heat n' Bond iron-on adhesive, freehand cut it into fawn spots, and had the girls help me lay out the spots-- --and then iron them down. And also? I am NEVER buying Heat n' Bond adhesive again. I thought it would be quicker just to bond the applique to the romper instead of sewing each one down. What I forgot is that heat-set applique is fiddly, in that you have to, you know, follow the RULES for it, and I have the constant companionship and assistance of two small children. What the use is of something that a three-year-old can't do correctly I just don't know. At least when you sew something on the sewing machine with a three-year-old, even if the stitches are sloppy or the seam wobbles, that thing at least has a fighting chance of STAYING SEWN. Heat n' Bond? Blech. I'm sorry, Heat n' Bond, that I was incapable of ironing you down with moderate heat for 8-10 seconds per section, overlapping slightly, but seriously, you're going to fall apart on me?

Seriously?

I've already had to take a glue stick to about half of these appliques after my child was instructed to show up at her gymnastics class in costume, so we'll see if the damn things last through tomorrow's school party and the Bloomington Area Birth Services party and the pipe organ concert, and Saturday's festival at the Mather's Museum.

Oh, and trick-or-treating. Can't forget that.

Anyway, the applique was simple to do before sewing the romper up, but I wish I'd taken the time to actually do them right.

I freehanded and sewed up a tail and attached it to the outside of the costume (it's white on the underside, because Sydney's a white-tailed deer fawn)--
--but I used a pattern for the hood of the deer costume, a vintage Simplicity 5739 that I scored during the Upcycle Exchange at Strange Folk in September. Hopefully, when the girls are between the ages of 10 and 12, they'll really want to dress up as some sort of faux-fur rompered creature with a tail and a furry hood with ears, because that's what this pattern is for. I freehanded the ears, but fortunately the hood, even though it's super-large, still fits fine:

Even skipping all the niceties that I ran out of time for, such as trimming the neckline with bias tape or lining the hood or adding elastic to the wrist and ankle hems, etc., I'm still quite pleased with the outcome, and fortunately, so is Syd.

And if all her applique does fall off before Saturday, I can always just fashion her some pipe cleaner antlers and make her a buck, I guess.