Halloween, Part 2: Eye of Needle, Head of Frog

My husband chose the worthy character of J. Thaddeus Toad for his Halloween costume.

"Esquire."

"Pardon?"

"J. Thaddeus Toad, Esquire."

"Ah, my mistake."

He chose the worthy character of J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq. for his Halloween costume. 

He was fortunate enough to thrift shop the bits from the neck down and to good success. He scored a rather fancy looking pair of shoes with appropriately pointed toes and a bit of heel in a Good Will for $4. Another shopper stopped to exclaim over his good find. A stellar brand. Italian, you know. Shawn looked at the shoes and chose not to tell the man the purpose for which he intended to use them.

The only thing that truly required sewing was the head. We bought enough felt to cover several drafts and hit upon a success on version #2. Not bad really. In truth, it's modeled after a comfortable old sweatshirt's hood. We exagerated the size, bisected it to provide the two separate colors, and worked in a little shaping to make the eyes pop up. All told, it was one evening's work. I drafted the pattern and did the structural sewing. Shawn sewed on the eyes and the snaps that shape the mouth. And voila – we have a toad.

Below is a family portrait of our rather motley crew. (Though there is a connection between Shawn's costume and the kiddo's; bonus points if you can pick it out.) Also shown is my steam punk costume, but I'm afraid the description of that project must wait for another day.