It's Justice's third Halloween! By now I can tell you that I really enjoy making costumes for him (see his sushi and cup noodles costume in the past). This year, I want to continue our Asian food theme and bring one of our favourite snacks to life. May I present to you - our giant Pocky!

In case you didn't know, Pocky is a Japanese brand known for their tasty biscuit sticks originally with chocolate coating. The product line has grown popularity worldwide and has expanded its offering to a wide range of flavours. You can spot one of these goodies in most Asian supermarket. 

Not only our whole family loves snacking on Pocky sticks on a daily basis, its iconic, eye catching red packaging is so memorable and easy to replicate. Here's what I did and my thought process in case you want to turn your baby into a snack too!

I used felt for this costume as I want Justice to be able to move freely in it. I want a material that can be folded and stored away easily after use. Felt is thick and stiff enough to hold its shape, does not fray like other fabrics and allows me to glue things on it. I purchased a large piece of felt from my local fabric store along with some felt sheets in beige, brown and white colour. You can also make this out of cardboard box if you don't mind the bulkiness.

 

DIY Pocky Sticks Halloween Costume

Materials for Pocky Costume:

• Felt (red, white, beige and brown)
• White glue
• Bonding tape (optional)
• Fabric cutter or scissors
• Cricut or other cutting machine
• White iron-on vinyl
• My Pocky design cut file

Materials for Giant Pocky Stick:

• Cardboard tubes or paper towel tubes
• Brown / beige paint
• Paint brush
• Kraft wrapping paper (optional)

Justice is about 3 feet tall and I wanted the costume to be down to his knees, about 21 inches in length and 16 inches wide. The staff from the fabric store was very helpful in determining how much felt I'd need (since I suck at math!). So, to help you determine all the pieces you'd need, here's a diagram. You can adjust the size to fit your own needs. I also added about half an inch on all sides for seam allowance to attach the pieces together. For the head and arm holes, I traced an outline using a 4" wood circle on the side panels and cut all the pieces out with a fabric cutter.

Before attaching all the pieces together, I made the front graphic using beige and brown felt sheets for the Pocky sticks and some iron-on vinyls for the logos. The brown felt sheet makes 4 chocolate coatings, about 3 inches wide. I trimmed 3 inches on the shorter end of the beige sheet to make my biscuit sticks. Connected them together, trimmed the corners and stuck them onto the front red panel. I recommend using felt sheets with adhesive backing as they keep things clean and mess-free. But those might be hard to come by so attaching with white glue works fine too.

With my mighty Cricut machine, I cut out the logos and nutrition facts onto white iron-on vinyls. Then, pressed the designs onto the front and back red panels with my good ol' iron. After my front and back panel designs were finished, I cut holes for the arms and head in my side panels before finally attaching all the side seams together.

This part was a bit tricky. I find it easier to tell which pieces should attach together when I laid out all the connecting pieces in order on the floor. I put some bonding tape (or you can use white glue) and sandwiched between two connecting side seams. Then I used my hair straightener (yes, you read that right!) and pressed them together. The pressing and heat will turn the bonding tape into some kind of adhesive and bond the two felts together. I love using my hair straightener like a mini heat press. It's so helpful to apply heat to areas as narrow as the side seams! I also bonded the seams from the inside, with wrong side of the panels facing out. So, when I flipped the costume inside out, the seams are clean and hidden. 

Finally, to make the costume fall straight down his body and not crunched up (since it's quite oversized on him), I cut two pieces of cardboard in the same widths as my top panel, added velcro adhesive to them and inserted them like shoulder pads. The velcros help secured the cardboards to the felt.

If you give this a try, be sure to share your pictures with me on IG @tingandthings_ or use hashtag #diywithting. I'd love to see your version!

I can't believe summer is already over and October arrives in a blink of an eye. While I was putting away my tank tops in exchange for my fall sweaters, I also dug out some of the outfits that I wore for Halloween in the past. They gave me so many fun memories. So today, I wanted to share some of my favourite Halloween moments with you along with the tutorials for making these costumes! These costumes are easy to put together, especially when you don't have a lot of time.

Mad Men Halloween Costume Tutorial

I actually didn't really dress up as a character from Mad Men for Halloween, it was actually for a friend's birthday themed party. But I absolutely love what I put together and just had to share it with you. Do you have vintage pieces that are sitting around the house? If you do, then you could easily pull this off. A simple and low-budget costume that's also great for work and as a group.

Check out my Mad Men Costume Tutorial here

Sushi Halloween Costume Tutorial

If you like to be cute for Halloween (which is what I usually go for), sushi costume is a perfect choice. I made this costume to wear for work one year and everyone loved it! I even got voted for the best costume that year! The piece of shrimp sashimi was sewn from a piece of orange and white fabric. To go with the look, I referenced the sushi condiments and made a hairpiece out of felt. This costume can easily be done in other fish sashimi, which makes it a group sushi platter costume! Read more on my tutorial where I showed you step-by-step on how to make this costume for Halloween.

Check out my Sushi Costume Tutorial here

Spice Girls Group Halloween Costume Tutorial

If you're looking for a group costume this Halloween, this is definitely a fun one to do with your gang! My group got pretty creative with thinking up the spice names for each of us. If you look closely, they're also culturally appropriate! This is a great group costume idea to add some humour to the Halloween festivity. In my tutorial, I'll show you how to assemble the costumes for your group. I also offered a free template for you to download in which you can print at home.

Check out my Spice Girls Group Costume Tutorial here

White Rabbit From Alice in Wonderland Costume Tutorial 

I decided on this White Rabbit costume at the last minute for Halloween one year which was quite fitting for this character from Alice in Wonderland. The entire ensemble was from pieces that I already have in my wardrobes. All I did extra was the pocket watch that I made out of cardboard and a chain. You'd be surprised just how easy to put together this costume. Hence this is why this is one of my favourites. It was effortless.

Check out my White Rabbit Costume Tutorial here

Bullet Bill Halloween Costume Tutorial

Not a lot of people are aware of the side characters in Super Mario Brothers. But Bullet Bill always has a place in my heart. And it's super easy to replicate! The most important element for this costume is the hat! In my tutorial, I showed you how you can also create one yourself!

Check out my Bullet Bill Costume Tutorial here

What's your favourite costume?

I'm a procrastinator when it comes to dressing up for Halloween. So, I always opt for an easy way out by deciding what to wear from the wardrobes in my closet. But this year, my office is making Halloween more festive than ever. There're prizes for best costumes. So, it looks like there's a need to put in extra thought to my costume compared to my last-minute ones.

I dressed up as a piece of sushi and DIY-ed the costume using a few simple supplies. Everyone loves sushi's and so do I! It just seems fitting for a self-proclaimed foodie like me. It not only matches my style but is also more fun than dressing up as monstrous-looking characters. Those aren't really my style.

As my title suggests, I'm late on this post. In fact, I was super late for coming up with this Halloween outfit. I actually pulled this together the night before a party. Just like my previous Halloween costumes, I scrambled from my closet to find something I could pull together. And interestingly, I always ended up getting a lightbulb moment. I went with the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

Here's my ensemble for the look: