October is a great month for lots of reasons, but one reason I really love October is that it’s Halloween costume season! I have great memories of flipping through the pattern catalogs in the fabric store and looking at all of the costume options throughout my youth. I don’t dress up every year, but I really enjoy pulling costume ideas together whenever I do.

The great thing about living in Central Florida is there’s always a Halloween party in town, given the number of Halloween themed events in the surrounding theme parks. Over the years, I’ve had a bunch of magical Halloween costumes:  Wendy Darling from Peter Pan, Boo from Monsters, Inc, a Mouseketeer and Tinker Bell. But one of the most fun costumes I put together was Remy from the movie Ratatouille!

The Ratatouille costume was a lot of fun and incredibly simple to put together at the last minute. It also forced me to learn how to spell “Ratatouille” from all the Googling I did while putting the costume together. 😉

Here’s a breakdown of my quick and easy DIY Remy if you’re looking for a last-minute costume!

What you need:

• Gray clothing items of your choice
• Pink shoes
• Pink gloves
• Pink craft foam cut into a teardrop shape + chef’s hat (I used hair clips to secure the ears to the hat)

Optional:

• Eiffel Tower on a Stick – print on computer paper, glue to poster board and attach a ruler or wooden dowel to the back. Instant Eiffel Tower on a Stick! I have to say — this was the most fun part of the costume. It made a great photo prop.
• Recipe cards with a recipe for Ratatouille printed on them — these were fun to hand out to anyone who recognized us.
• Linguini: No, not the pasta, the gangly chef from the movie! Find a friend who is willing to complete your Pixar duo, throw in some red hairspray, a chef’s hat and chef’s jacket (we got ours from eBay) and you’ve got yourself a Linguini.
• A replica of the cookbook, “Anyone Can Cook!” I recreated one using a paper mache book from Joann Fabrics, craft paint and some graphics I printed from the internet. The book/box was a great place to store the recipe cards.

The cookbook from the movie alongside my paper mache version!

So there you have it… DIY Remy and Linguini!

My Linguini looks a lot like Nick Lachey.

What’s on your costume agenda this year? I’d love to hear your quick and easy DIY ideas!

Fun Fact… today they were serving ratatouille in my company cafeteria. I wrote this blog post some time ago, but had scheduled it to post today. And then… ratatouille for lunch. I wish I had taken a photo. I can’t make this stuff up. It’s magic!