How To Make a Tractor Costume {Tutorial}

My son is 2 1/2 and only loves his mom, dad and sister more than he loves tractors.  Specifically, John Deere tractors.  He was just born that way, baby.  It was a no-brainer to try to make him a tractor costume!  Here's how we did it!

What you'll need:
-2 medium sized rectangular shaped boxes.
-Scissors
-Serrated knife
-Marker/ Pencil
-Tractor-colored paint of your choice
-Black paint
-Paint brush or sponge brush
-Duct tape or packing tape


Difficulty level:  Not easy, Not hard                  
Time Commitment:  Over the course of several hours and drying overnight
Can kids help?  A little bit

Instructions:

1) Choose your boxes and arrange them the way you want them to be for your tractor.

2) Cut holes in the top and bottom of the larger upright box where the child will stand.  Then, connect the boxes together.  For our tractor, I used the top end flap on the touching end of the shorter box and stuck into the larger box through a cut slot, and taped it inside.  Then I did the same with the bottom end flap like this:

3) Secure all seams with more duct tape!

{Step 3.5:  Have fun with kids playing with the other boxes!}

Step 4) Break out the paint!  We chose to do a fancy stripe.

Step 5) Make the wheels!  I used a dinner plate to make templates.  For the 'small' front wheels, I used the actual plate size.  For the 'large' wheels, I cut a larger circle around the template.

Step 6) Add the wheels and embellish how you like!  We glued on the wheels but I wanted to use brads so they would roll around.  Oh well.  We used duct tape to make fake windows and headlights.  We've also since added shoulder straps by connecting some ribbon to the front and back of the body opening...  but baby boy doesn't like them.  

Step 7) ENJOY!  {And hope and pray the costume makes it to Halloween!  Have a backup plan :).}