We are all about costumes at our house!
Any excuse to dress up is a win in my book. With Halloween approaching I
wanted to share Little Plum's DIY costume from last year (I'm still
busily plotting Halloween 2014!). We go to a themed party each year, and
last year was our first attempt at incorporating a baby into our
costumes. We needed something easily tote-able as Little Plum was not
yet walking. After some brainstorming and Pinterest searching, we settled
on chefs with Little Plum as a lobster. The adult costumes were easy
enough. We grabbed some cheap catering aprons, chef hats, and bow ties
all from the craft store. Done.
For Little Plum, I knew we
needed something comfy and easily removable in the event of baby rage or
dirty diapers. I began by tracing a pattern from one of her shirts with
raglan style sleeves (think baseball-tee sleeves) because these are way easier to sew than set-in sleeves.
I added large scallops to the bottom hem to make the lobster tail.
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Body pattern |
The
whole costume was made out of fleece to minimize hemming. I
finished off the back and neck openings with coordinating bias tape,
leaving the ends long so that the costume tied like a smock over her
regular clothes.
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Front View |
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Back View |
For the claws, I measured the width of her
sleeves and the length from elbow to wrist to get the general claw
dimensions, then free handed a claw pattern, leaving enough seam
allowance to stuff the claws with 1/4 inch foam. I also left a large
seam allowance on the back end of the claws to give me plenty of room to
attach them to the sleeves. I made four claws total, two for each arm.
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Claw pattern - the back edge is the width of the sleeves |
I chose to sew the claws on about
half way up her arms so that she would have easy access to her hands. I
attached two claws to each sleeve by hand, first sewing each claw on and
then tacking the two claws together on each side.
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Detail view of where the claws were attached and then tacked together |
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Here you can see how much sleeve was poking through the claws |
The hat was another bit of
tricky business. I ended up heavily modifying a pilot cap pattern to
fit Little Plum's massive noggin. A pilot cap has two seams down the
crown which is the perfect place to attach antennae.
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Hat pattern |
I made a casing out
of bias tape and stuffed it with pipe cleaners for the antennae, which I
then sandwiched into the pilot cap seams prior to sewing it up. I
finished off the edges of the cap with bias tape, leaving long tails for
ties. The antennae are a little floppy when the hat isn't on a
head. I left the casing extra long on the inside of the cap so that no
pipe cleaners were jabbing into baby heads.
The hilarious
Muppet-like eyeballs totally make the costume! For those, I cut out
large circles from white knit fabric. I attached solid black safety eyes
to the center of the circle (you can find safety eyes in the bear/doll
making section of most craft stores). Then I just hand stitched a quick
running stitch around the perimeter of the circle and stuffed it full of
fiberfill as I pulled the stitches tight. Once the eyeballs were
stitched closed, I tacked them onto the hat by hand.
Overall I
was super pleased with how the lobster costume turned out. It was
completely tolerable to a baby and looked freaking hilarious! We
carried her around in a huge canning pot lined with bath towels.
Do you DIY Halloween? Do you have a family costume theme?
This is so sweet! Love the lobster costume! Must b delicious!
ReplyDeleteLOVE THIS!!!
ReplyDeleteLobster baby mom chef dad chef in a pot on fire say yes YouTube
ReplyDeleteDad chef mom chef lobster baby in a pot on fire say yes youtube
ReplyDeleteI love this!! Do you have printable patterns available??
ReplyDelete