DIY Peter Pan Costume

This DIY Peter Pan costume was a combination of storybook inspiration, trial & error and quick impromptu alterations due to dropping temperatures!

 

I originally set out to make a fleece bodice in the shape you see here covered in layers of felt leaves. After completing the leaf layers on the front, I realized that it was just too bulky for my lil' 2.5 year old. With already having too much time and care invested into the front, I transformed my bodice into a jacket by turning the front into the back and opening up what-once-was-to-be the back of my bodice. I split it right in the middle then worked off the side points to guide the opening of the jacket, leaving the sleeves. Buttons and a felt piece of fabric were used to keep the jacket from sliding off his shoulders. The jacket is a bit of a cross between a jacket and a bolero in style. The leaves are made of felt and a netting/sequined fabric and were all hand cut from a template I found online. I just googled "leaf templates" till I found one that had the shape and proportions I had in mind. Then I hand-sewn each leaf. Yes. Each leaf. Worth it? Yeppers, I think so.  To make the process a bit less daunting, I wanted to work with fabrics that didn't need finishing and would also highlight the details in the leaves which is why the felt and this net-like fabric worked perfectly. I love the touch of gold...reminds me of pixie dust! I wanted a real tonal color palette that truly highlighted the spectrum of fall. Mission accomplished

The pants were just a regular play pant I got on sale for $1.50 at Babies R' Us. I tapered the pant to fit more like a legging. Super easy and saved me from making a pant from scratch.

Since, my original bodice concept didn't work out I needed to added a bodice underneath my new jacket. I worked off a shirt that fit my son for a rough pattern, added rounded short sleeves and cut the bottom of the bodice in the likeness of a men's dress shirt. This was made out of extra blizzard fleece I got from JO-Anns (same as jacket shell) I really like working with the fleece because you don't have to finish the edges, and it's also warm for our chilly Wisconsin Halloweens. Double perk!

Luckily, I found a great tutorial on a fellow bloggers site. You can check out the tutorial HERE. Thanks to her, I had a quick and perfect Peter Pan hat. I added a real hawks feather we found at my son's photoshoot last month. It was a fun photo prop then, and I think adds interest to the costume now in lieu of using the traditional red feather. (Charming....and free!)

The shoe covers are made out of felt. I took the shoes I wanted my son to wear with the costume and
literally played with the fabric till I got the look I wanted. There is one machine seam up the back of the fabric and the rest of the folds were just hand sewn. I added a fun button for detail as they just felt too plain. I originally tried to avoid putting the bottom elastic on but inevitably had to add it as the covers kept turning around and becoming quite hazardous for a troll-oping two year old. 

The sword was a fun accessory that I couldn't resist adding. Got this beautiful item from a great little Etsy shop called, Friendly Fairies. I purchased their Woodsman's Prize Toy Sword for $15. They do have a "peter pan" sword, but I liked the colors and tone of the Woodsman's.

In summation, the story of Peter Pan has been near and dear to my heart my whole life and particularly special to me and my Grandma. It is a joy to see my own son decked out in true Pan fashion. Hope I made you proud Grandma!

Homemade Max Costume from Where The Wild Things Are

I wanted to do this costume for my son since he was born but wanted him to be walking so I could see that cute little wolf tail trotting behind him. At 19 months old, this was the perfect year to do it. I must admit that I was a bit ambitious with this one hence, not posting it 'til now as it has many components and well, I'm just an amateur sewer who procrastinates. I mocked the one-piece body suit after a pair of pajamas similar in structure to what I wanted. Everything is held closed by sew-on snaps. The wooden buttons are purely decorative. I picked them up at Jo-Ann's: La Mode style 3102 and cost $1.60 for two buttons. I just saw that these do say, "dry clean only" so I'll have to see how they hold up in the wash. Oh well, at least they're cheap to replace if they're totaled after.

The tail was made from a couple of inches taken from fur fabric (buying the fabric was actually cheaper than the trim by-the-way) I made the tail removable so that the one-piece could be washed easily. The tail has a strip of the ivory fabric sew to it so that it can be looped through the button hole I added to the back of the suit and tied on the inside of the one-piece.

The wolf headpiece was made by using a hood from my son's sweatshirt as a pattern for the shape. I then added a strip of fabric at the bottom of that which looped around the bottom of the hood's edge and velcroed under his chin. I didn't want to use yarn or pipe cleaners for whiskers. I wanted something that felt a bit more authentic. The "whiskers" I used are actually strands cut off from a household broom we already had. They are the exact texture I wanted, and the price was right! These were meticulously placed so that the ends would be in the seam allowance in order to not irritate my son's face. I poked the plastic pieces through the fabric, knotted them and then folded the seam allowance over the knotted ends, sewing the fabric shut over them. The ears here were just two triangles sewn together, stuffed with poly-fil and hand sewn to the top of the headpiece.

The crown is an independent piece that can be removed as I wanted my son to be able to play with it long after Halloween. I love the authentic feel of this piece from the fabric to the faux fur trim. My son now loves to play with it everyday. From being a king while he eats breakfast to a must-have-accessory every time we read "Where the Wild Things Are," this is now one of his favorite imaginary play toys.

UPDATE: This crown is now for sale in my Etsy shop! Here's the link to purchase: Kings & Queens of the Forest Crown

As I mentioned before, I am a beginning sewer. I blame this attribute for my one-piece being an inch or two too short (and too snug, for that matter) None-the-less it forced me to add "wolf feet." I made a shoe cover that would wrap around the shoe and up over the ankle of the one-piece. It just velcroed in the back so a fairly easy addition to add. Plus, it solved my faintly high-water problem.

 

I love this face! It's such a devilish "Max" look.

 This Trick-or-Treat basket was found at Michaels for $3.50. I love that it has a similar color scheme as the book's illustrations.

DIY Baby Mushroom Halloween Costume

I decided that for our son's First Halloween I must make him a unique costume. He makes for an adorable mushroom! You might recognize the mushrooms in this shot, as I swiped them from his nursery. This costume was quite simple, only took a couple of hours and used common things you have in your kids closet and sewing room scraps.

I made the mushroom hat by using a cheap beanie I found on clearance ($2.99 at Gap). It saved me time because it already fit and stayed on, so it served as the perfect lining and shape for my mushroom cap. I stuffed it with socks to hold the shape while I added scrap batting from a previous project to give volume.

I next draped red fleece fabric over the shape and pinned white cut out spots to create the look I wanted. I took the red fleece with pinned spots to the sewing machine and sewed them on. I didn't bother finishing off any of the edges as I felt the fleece had a clean look even unfinished. (I used the Blizzard Fleece from Jo-Anns by-the-way), plus this only made the process faster.

Next, I just draped this over my batting-covered hat and began to "fan fold" the edges of the red fleece tucking them in so they'd be on the inside on the hat. I pinned this to hold it in place and trimmed excess fleece as I went along. Once pinned in the shape I wanted, I sewed it into place just roughly tacking the edges down by hand and did a fine trim of the extra fabric.

The stalk of the mushroom is just a white bodysuit by Carters. I found a pack of like 5 on clearance at JCPenny's for about $5. Yay for extra bodysuits! (Can never have too many!)

The pants were a challenge.... I used an existing pair of my son's pants to make a pattern and made a basic "sweat pant" using green fleece. I cut grass shaped leaves from a double layered piece of fleece (so I ended up with 2 identical strands) and sewed them together.This just gave the leaves a bit more structure....they still don't stand completely up while my little guy is sitting cause of his chubby belly, but oh well. I added several of these grass strands around the waistband of his pants. I think you could easily do an adaptation of this if you aren't big into sewing or just want something quicker. You could easily make a belt with grass strands and use it with an existing pair of green sweats. You could easily just use fabric glue to achieve the same look as sewing. The fleece is really easy to work with.

To top off my son's costume, I made a caterpillar out of scrap green geometric fabric and brown yarn for the legs. I took a strip of the fabric and added balled up scrap pieces of fleece to shape the round body of the caterpillar. Then I tied a piece of yarn to hold the shape and provide the colorful bands of the caterpillar as well as legs I shaped them later when I was done.

I continued making these round shapes till I had a total of 5 of them. I finished off the last one by folding the end fabric under and using the last band of yarn to hold it in place.

Lastly, I just knotted the yarn to make feet and trimmed the excess. I don't have the pins attached here, but later I just hot glued pins to be able to attach the caterpillar to his shirt, hat or wherever! So many fun adaptations you could to here...making different type bugs, etc I was so tempted to do a trail of ants up the leg and on to his belly (mushroom stalk) But with him not walking yet they would have just gotten lost in folds and rolls! But maybe you could do this idea!