Oh, boy! Halloween is finally here! Today I will be talking about costumes! Since I started sewing, I have gotten even more into costumes than I already was. People who know me know that I would wear a tiara or my Minnie Mouse ears any day, so dressing up is always fun for me. I'm also the kind of gal who prefers cute costumes over scary ones.
This year, I decided on something relatively simple - Winnie the Pooh! Now you may be thinking that this isn't a girly costume, but I have news for you! I decided to do a girly take on Pooh, and I got the idea from this thing called Disney Bounding. It's where you find an outfit that pays homage to a Disney character. Take a look - this girl has put together so many ideas for basically any character you can think of.
In it's simplest form, my costume is a red shirt and a yellow skirt. The red shirt I already had, and the skirt is a simple circle skirt I made out of some soft knit fabric I found at Joann's. I also made some ears with the yellow fabric. To complete the look, I painted my nails yellow and found a honey pot to carry around. Oh, and drew a black dot on the tip of my nose, since he has a black nose.
- To make the circle skirt, you need about two yards of fabric and matching thread, and I used a zig zag stitch on the waistband since the fabric is super stretchy.
- Because the fabric is stretchy (and heavy), your waistband is going to be several inches shorter than your actual waist measurement.
- Figure out how big a hole you need for your waist, and about how long you want your skirt to be, and cut out a circle with a radius equal to the length plus your waist/2*Pi (plus a in inch or so - you can always make it shorter!).
- Cut out a smaller circle in the middle of your larger circle for your waist. This can be the same as your waistband or a little bigger. I like to make it a little bigger so it gathers a bit.
- You will also need a piece for the waistband that is a rectangle, 4 inches high by however long you decided the waistband should be. Sew up the short sides of the waistband so you now have a circle.
- Fold the waistband in half, so now it is about 2 inches tall (the seam you just made should be on the inside) and pin to the opening in your circle skirt. For me, it didn't matter too much about the "right" and "wrong" sides, except to keep the one waistband seam hidden. The fabric I chose looks identical on both sides.
- Sew the waistband to the skirt (you'll probably be stretching the fabric as you sew, so the skirt opening matches up with the waistband).
- Then try it on! Figure out how much you need to hem it up to get the length you'd like, and hem it.
To make the ears, I cut out four small pieces of leftover fabric that were U shaped. I sewed two together, just as big as I wanted the ear to be, then stuffed some stuffing inside. Then I made a seam close to the stuffed part, but just barely far enough away so I could put the ear on a headband. Repeat for the second ear.
My honey pot is actually purchased from Le Creuset, and I painted the word "HUNNY" onto it with Pebeo paint.
I could have stopped there, but I didn't. I figured my dog needed to be in on the action - Riker became my Tigger, because they're both bouncy. For his Tigger vest, I bought a yard each of orange and black fleece. I made my dog lie down while I measured him, and cut out a U shape, a couple inches longer on each side than I wanted it to cover. I made fringe and tied them together around the outside, similar to fleece blanket kits you might see in the store. I trimmed and sewed up the edges I didn't want fringe on, added some velcro to keep the front closed, and sewed some black stripes on with the leftover fleece. I also made an elastic and velcro strap to go underneath his belly to keep the vest in place. He actually seems to like it, too!
And I could have stopped there, but I tried to take it all one step further. At first I tried to make Nathaniel be Christopher Robin, but he didn't like that idea. So I decided to make him the simplest Piglet costume I could. I made some ears out of pink felt and a headband, and just used one of his existing shirts that is made of super thin red and white stripes. And if he refuses to use it, then I have some pig ears for another time.
Happy Halloween!!
