Halloween - K's Costume

This is the last of the Halloween posts, which is a good thing given that it is now mid-November. It is another monster (see what I did there?!) of a post with a million photos showing how I made K's costume. It ended up being a good amount of work, but I loved it and the hoodie and pants he can wear on regular days, so it was all worth is. You might be thinking, "why didn't she just buy a yellow sweatsuit?!" Trust me, I thought the same thing. You would be surprised, however, to find out that sweatsuits are difficult to come by in Japan. Particularly yellow ones with nothing else on them. I was afraid that if it had a patch or something on it that I would tear the fabric while picking it off. This scared me and so it seemed easier to just make it all.

I'll start with the hoodie since it was the most complicated. Below is the almost finished product - it was just missing the waistband.

I didn't have a hoodie pattern. What I did have was a pajama top pattern with a tight fit (I thought that would make the hoodie look kind of retro and cool) that I used as a sizing guide and a zip up hoodie jacket that K owns. Using the hoodie jacket, I made a hood pattern just hoping that it would fit the actual shirt neck. I ended up being super lucky and it all worked out.

Since there was no actual pattern, I just drafted a front pocket pattern as well and started with that. I lined the back of the pocket in green jersey. Since K wanted to be a yellow dinosaur with green spikes, I thought it would be good to try to fit in the green in a few other places. Once the pocket was done, I sewed it to the front of the hoodie.

Then I attached the back. Instead of making the back like a normal shirt, however, I left it cut up the center so that I could attach spikes when the time came. Then came the sleeves.

This is what it looked like at this point.

As I was working up my confidence to deal with the hood and spikes, I took the time to add the cuffs. Easy.

Then it was the hood. After inspecting all of Y's hoodies, I realized that the hood overlaps in the very front. I lined the hood up from the back to the front and it worked out just perfectly. Wowza, that was super lucky.

I sewed the hood to the neck, being sure to overlap the very front bit. Then I sewed the very top of the hood together. I thought it would be easier to get the string through like this, also I didn't want the spikes to go to the VERY front of the hoodie.

Then I marked where my button holes for the hood string would go and made them.

Next were the spikes. I measured from the top of the hood (where the top was open) to the bottom of the waist (just like the tip of the hood, I didn't want spikes on the waistband either.

I added some interfacing to a long rectangle of green jersey and drew some spikes. I started the spikes slightly shorter at the top of the head, then they got bigger as they went down his back.

Then I sewed the spikes up.

Then I flipped them right side out and sandwiched them between the hood and back and sewed it all up. The finished look was not very clean and since I thought K could wear this on a regular day I didn't want it looking like that.

I went down the whole spike seam with bias tape and think it looks much cleaner.

The final step was to add the waisband and string the hood string through and the most difficult part was done.

I love how it looks from the back.

K loved it too! So much so, that it was impossible to get a photo of him standing still. He also demanded that we try it on as soon as he woke up, so he is modeling it with his pajama pants. Still cool, in my book.

 

Next up were the pants. These were super standard. I just drafted the pattern from a pair of jersey pants that K already owns. 

 

I cut the four pieces, sewed up the side seams and ironed in the hem.

Did the center seam and they were pretty much done.

All that was left was the waistband. I used the ribbed jersey that I also used in the cuffs and waistband in the hoodie to make the pant waistband. I made it slightly smaller than the waist of the pants, although to be honest the waist is a tad bit big. I think I'll go back, cut some holes and give them a drawstring when I get some time.

I marked the waistband into quarters.

Lined up those markers with the seams and then sewed it up.

The final step was the sew in the hems and the pants were done. Again with the kid not standing still for a photo. Eh, what can I do? He's almost a dinosaur now!!!

The very last step was to make the tail. It turns out I ran out of steam taking photos of this process - more likely I just wanted to get it done and couldn't be bothered by taking the photos when it is all explained super well in the tutorial that I followed to make it.

I did the same thing for the tail spikes, as I did for the hoodie spikes, only in reverse. I started with the spikes slightly taller and as they went down the tail they got a bit shorter.

Then I basted them to the tail fabric, sewed the top of the tail together, then most of the bottom. Finally the circle bit, sandwiching in some waist ties, stuffed it and handsewed up the bottom.

And I had one very happy dinosaur.

Excuse the pillows and bag thrown about - the dino was on a mission destroying the living room.

 

I can't wait to see what next year's costume request is! Now with Halloween officially over, I am contemplating Thanksgiving...I think I might need a bit of a break though.