Penguin Costume

Approximately size 3T

For the pants I used New Look 6861. I only needed about 1 yard total. Fleece fabric. I used 1" cotton elastic for the waist. It is important to baste down the seam allowances all around the pants before making the casing and stringing in the elastic to keep the elastic from bunching and getting stuck. I forgot about the seam where I connected the white with the black fabric so the elastic is a little funky now.

For the top I used a jacket he already has that fits well. I traced it leaving a little seam allowance. Instead of dealing with finishing the neck edge I decided to add a hood. I used #20 plastic snaps in white for the front closure.

Beep-Beep

So, I am officially done with costumes this year. Yay! I finished the robot costume last night. I could have finished sooner but after the mad rush on Monday I needed a costume break. I decided to use all fabric instead of cardboard, which was probably not the best idea. I should have just spray painted cardboard boxes and been done with it. I used 6 layers of fabric - silver for the outside, black for the inside, 2 layers of stiff interfacing, and 2 layers of fleece batting - but it didn't hold up well. It doesn't help that my son is really skinny. I ended up adding cardboard across his shoulders to keep it from sliding down. The hat kept collapsing so I added cardboard on the back and sides to prop it up. By the end of the night it looked pretty darn good. We decorated it with circuit boards on the chest. I also had a small computer fan but it disappeared sometime yesterday afternoon. For his arms and legs I bought drier duct and cut it to fit. The legs really made the outfit.

I have to take a moment to give a shout out to Free Geek for the circuit boards. They are totally awesome. All the computer pieces ended up costing only $3. That was 4 circuit boards, an antenna, and a small fan. Due to some miscommunication the antenna didn't make it on the final costume.

Happy Halloween!

Well, not quite yet but it was our church Halloween "Monster Mash" aka costume D-Day. I finished the turtle costume and it looks great. The snaps keep coming unsnapped so he crawls around quite immodestly. I made the body suit from a pattern and I used sew on snaps. Next time I think I will opt for snaps that are more heavy duty. The shell is a bit small but I really like how it turned out. I just zig-zagged around the edges of each piece (after finding out the hard way that you cannot quilt hexagons). To keep it on him, I sewed on elastic straps with plastic clasps.

The robot got done enough. I would still like to sew on a few more accessories. I sewed the whole thing out of many layers of fabric but I think it would have been much easier to just spray paint a few cardboard boxes. No pictures until it is complete.

In addition to all of the sewing I had to do, I also volunteered to bring two desserts and chili. I decided to make brownies because they don't require a mixer (I burnt out the motor on my mixer last Christmas in the middle of making cookies and I refuse to buy another one because I am holding out for a Kitchen-Aid). I thought a graveyard scene would be my best bet. I made shortbread cookies (again due to lack of mixer) for tombstones. I was too busy sewing to get it all put together so when my husband got home I put him on the graveyard shift. I think he did a great job, better than I would have done. He free-handed that skeleton with icing and made the heads from marshmallows and sprinkles (thank you Martha). They turned out great!