Felt Ninja Turtle Costume Tutorial

I posted here about the Ninja Turtle costume I made my son and like most things I make him, I had to make one for my niece as well.  I originally wanted to make her Donatello, or he purple turtle, but when I realized I only had red felt and no purple I figured it was better to go with red so I wouldn't have to buy any extra felt.

I used the same measurements for my 3 year old son and my 2 year old niece.  The shoulder pieces were 2.5 inches wide with a 5.5 inch opening for the neck.  The width of the body of the costume was 14 inches, the length was 16 inches.  This size fit my 3 year old perfectly and was a little big on my niece, but this just means she will have some growing room in it.  It wasn't falling off of her or anything so in my world it fit perfectly, lol.

I didn't do any measurements for the arm holes I just made them as long as I thought they would need to be for easily taking the costume on and off.  I think, when in doubt make them a little bigger.

 

 I used an 8x12 piece of tan felt to cut the stomach of the turtle.  I didn't use a pattern, just cut it in what I thought was the right shape.

 

To give it some dimension I cut a piece of quilt batting to go underneath the tan piece of felt.  I stitched the layers of the green body, tan stomach piece, and quilt batting in the same pattern as the Ninja turtles on tv.

 

I cut a piece of 2inch wide brown felt for the belt.  I stitched it to one shoulder at an angle, then pinned it down and stitched the yellow buckle in place going through all the layers of felt,

 

I kept the shoulder strap not sewed down until I got the waist belt in place and stitched, this way I knew for sure how long the shoulder strap needed to be.  After the waist belt was stitched down trimmed the shoulder strap.

  

Next I an extra strip of green felt to either side of the body pieces (right sides together).  This is just so the costume hangs easily and moves freely.  You don't want it to be in any way restricting.

 

 For the shell I cut a random oval shape, cutting 2 pieces of quilt batting to make it more dimensional.  For Grant's costume I used some polyfil I had in my stash to make his more rounded.  The I stitched the layers together in the shell design I could remember from the cartoon.  It's far from perfect but Grant knew what it was and that's all that matters.

 

I didn't sew the whole shell onto the back of the body piece.  Instead I placed it where I wanted and stitched it by hand in 4 different spots.  Add the shoulder strap by sewing it to the shoulder and stitch the waist belt on either side and to connect the shoulder belt to the waist belt.

 

Now stitch the front and back body pieces, right sides together, at the shoulders.

 

For the masks I made them about 5- 5 1/2 inches wide and freehanded the shape of an eye mask.  I cut one out in green felt and the other, slightly smaller out of colored felt.  I stitched both together then cut out the eye holes.  I attached a 1 inch wide tie to either side.

 

 

And there you have it a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Costume!  These types of costumes are great for dress up play around the house which is what I originally made them for, however they are also great for Halloween.  They are easy to have multiple layers underneath and kids can move freely in them.  Grant decided to wear his for trick or treat and he had a long john thermal shirt, a sweatshirt, and a jacket all underneath his and it still fit well enough that he could run like a Ninja Turtle from one house to the next.

 

 

 

 

Grant won't hardly take his costume off and he and Sophie ran around my mom's house like ninja turtles when I put them both in the costumes.  So score one for mom!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DIY Felt Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Costume

This is the first year Grant could actually tell me what he wanted to be for Halloween and he chose Mickey Mouse, which was perfect because I like for him and my neice to match (until they get to the age where they can tell me "no mama") and I knew she would love being Minnie Mouse.  About a week before Halloween I bought the fabric for Mickey's pants and as we were walking out of the store I said "now mommy can make your mickey mouse costume for Halloween", to which he responded "I don't wanna be dat". 
Me: "you don't want to be what?"
Grant: "mickey"
Me: "what do you want to be"
Grant: "Ninja turtle"
Me: "uuuhhhh, I just bought the stuff for Mickey so that's what you're gonna have to be, you will like it I promise".

I quickly changed the subject and decided I would look for a Ninja Turtle costume after the holiday on clearance for him to play dress up.

Fast forward to yesterday and I decided to look online at stores to see if they were marking down costumes.  I happened to look at Walmart and they had one for $4.97.  But it wasn't a full body costume it pretty much just went over the shoulders and hung , similar to the style I made of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head last year.  Grant immediately said "I need that, Mama".  I thought about going ahead and ordering it then I thought, heck I could make one that looks like that.  I looked in my stash and saw I had every color felt I needed and thought I'd make him one over the weekend. 

After he went to sleep I just couldn't get the idea out of my head for this Ninja Turtle costume and knew I had to get started on it.  Of course once I got started I had visions of him waking up to this Ninja Turtle dress up outfit and being so excited, so I knew I had to finish it before morning.  It ended up being 12:30am before I was finished (except for a mask because I didn't think about taking down those measurements before he went to sleep). 

 

It was totally worth the late night and little sleep.  He didn't take it off all day and even wanted to sleep in it.  When he first put it on he immediately started running around like a Ninja Turtle with a huge smile on his face.

 

I didn't get pictures throughout this process because it was late and I was just winging it the whole time.  Usually when that happens it's pointless for me to photograph it because I end up having to rip out seams and undo and redo so many steps.

All together, start to finish the costume took me about 3 hours.  I'm in the process of making a red Ninja Turtle for my niece so she and Grant can play together.  This one should take me a lot less time, as the second time around making something always does.  Hopefully I'll get some good step by step pics to show anyone who may want to make one for their little guy or girl to play dress up.

 

 

 

 

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

I am so super excited to have this little project finished.  I bought these wood peg people about  a month ago from here.  The only ones I could find in the craft store were too small for my two year old, so I got online and found some that were 3 1/2 inches tall.  They ended up being the perfect size.

Anyways, so our new show around here is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or as my son calls it, "turtles".  When I first bought the wood peg people my intention was to make them all into superheroes like Spiderman and Superman (I'm sure you've seen hundreds of them around blogland), but while watching the Turtles I got the idea to make 4 of them into the green ninjas.

Are they cute or what?  I haven't seen any like these anywhere else so I just watched the cartoon to figure out the details to each turtle and used acrylic paint and paint pens.

 

 

Grant has bugged me to death since I painted them green and started painting their masks.  He immediately recognized them as the Ninja Turtles and wanted to play with them.

 

 

 

My intention was to give these to Grant in his Easter basket but he was so excited seeing me work on them, I just couldn't put them away and not let him play.

 

So I guess I'll have to find something else to fill his easter basket.