Felt Batman/Spiderman Dress Up & 2 Matching Peg Dolls

Grant is still having fun wearing his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume and it made me think I should make him a couple more to change things up every now and then.  He is just starting to recognize super heroes.  He runs around at times saying "Mama, I a superhero". 

He can always point out Spiderman so I knew he would be on my list to make, and I also chose Batman because I thought it would be simple and quick to sew.  I made them both out of felt and made them the same way I made the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costumes.  The actual sewing of the pieces took less than a naptime (which for my son is all of an hour if I'm lucky).  So you could whip these up after your little  one goes to bed if you're wanting to add to their dress up collection.

I made the masks using the patterns from this site.  I made 2 identical ones and sewed them together for durability.  For the Spiderman mask I hand embroidered the web details.  You could easily use black puff paint if you wanted to make it a little easier and less time consuming.  I also hand appliqued the Batman emblem using a blanket stitch, and embroidered the black webbing details on the front of the Spiderman costume.  Again, puff paint would make this easier and faster, I just have a thing for hand embroidering stuff.

After making the batman costume I realized I probably should have made it a dark grey instead of all black but this was more simple and Grant won't know the difference yet anyway.  There is no cape on the batman costume, at least not yet.  I didn't realize my black felt wasn't wide enough for the costume so it will be attached at a later date. 

I had some leftover wood peg dolls after making the Ninja Turtles earlier this year and decided to make a Spiderman and Batman doll to go with the costumes.  Grant, my niece, and the 2 year old I babysit still play with the Ninja Turtle peg people so I know they will be played with often.

I can't wait to see Grant running around as Batman and Spiderman on Christmas Day.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Cape for Sophie: A Christmas Gift

I have to take a moment and say how proud I am of myself for already having quite a few Christmas gifts bought and made than I think I ever have in the past.  Usually the handmade gifts are always being finished into the wee hours of Christmas morning.  I vowed to myself I would not be doing that this year since we will be out of town for part of the holiday & packing up extra sewing and crafting supplies is not an option.

Sophie and Grant love playing together and see each other every weekend.  I knew I wanted to make them both superhero capes this year and finished Grant's about a month ago.  I'm thrilled with how both of them turned out, especially since I didn't have a pattern to go by.

I made this cape using the same pattern I created with Grant's.  I made it using one of his large bibs and newspaper.  I traced the neck part of the bib and created an A shape.

 

For the "S" I printed the letter from a Word document in the size I needed, traced it onto the fabric, cut it out, backed it with head and bond and stitched it to the triangle shape.

 

I think I mentioned this when I posted about my son's cape but here's a note, make sure you clip the corners and all the curves to make the fabric not bunch up around the neck when you turn it right side out.  I learned this the hard way the first go round.

 

I'm so excited to see them running through the house Christmas morning with these capes.

Mr & Mrs Potato Head Costume

My original plan was to make my son a Popeye costume for Halloween.  I purchased the shirt and fabric for the sailor hat and muscles.  I cut & sewed the hat which didn't turn out at all like I wanted it to but I was gonna make it work, then cut and sewed what was supposed to be the muscles and realized I cut them out wrong.  I wasn't paying attention to what direction I layed the pattern on the knit fabric and there was no stretch to it so it hit the trash.  I hadn't bought enough fabric to try them again and decided I needed something a little simpler.

Enter, Mr Potato Head.  My son loves Toy Story and has since he was 3 months old... Yes you read that right, 3 months.  He used to lay on his play mat and sqeal and kick watching Toy Story on our little TV.  While watching it the other day I thought it would have made a quick, easy, and really cute costume for Grant.  When Popeye wasn't working I knew I had to go with Potato Head.

I free handed the body, eyes, mouth, nose, ears, and mustache and cut them out of felt.  After seeing how cute it turned out and realizing how simple it was to make I thought I had to make my niece, Sophie, a Mrs. Potato Head costume so they could match.

Here are what the face pieces look like:

 

If I was a really great blogger or a little more tech savvy I would have these attached to a PDF link so everyone could print them off.  Unfortunately I have no clue how to do that (wish so much that I did) so I uploaded them as pictures just so everyone could get the general idea,

 

 

In case you're wondering, yes I do know the above pattern is upside down, but with a nearly 2 year old by my side amazed by the noises my scanner/printer was making and wanting  to push every button on it, I was not about to attempt scanning it right side up.

 

To make the body I first did some measurements.  I measured from shoulder to shoulder, then from neck to how long I wanted to costume to be.  I made mine come to just above the knee.  I used a water soluble pen to make all the markings and the body shape, that way if I messed up I could easily erase my mistakes.

 

I cut the shoulder pieces of the body on the fold of the felt so I would'nt have to sew the front and back together at the shoulder.

 

 

Mrs. Potato Head's purse/treat bag:

 

 

I did not sew the front and back together at the sides because when I tried them on I realized they would be too constricting.  So instead I cut a piece of tan felt about 3 inches wide and 3 inches tall and stitched it on either side.

 

 

This made the costume very easy for the kids to run, play, and move around easily.

 

I didn't want to mess with buttons, elastic, or velcro on the back so I just made a 2 inch slit down the neck to make it easy to go over each of their heads and left it like that.  I really wanted these costumes to be as little fuss as possible for both me and the kids.

 

 

With 2 little ones running around both of these costumes only took me an afternoon (that's stopping and starting of course).  If the kiddos would have been asleep the whole time, or not so interested in what I was doing they probably would have taken a couple hours to complete which is pretty good considering I had to make the whole pattern myself.

 

I am so thrilled with how they turned out.  We took both Grant and my neice to Boo at the Zoo and they had a ball.  I heard a lot of people comment on how cute their costumes were.  Of course, knowing I made them, I was pretty proud of myself and my meager sewing capabilities haha.

Halloween Dress Up-Charlie Brown Costume

I had grand plans of a spectacular Halloween party full of games, movies, and of course all kinds of treats.  Needless to say, it didn't happen. 

After the baby shower at the end of September and 2 birthday parties for Grant, I was all partied out this year.  Maybe next year things wont be so busy.

The daycare Grant goes to had a little Halloween party and went trick or treating through the school classrooms.  Oh my they were so cute!  I had originally planned on making Grant a train conductor but spending $17 on the pair of bib overhauls I found at Target just didn't seem like the best idea right now.  My next thought as I was in Target wondering around their very tiny boys clothing section, was a skeleton made from a black sweatsuit.  I purchased the sweatsuit and white felt to make the bones and figured it was decided and I'd get it finished Saturday, well that didn't happen either.  I just wasn't feeling the costume and was not at all excited about it which meant I couldn't get the gumption to start the costume.  So as I was perusing the internet Saturday morning it came to me....Charlie Brown.  And it just so happens Grant looks a little like Charlie Brown, haha.

I found a yellow polo shirt at the Goodwill for $1.29 and black shorts on clearance at Walmart for $2.50.  I free handed the zig zag pattern onto notebook paper, then cut it out, pinned it to black felt, and cut.  I appliqued the felt onto the polo shirt but didn't use any heat n bond since I plan on removing the zig zag so he can wear the shirt to church.

Here is the little man on the run towards me.  I can't seem to get a decent picture anymore since he is on the go, all the time.

I think this was the easiest and most inexpensive costume idea I had, not to mention pretty darn cute!

I'm hoping next year there wont be so many parties around the same time so I will have more time to do his costume.