making the boys' halloween costumes

I know Halloween is a thing of the past, but I wanted to post about making the boys' costumes before I completely forget. I hardly ever get to sew for the boys, so Halloween is a nice excuse. Hank is getting big enough that he will fit in Jed's old costumes now, so this may have been the last year I needed to sew for both of them for a while. In a way that makes me sad, but also grateful. Hank's costume was a bear this year, as you'll see.

When we lived in Texas, I really enjoyed the ease of being able to just plan a costume, not how to keep warm under a costume and how to make it work with a coat. I certainly don't have that luxury here in Michigan! This year I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and get the boys some warm layers for playing outside during the winter, but also have enough room to underneath their costumes so hopefully we wouldn't have to bundle too much on top. Old Navy happened to be having their kids clearance, so I was able to score some perfect things without breaking the bank. I found thick black leggings for Jed and white fleece leggings for Hank, both from the girls department. And I got Jed a long-sleeved black t-shirt that should fit for a while, and a roomy long-sleeved waffle-weave shirt for Hank.

I started on Jed's costume first because it was the easier of the two. I cut black fabric into rectangles about 6 inches wide and 30 inches long.

  I folded and sewed them into tubes that were about 3 by 15 inches

Then I ironed them flat

 And stuffed them with batting to make them nice and full. I sewed the ends closed to keep the batting from poofing everywhere.

 It's almost impossible to see in this picture, but I connected the legs with fishing line in two places and then sewed a loop to the top of the top leg so Jed's arm could go through. That way the new legs would move when Jed moved his arms.

 Then I simply pinned the legs to the inside of the black t-shirt along the seam.

 Ugh, this looks a little messy, but you get the idea. It was a quick costume, and I really like that the legs come off so that we can reuse them for future Halloweens, and so that Jed can use his layers now.

After the easy spider costume was done, I started on Hank's more difficult mummy costume. At first I thought about just tacking the strips of muslin lightly to the leggings and shirt, but I thought better of that, because he is an active boy and I figured the muslin would probably rip off. Next I thought of hot glue, but it isn't very stretchy, and the fleece leggings were pretty tight on his legs, so I needed plenty of stretch.

 Finally I faced reality and decided I was going to have to sew the muslin strips by hand to the shirt and the leggings. I put my rolling pin inside the legs and arms of the clothes as I sewed, to give me something solid to stretch the cloth against as I sewed.

 I settled down to watch Gilmore Girls on Netflix and sewed and sewed and sewed. It took me about 15 hours to do both the pants and the shirt.

 It was so much work. I cannot even convey how much work it was. My thumbs and forefingers were basically raw when I was done. But they turned out SO cute.

 the front of the pants

 

and the back

 I don't know what is up with my computer and why I can't rotate these photos. Argh! Anyway, just tilt your head and look that way, I guess. Above is the front of the shirt, and below is the back.

 I think the thing that really put the costume over the top was all the extra strips I tacked onto the shirt and pants after the wrapping was done. I am so pleased with the way they looked when I was finally finished. It was so much work that I will not be taking the strips off, so we have a mummy costume forever now. I am actually okay with that--Hank can use his pj bottoms for warm layers, and I had decided to use a different shirt for the mummy costume at the last minute, so the waffle-weave shirt is still available for layering. 

The boys were SO cute in their costumes! Jed was thrilled to be a spider, and after Dave wrassled Hank into his costume, he was pretty pleased too. We got lots of complements on their costumes while we were trick-or-treating at the hotel.