Costumes

I HAVE been sewing...but haven't had time to talk about it!

For Halloween, my 7y0 grandson wanted to be Pouncer, the mascot for the University of Memphis, and asked me if I would make his costume. How could I say NO? I wasn't sure I could pull this off...then decided, what the heck, it doesn't have to be official or anything...this is a costume that will be worn for 2 hours!





I looked around and eventually found A tiger print fabric at JoAnn's. It was 100% polyester, kind of a suede cloth...no stretch.






DD gave me a pair of his pjs to use to make the pattern...I cloned them using examining table paper.





To make the tiger had, I used the RAIN HAT from Wild Things.
This is a free program.

I made the ears by sandwiching a couple of U shaped pieces of fabric together, along with a piece of polar fleece as the 'batting' to give it body. I sewed around the U and turned it right sides out. Then I pinched the bottom edges and sewed the ears to the hat by creating a pleat in the hat...the ears were just inserted into the pleat/tuck.


I layed out the shirt pattern so that he'd have that dark chevron stripe down the center of his back.

This stripe continued on the tail.






I put a fake fly in the pants...just because!









At try-on, the fit was really good. The only thing I needed to adjust was the hat, which was overall kinda big! I took a big dart out at the of neck edge at the center back seam AND folded the front edge under another inch or so, tapering to nothing before the snap under his chin (this is pinned in these pictures).






Then it was up to his parents to do the makeup! Once finished, he became a more-fierce version of Pouncer! Notice the fighting stance!

The tail was a fabric tube filled with rice. I sewed a wide fabric loop on its upper end, and ran a strip of selvage through the loop, to tie around his waist. I was afraid that if I fastened it to his pants, they would pull down, and if I fastened it to the shirt, it would ride back and choke him. Hanging it around his waist worked well, but I could have made the loop a little shorter.

He LOVED the tail. Swinging his bum back and forth...you know.


Crounching tiger, hidden candy?





Costumes are kinda fun to make...I have made him costumes for a couple of previous Halloweens, but not every year!




In 2006, I made him a Superman costume. He loved it! This was from stretch fabric (except the cape).




My daughter is a graphic designer and she created the Superman logo pattern for me, as she had done in 2005 when I made him an Incredibles costume.





He loves these costumes and wore them until they were way too small on him. He is getting big now, and won't want me to make costumes for him for too many more years!