Taking a break from the upholstery project to talk about Kyrie’s first Halloween costume! So so so excited!!

One of my favorite holidays has always been Halloween because I’ve always LOVED playing dress-up. What made it extra special growing up was that my mom made special costumes for us each year. We could be anything we wanted and she would create something wonderful for each of us. To this day, I’m not sure how she did it for three kids, but I’m sure it took many sleepless nights to make sure we were all taken care of. Some of my favorite costumes included a little lady bug, Raggedy Ann, a butterfly, a fairy princess, magician… Seriously, a little girl’s fantasy every Halloween. Thanks Mom!

I cherish those special memories. Now being a Mom myself, I decided that I wanted to continue this special feeling for my Kyrie. I want my little girl to enjoy the world of imagination and possibilities. I want to make memories that will last a lifetime!

Sooo, Kyrie is going to be Boo from Disney’s Monsters, Inc. I thought it would be perfect because she looks like a cute little Boo and Ryan would be a perfect Sulley (we’ll see if that happens). Also, since she won’t actually be trick-or-treating, I thought the little monster costume would keep her warm as we carry her around with her cousins.

I didn’t find too much online to help, and definitely no pattern, so I had to dream it up myself. Let me just preface this by saying, I am no great seamstress. I am largely self-taught and have learned by trial and a whole LOT of error. If you are a master seamstress, please don’t judge too harshly, there probably is a better way, but here’s how I did it…

The Plan:

Note: I ended up using 4 layers of batting for the body and 1 layer for the hood and bottom.

The Materials:

Note: Velcro and pipe stem cleaners are not pictured.

Cutting Out:

Cutting out the pieces. You can see the measurements and amounts I used on my plan above. Not an exact science, I just measured Kyrie and added in extra space for seam allowances, the bulk of the batting, and Boo’s costume isn’t snug in the movie, so she needs some comfy wiggle room. That’s how I came up with my sizing. She’s wearing 3 month clothes if that gives some perspective. I also decided that because my exterior purple fabric is a flimsy stretch fabric, I would iron on interfacing to give it some structure. Depending on what fabric you use, you may or may not need to do this too. For the arm holes, I went about 1.5″ from the top edge and used one of her shirts to determine the shape/size.

One final note, I realized after I had cut out my fabric, that I didn’t need to have two pieces for the back of the costume (I’ll explain later) so save yourself some trouble and just cut out two of the big piece.

We’ll talk construction next time, read it here.

–h