-Crystal-
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Hi everybody! I guess I should start by introducing myself. I'm Paige, and I'm the blogger behind Cautiously Crafty, my relatively new craft blog. I've got a darling daughter who is 4 years old. Anyway, I'm here today to share with you several costumes I made using the Heidi & Finn Urban Unisex Hoodie. I've used this pattern for costumes for the past two years, for a grand total of 4 different costumes. My first venture into costume making was two years ago. I made dog and cat costumes.
Please excuse the shoddy pictures in this blog post, these were not taken with blogging in mind. I make no claims of being a photographer, but I promise the ones I share are usually at least marginally better than these.Both are basically the same, just in different colors.
First I sewed up the hoodies following the pattern, except I left off the button closures, and because I made them with fleece, I did not do a lining. The tummy panels are felt from Joann's that I (sloppily) hand sewed on.
The ears are two layers of felt sewn together, with the the inner ear color attached on top. I drew them freehand, pointy for the kitty and rounded for the puppy. Unfortunately you can't tell in this picture, but I folded down the edge of one of puppy ears for that cute floppy look.
Attaching them was a bit tricky. When I drew them, I drew them a bit longer than I wanted, and I did not sew together the bottom 1/2 inch or so. I cut slits in the top of the hood to insert the ears into, then opened the loose flaps and sewed them down to the hood. I'm sure there are way better ways to do this, but this way worked for some quickie costumes for my girl and her friend.
(The tails were done the same way as Boots' tail, detailed below)
Now for Dora and Boots!
I'll start with Dora. Super simple. Made the hoodie in pink fleece, and made some orange pants to go with it. And of course, Dora isn't Dora without BackPack! I can't take credit for BackPack though, I followed this tutorial to make her. (I totally just had to google to make sure BackPack was a girl. Surprisingly enough, if you type "Is backpack" into google, one of the suggestions that pops up actually is "Is backpack a girl", so at least I'm not alone in my wondering.)
Boots was a little more labor intensive, but not hard at all.
Tummy panel was done the same way as the cat and dog, except this time I was brave enough to sew it on using my sewing machine. The boots were originally pink sequined boots that cost $10 at Wal-mart, I just slapped a couple coats of red spray paint on them. The hood was again constructed the same was as the cat and dog hoods, cutting slits in the hood and inserting the ears and waddle. That's what I'm calling it, because I haven't the slightest idea what it actually is or what it should be, and to me it looks like a turkey waddle. The waddle was drawn freehand (and trust me, if I can do it anybody can, I am not in the least bit an artist), and loosely stuffed with random fabric scraps to keep it from flopping. Nobody likes a floppy waddle.
For the tail, I sewed a tube of fabric and then slipped it over a long piece of thick jewelry wire. I used the thickest wire available at the craft store, which I think was a 14 gauge. I then cut another slit right where the bottom band attaches to the body of the hoodie, and inserted the tail and hand sewed in. I opted not to use my machine because of the wire. Shape the tail as desired and you're done!
In case you're doubting my claim that these were super easy, I made 4 of them (2 Doras and 2 Boots, one set was sent to my niece and nephew) in less than two weeks, in between going to school full time and chasing my kid around.
So there ya go, 4 different costumes from 1 pattern. I'm breaking the streak this year though, unfortunately I don't think I can transform the hoodie into Mario, Luigi, or Princess Belle. If you're interested in seeing my versions of those, hop on over to Cautiously Crafty sometime after Halloween. In the meantime, feel free to check out my tutorial for making the Urban Unisex hoodie reversible. I hope you've enjoyed the post and have some awesome DIY costumes in your future!
-Paige
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