My nephew had just woken up from a nap, a groggy little just-turned-2 year old. He walked into the living room, his face brightened up, and he exclaimed “Gekko!”

It was my favorite moment from Halloween last year. What he didn’t know when he woke was that his cousins were already in the other room getting into their Halloween costumes. :)

Now seems like good a time as any to share these… they were last year’s costumes but it’s almost that time of year again and I’ve been brainstorming lately what to do for this year. PJ Masks were absolutely perfect for them last year… three little ones, two boys, one girl… popular, but not overdone, and they all love the show.

Gaaa! And just look at them… how cute are they!?

Pattern used: Jalie 3135 Skinsuits

I thought about doing leggings and tops, etc. from patterns I already had, but this just seemed to be a better match to the characters. I’ve only used one other Jalie pattern thus far (see here), but I said it then and I’ll say it again, I really love their concise instructions and HUGE size range (this one has 22 sizes included and some have even more!). If I decide to make myself a wetsuit or that Black Widow costume I’ve been imagining someday, I’ll be able to use this same pattern. Plus, I imagine it’s great if sewing for families to get those “mommy and me” outfits you see so often these days without buying two separate patterns. I promise, I’m in no way sponsored by Jalie… :) I just like the concept.

The main color fabrics and zippers were all from Fashion Fabrics Club. Sometimes it’s so hard ordering online… I found a lot of the fabric descriptions on their website so close, it was hard to tell if they would be the same type of fabric or not, since I wanted them to coordinate as much as possible. But, it was the only website where I could find the colors I needed, with matching zippers long enough, so I went for it.

The red (which looks a little more pink in the photos) and blue, both of which are no longer listed as available, came as the same fabric type. They were slightly less expensive but better quality, in my opinion, than the green. All three were double knit/ponte, but I ended up having to line the green because it had a looser weave and less stretch than the other two (which also meant sizing up).

The accent colors were all random fabrics from my stash (the blue from my Grandma stash, the green originally from Mood fabrics, also used here, and the pink from Cali Fabrics, not used for anything else yet).

The costumes actually came together pretty easily, it was just planning out all of the little details that took a little more thought…

First Up… CATBOY!

 

CATBOY details include:

• Tail
• Stripes
• Ears

For the tail, I just cut one long piece, rounded at the end and larger at the base –> sewed on stripes –> sewed it together along the long edge, right/stripe sides together –> turned it right side out –> filled it with scrap fabric –> and sewed it into the main seam in the back of the pattern.

The stripes were all cut freehand (this is not a time to get picky, people… or at least that’s what I told myself) :) from the light blue, pinned, then attached with a single straight stitch around each edge. Much easier to attach before you sew the pieces together, although I found it a little difficult to get them lined up right, apparently, because a few edges ended up in the seams.

The ears I made from two triangles of fabric sewn together, then hand stitched to the hood (at a slight angle so that they would stand up straight… these went a lot smoother than the antlers I tried to hand sew onto a hood the year before) :)

Next up… OWLETTE!

 

OWLETTE details include:

• Side stripe
• Wings

It’s hard to see in some of the pictures, but Owlette has a pink stripe all along the side of her outfit from the sleeve to the leg. For this, I just used a folded over strip of the light pink and added it to the side seam of the pattern like you would do for flat piping.

The wings were a hot mess but I think they turned out really well in the end. :) I had my cousin measure her arm length, wrist to wrist, and cut the main piece off of that, making the actual wings slightly longer than that measurement. Then I placed a piece of paper over that shape (I use THIS medical/tracing paper), traced where the “feathers” should go, numbered each piece, and cut them out. I then cut two pieces of each numbered “feather” – one in the light pink, and one in fusible web (I use Pellon Wonder Under) and ironed them on to the main piece. If I’d had more time, I would’ve added an extra stitch around the edges of each piece, but this worked for the one time it’d be worn :) Lastly, I added knit “bias tape” along the top edge that I looped at the ends for her wrists and sewed only the middle section into the seam where the hood attached.

See a picture of the process HERE. :)

Last but not least… GEKKO!

  

GEKKO details include:

• Tail
• Head spikes/scales(?)
• Skin scales
• Knee and elbow pads

The tail was made the same way as Catboy’s tail with a slightly different shape and no stripes. If you’re looking for ways to use up scrap fabric, make something with a tail! It’s a great use for it… :)

For the head spikes/scales (what would you call those… the word is not coming to mind!) I made them the same way as Catboy’s ears, except a half-circle shape and I cut the middle piece of the hood in two to make a seam down the middle and sewed them right into the seam.

As mentioned above, the green fabric was too see-through so I had to line it. For the lining I just cut two pieces of everything and acted as if they were one piece of fabric as I sewed. This unfortunately made his a lot warmer than the others (probably warmer than needed, but it ended up rainy and cold on Halloween, so at least he was extra warm) :)

For the skin scales, if I’d had a million extra hours in my day, I would have “quilted” the whole thing, but just to get a little of the effect, I added extra square/diamond stitching to the hood and mask before sewing it all together.

For each knee and elbow, I cut two pieces, sewed them together, turned them inside out and hand stitched them on.

For each chest symbol, I debated doing half of the symbol on each side of the zipper but ultimately didn’t want to break it up, so I added little strips of velcro on either side of the front and the symbols so they could be easily removed when getting the costume on and off. I made them by printing the symbols and tracing them onto fabric and fusible web the same way as the wings, but added a line of stitching around each piece.

Ha! Look how far off my zipper/seams are where the hood attaches… ↑ not sure what happened there!

For the masks, I used these printable masks as a template for sizing, and customized them to match the characters. I used the same iron-on fusible web as for the wings and symbols. They turned out way too big, but the kids seemed to like them anyway. I was expecting them to pull them off right away, but they actually gladly kept them on all evening (even though I’m sure they couldn’t see very well lol).

So, do you know what you’re going to be for Halloween this year?? I’m debating between Princess Buttercup or Giselle from Enchanted for myself, but that’s only if I get super motivated, and it’ll depend on our work theme this year. Last year I was so busy with the kids’ costumes that I had to pull together a last minute one for myself. :)

Until next time,