Halloween time was a whirlwind of a time in The Stronghold. The
weekend before, we took our first airplane trip to South Carolina for my
brother's wedding- more details of that adventure to come. So needless
to say I was very behind on making our Halloween costumes this year. All
my life I have worn homemade costumes- not once- ever, have I worn a
store bought, packaged in plastic, made of paper thin polyester costume.
It just worked out that way. It was our family tradition as a kid to
head over to the fabric store and flip through the pattern books to
choose the perfect get-up and then pick out the fabric. My mom is a
wonderful seamstress and passed on that sewing to me, though I'm not as
skilled as she.Anyways, mix this with my type-A attention to detail in costumes and throwing something together the night before isn't easy, but I made it work. We'd planned on dressing up the toddler (!!!!!) as Jessie from Toy Story. I had several of the parts of the costume, but when we got back from Charleston it was my job to put it all together. Since our flight was delayed getting home I had 1 less day to do this. The costume still came out great. Below is what you'll need if you're so inclined to dress up you little one as a cowgirl or cowboy next year.
We kept our Halloween night SUPER simple this year. We had homemade pizza (thanks to my MIL) and Mummie Dogs (thanks mom) and witches fingers for dessert. There aren't many trick-or-treaters in my in-laws neighborhood so it was a pretty quiet evening. Ok- actually there were I think only 4 kids ALL NIGHT!!! So pretty much we just sat around the fire pit and watched our little Jessie run around "Yee-Ha-ing!" It was actually very refreshing to veg out after our big trip and after a wild day with my 3rd graders at school. Sometimes- no, a lot of times- less is more.
Here comes November!!!!!!
Cowboy boots
Cheap pair of jeans
Long-sleeve white collared shirt (I used a boy's onesie)
Brown belt- attach a big western belt buckle to it for added cuteness
Jessie Hat (we bought our at Disneyland)
1/2 yard of yellow cotton fabric
1/4 yard (maybe more if your child is bigger) cow print fabric
red roping
fabric glue
1 package Heat n Bond Iron-on adhesive/ fusible interfacing
Peal/silver western style buttons 4-6 *optional for the detail freak ;)
2s sheets of newspaper to make your patterns
Iron on Velcro dots or strip that you'll cut into 1/2" squares
Red marker, fabric chalk or pencil
I always wash & press cotton fabric before I sew it. So I did this a head of time.
**I didn't want to have to sew hem/seams to prevent fraying because honestly I didn't have time. You totally could do this, but I think the way I did it was much faster and it came out perfect. (If you were going to use this as dress up and needed to wash it many times though taking the time to cut out the pattern and then hem the edges of the yellow fabric may be worth it.) For Halloween it wasn't worth it to me.
1. Cut the yellow fabric in half. You're going to fuse these two pieces together to make a nice crisp, but flexible piece to cut the pattern from. To do this just cut a piece of the Heat n Bond to the size of the half. Follow the directions on the package for ironing temps/times. Peel off the paper backing and then place the other half and fuse them together by ironing again. *Now when you cut the fabric won't fray! :) Side note: before you fuse the fabric do a rough check on how big you'll actually need it to be for your child. I was able to cut the shirt piece and the two cuffs from doing it this way, but I have a little bitty 18 month old... I trimmed out the pieces in rough squares so I didn't need to fuse more than I'd use. Make sense? I hope so!
Making the Shirt:
1. Take one piece of newspaper and fold it in half. Hang the white shirt on a hanger and poke a hole in the center of the newspaper (on the fold) to poke the hanger through. Trim the news paper so the edges go just to the shoulder seam on the shirt and so that it goes down the front and back just to below the arm pits (a little farther down in the front than the back since you'll be trimming more off the front to shape it.). Also mark how wide the neck hole needs to be.
2. Take the newspaper off and use a pen/pencil to outline the front edge of the yellow piece for the shirt. It kind of makes two shallow arches. I just did my best at eye-balling it. The points should end up where a pocket would be on the shirt.
3. Pin the newspaper to the yellow fabric (the pieces you fused together already) and cut along the lines you drew and the edges of the newspaper (where you trimmed it up to fit the shoulders). Remove the paper and cut out a neck hole. **You will need to make the neck hole bigger by cutting a slit down the back- just see how big of one you need for your kiddo's noggin' before cutting. Big heads gallop in our family! Give it a test by hanging it back over the shirt to see how it fits- trim accordingly.
4. Cut out, from the scraps of this, 2 rectangles approx. 2"x 8" for the cuffs (again if you're not sure on the sizing make a test run with the newspaper to assure a good fit). Sew on 1 button onto the end of each and cut a small button hole. *Be sure to fit this to your child's wrist before cutting the button hole so you can size it correctly. I also glued on a small piece of felt I'd cut to look like fringe. (Details people!) Use a red permanent marker to draw the loops on the cuffs. I guess you could use roping here too, but since our cuffs were so small the roping was a bit to bulky.
5. Use the iron on Velcro dots or cut pieces and apply them to the corners & middle of the yellow piece so it attaches to the white shirt. Iron the other part of the Velcro onto the shirt. I did this on the front and the back. I also added a piece where the slit is on the backside so it would stay closed after putting the thing over her head.
6. With the yellow fabric removed from the white shirt, use fabric chalk or a yellow highlighter to draw on where you'll glue the red roping. If you're awesome you can just wing it- I'm not. (Actually my hubby did this part, and it was a good call since he is also a perfectionist.) Then glue on the red roping in the same looping way as it is on Jessie's shirt. This will need to dry for several hours- over night is best.
7. **Optional Detail: If your shirt has buttons, remove the 2 that will show once the shirt is tucked in and the yellow fabric is in place. Attach the cute pearly buttons in their place.
Making the Pants/Chaps: (this is the easiest part and only take about 5 minutes)
1. Lay the cow print fabric out flat on the cutting board and then lay the jeans on top. Use fabric chalk or a pencil to make an outline of just the pant legs. The chaps will start just at about the same level at the crotch of the jeans and be the same length as the pant legs. Round the the corners on the bottoms. 2. Cut out the chaps. Cut out 2 small pieces of felt to make the fringe- glue onto the backside of the chaps on the outer edge.
3. Cut out two pieces of Heat N Bond the same width as the top of the chaps and about 3" long. Iron each piece onto the top edge of the chaps. Remove the paper baking and place the chaps onto the jeans where you want them to be. Iron the part that has the Heat N Bond on it. BAM! Jeans with chaps!
Sorry if my directions are a little vague and not with exact measurements. I hope you can follow them if you're looking for a way to make an adorable Jessie costume. It seriously was so fun to watch our daughter love wearing her costume. It was comfortable for her to wear and cheap to make (especially if you have some of the sewing materials laying around and if you buy the shirt/onsie, belt and jeans at a thrift store)
Happy creating!
Pin It Now!
