Materials:
Step 1: Cut 10 small triangles out of orange felt and attach to the fingers of the gloves using hot glue. Cut small triangle out of the white felt and attach along the rim of the sweatshirt’s hood using hot glue.
Step 2: Take plates in pairs of two and glue them together back-to-back. Fold the bottom edge of both plates outward to create a base and attach the plates along the spine of the hoodie sweatshirt using hot glue. Continue until there is a full line of plates down the spine of the sweatshirt.
Step 3: Cut one leg off of tights leaving a little extra material to tie off. Stuff stuffing down tights until completely firm. Use elastic band to tie the end closed leaving enough elastic to tie around child’s waist. Following the same steps from step 2, make tail plates and attach along the top of the tail using hot glue. Cut triangles out of the plates to make spikes for the end of the tail.
Step 4: Dress child in sweatpants and hoodie sweatshirt. Tie the extra tail elastic around the child’s waist and tuck under the sweatshirt. Add the gloves and you’ve got a fierce candyvore!
If you’ve ever read any of my other blogs, it will be no surprise that my oldest boy wants to be a dinosaur for Halloween. So, I created a stegosaurus costume and will try to explain (as best I can remember) how I engineered it and put it all together. {NOTE: I’m sure there are much better ways to do some of the things I did, but either resources were limited, or just my knowledge… so please bear with me!}
What you (may) need:
-Solid colored, zip-front, hooded sweatshirt and matching pants
-Extra wide, double fold BIAS tape, to match
-Solid colored fabric to match (about 1.5 yards?)
-Contrasting or printed fabric for the plates and spikes (about 1 yard, or depending on the size of your plates)
-Velcro to match solid color (sew-on kind)
-Buttons (2 to match)
-1/4 inch foam (about 3/4 yard, depending on size of plates)
-Yarn to match plates
-Stuffing (shredded foam, poly-fill, pack peanuts – whatever!! Keep it light if you can!)
You’ll need a sewing machine, scissors, pins and an upholstery needle.
I started with a 4T hooded sweatshirt and used blue poly fleece (that I had) for the tail. When we went searching for the plate fabric, I stumbled upon a great Batik print that was exactly in the shape of plates! This sort of dictated the size I made the plates, too. The large plates are about 8 inches tall, and I scaled down for some smaller ones that went near the head and tail ends. I used 18 plates and 3 spikes, total. I made the tail about 2 feet long. As you can see in the photos, it touches the ground. However I need to mention that the sweatshirt is large on my son, so on a bigger kid, the same sizing may not hit the ground. {EDIT: Since I made this costume, I have made two shark costumes, also with tails, and figured out a better method for keeping the tails up. Basically, you create an internal belt that attaches (tacking about an inch or two with the sewing machine, or by hand, but make it sturdy!) from the inside of the sweatshirt base, through to the top of the tail. Tie this “belt” around your child’s waist snuggly before zipping them up. I used a grosgrain ribbon and a cotton bias tape on the different costumes this year. Just don’t use something slippery. Happy to say this Stego costume is getting worn this year by my younger son and my older son is happily a Hammerhead shark again for the third year!! – LS} Read the rest of this entry »
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