Easy last minuet costumes

We have been posting a lot of the costumes that we have been working on this year. Although they are SUPER AWESOME, sometimes you need an easy costume, or cheap/free costume, or a costume that you can throw together in 10 mins. We can do that too. In fact growing up, those are the only kind of costumes we ever really did. (Mom doesn't think costumes are as FUN as we do :) )

PIRATE COSTUME:

Almost EVEYONE has what they need to put together a pirate costume. Bandana for your head, you can do a button up shirt, a solid T or a stripped T. If you have an old T that is to big the the intended Pirate that would be best. Then you can cut it up a bit, make it look ragged. The the bottom and the sleeves like this:  VVVVVVVVV. Throw on a vest if you have one, and an adult belt over the shoulder is a nice touch. You can use regular pants or find some old shorts or sweat pants and cut them like the shirt. Tie a scarf or sash around the waist if you have one and BOOM you have a pirate. 

This is one I did when I was 12. Trick or treating was 10 minuets away and I had NO costume. Mom helped me put this together. 

BABY

 Baby footie PJ's stuffed with paper (or what ever you have on hand) A baby blanket pined around the back of my neck, and the baby "body" pinned to the blanket. We pinned the hands together and stuck a bottle in there. With one hand I held the baby up so it was sitting on something and not just dangling  and with the other hand I held out the diaper bag for my candy. This one got some GOOD laughs. :)

Any kind of Animal is SO easy. You don't have to buy a costume. I made little ears out of felt. (you can use Construction paper, craft foam or scraps of fabric too)

I cut out the shape and used my hot glue gun (tape, staples, or glue would also work) 

And I glued a little loop to go over a head band. 

 Add spots with colored duct tape, felt, craft foam, fabric, or draw on it the clothes with a sharpie. You can sew, glue, tape or pin the spots on.

 Lighten McQueen

I put this together for my 2 year old last year who LOVED Lightening, but didn't like costumes. I cut out the lightening bolt out of felt and sewed it on a red jacket. He still wears it. :)

Did we get your wheels turning?

Giveaway!

Hey DIY Project Crazy fans! We love doing costumes, but we want to hear from you! What kind of costumes are you needing help with. What would you like to see turned into a costume? Comment on this post with a costume idea you'd like to see and enter for your chance to win 2 pairs of handmade earrings. 14k gold plated or sterling silver backs. This giveaway is for non pierced ears too. You get to pick out of the earrings I have made and decide if you'd like clip on's or pierced. These make great gifts and aren't sold anywhere. I started making earrings because I couldn't find any cheap enough that I liked. Like everything else on this blog it was a DIY project. So get those comments flowing and enter for your chance to win 2 pairs of fantastic earrings! Those who follow the blog will get an extra two entries! Entries will end tomorrow morning at 11am. (valid for US residents only) ****Sorry for the mix up. I entered in the wrong ending day for Rafflecoptr. Im trying to fix it now and because of the mix up we will leave the contest open till tomorrow. wednesday)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Splatted Witch

Hilarious halloween decoration for your front yard. Start with 4 sticks of wood. Make 2 black for the arms, and paint 2 stripped for socks. You're going to need some long screws or nails to keep them sturdy on your tree. Then to keep it an all weather witch, use a black trash bag for the cape, and foam sheets for shoes and hair. Cut your shoes out and hair out. Just make the hair pointy so it sticks out of the bottom of your hat. Screw the shoes to the leg sticks and after your cape is up, nail your hair to the tree and the hat over top. A pair of rubber washing gloves stuffed with walmart sacks finish it off. And for that special touch, don't forget your stick witch broom. After the broom is made it takes a total of 3 minutes to put on your tree. If it's really windy tack down your hat, hair and cape so it covers your witch.

Homemade Witches Broom

A witches broom made from sticks in your backyard.

It's fall, that means windy days. Most of you probably have branches in your yard that have blown off your tree. So annoying to have so many branches in your yard. But I found a way to use those branches for halloween decorations. You'll need some sticks from your yard, and some floral wire, and hot glue wouldn't hurt either.

Break your branch into the same size pieces. Make two piles, one for smaller filler sticks, and one for the larger ones. Start with a wider straightish stick. Take some floral wire and wrap it around the end of one of you sticks from pile 2. Then attach to the bottom of your straight stick, and repeat. I must say this is VERY time consuming. But, it's a virtually free decoration. Once you have all your large sticks wrapped around, stick your smaller ones in as fillers. Then take a bendable twig (one that was fresh off the tree, or soaking wet works best) and wrap it around the sweeping part of your broom to give it the finishing touch. Hot glue wiggly pieces down and then set your broom where you will to give your house that spooky touch.

Also works great for a splatted tree witch.

Glove pattern

So I was going to make some cool gloves for the Darth Vader costume, that extend up the arm and have that little flare thing going on like Vader's gloves. I found this glove pattern on Google Image Search, and all I had to do differently was add the extended portion. 

So I cut them out this morning and then as I was starting to zig zag around the edges so the fabric I got wouldn't fray I remembered something. I HATE sewing TINY details. And to make these for a 3 year old, they are quite small...so I stopped  I'm going to opt for $.97 black knit gloves from Wal Mart. . But I thought I'd share the pattern any way. 

Remember the trick of saving the image to your computer, then zoom in or out till you get the size you want, then trace it off the screen. 

Captain America Shirt

Hooded Captain America Shirt.

Start by cutting out red and white strips of fabric (if you make them too wide, don't stress, just start over). Sew each strip of fabric in a red white red white pattern together.

Once they're sewn together, cut it into a mountain shape. Yeah you could go easy and make it straight...but it wouldn't look as much like the captain america in the movie. (but if the curve scares you, you can always skip this step.

 Now for the front of the shirt. Take a regular shirt that fits your kid and turn it inside out. Then lay it on your prefered fabric and fold in the sleeves so you can see the "outline" front piece. Cut your fabric around the shirt. (if it helps you can pin the shirt to the fabric like a pattern).

Now you lay your "mountain stripes" on the front of your cut out t shirt (remove the shirt you used as a pattern before this step), you can pin the stripes to the shirt to make them sit still, then cut off the bottom of your shirt to replace with the stripes. Now you just have to fold them together and sew them. EASY....maybe.

UH OH! The pieces don't just SEW together....hum. that takes some thinking..... Pin the middle of your stripes to the middle of your shirt. Now we can flip it over and work our way out.

Now pin the mountain corners . Tuck your blue fabric, but try not to make it tucked where you pin. you want this to look pretty much flat so just pull it tight while you pin it to the edges.

 Once the edges are pinned, sew carefully around your "mountain" taking out pins as you go. Go slow and turn your fabric as needed, and pull extra fabric away from the seams to keep it from puckering. If you're using an old t shirt you can skip this next part, but I used a sheet.....sheets unravel a lot, and quickly. So after you sew it, do a zigzag stitch on the edge to keep it from falling apart.

Now unfold it. WOW! that looks like the front of captain america's shirt....aren't you impressed?

Now take the shirt you were using for a pattern and put it on your blue fabric again. Fold the sleeves in again and cut out around it to make the back of your shirt. This time you don't have to cut off the bottom for the stripes. Now, put the outside of the pieces together so the seams will be on the inside of the shirt. Sew the shoulders together, and also sew just the straight part of the sides. **don't forget to back stitch at the beginning and the end of each seam** Now if using a fabric that unravels, do your zigzag stitch on the edges.    You should now have a sleeveless shirt when you turn it right side out. 

Next we make a hood (you can find instructions for that here) or you can skip. But in the movie...Captain America has a mask AND a hood underneath it. Just be sure if you skip the hood to zigzag/finish your edges on your neck hole. Have your child try on the shirt and the hood at the same time, mark with chalk, or straight pins (if your careful) where the shirt and the hood meet up on your child.

Once your hood is made turn it right side out. Turn your sleeveless shirt inside out.  Now, find the middle of the back of your hood by laying it flat, mark the middle with a straight pin. Find the middle of the back of your shirt as well (just fold it in half) and mark JUST THE BACK of the shirt with a straight pin. Then do the middle of the front of your shirt with another. Don't pin anything but your ONE piece of fabric that you're finding the middle of. Now, put your right side out hood upside down, in your inside out shirt, so the neck parts will sit together. Using your pins as a marker, pin the middle of the back of your hood to the middle of the back of your shirt. (Make sure you stay on your chalk/pinned line that you made earlier.) Pin your way around to the front making sure the middle of the front of the hood, meets up with the middle of the front of your shirt.

Picture of the hood and shirt sewn together.

Sew them together being careful not to sew on top of any other part of your shirt. Make your zigzag stitch around the edges to keep it from unraveling. Now turn it inside out and have your kid try it on. At this point...I was kind of regretting not using a fabric that stretched. My son couldn't get his head in his shirt, so I had to cut a line down the middle until he could fit through. Once I had the front cut I zigzaged the edges. I didn't bother turning in the raw edges. It's a costume, and looked fine with just a zigzag.

Sleeveless Hooded shirt. Now I was sad cause where the Captain America star is supposed to go, there is a great big slit. It's ok, I found a way to make it look right . But first, lets put the sleeves on the shirt.

If your pattern shirt has long sleeves just fold your fabric in half and put your sleeve on the fabric. Make sure you have the fold of your fabric where the fold of your sleeve is. Then cut it out. When you unfold your sleeve it should look like this. You will need two of these. If you don't have long sleeves on your "pattern shirt" no sweat. Just measure the length of your child's arm (from top of shoulder to wrist) and add a little extra for a seam allowance. 

Now my fabric had a soft side and a shinier side. I wanted the soft side on the inside. So make sure you always sew with you inside (the soft side) facing you. (unless told otherwise). Fold your sleeve in half with the soft side out, and sew up the long part of the arm. Make your zigzag stitch, then do the same to the other sleeve. **Don't forget to back stitch at the beginning and end of each seam** Turn your sleeves right side out. and once again, turn your shirt inside out. Pin the top of your sleeve to the top of the arm hole and work your way around. I would pin under the armpit last just in case you have to fold over the fabric to make it fit.

Sleeves sewed on. Inside out view.

Sew your arms on, being careful once again to keep the rest of your shirt out from under the presser foot. Do your zigzag stitch and turn the whole shirt right side out. It should be looking pretty awesome by now. Go ahead and finish off your sleeve edges and the bottom of your shirt with a zigzag stitch. Now for the star on the front.

Cut a star out of foam (or your fabric if you want, just make sure you finish the edges) and glue some velcro to the back. Sew on two squares of velcro on either side of your cut front of your shirt. (I just used velcro with adhesive on it, but beware when you sew it on with the adhesive it makes your needle sticky and might seize up your sewing machine) 

Now, velcro the star over top of your seam and TADA! Captain America at his finest.

I added an extra strip of blue fabric to the end of my sons shirt so it wouldn't com untucked while he was playing. Helps out tremendously.

Arrow Quiver from a Purse

Making a quiver out of an old purse.

First I started with a tube style purse like this. (thrift store $2)

Then I cut off the handles and take a sharpie marker to the pink stitching. (the inside was pink as well, so I turned the purse inside out and used black spray paint so my son wouldn't freak out about having a pink arrow holder)

Then I thieve the shoulder strap off an old duffle bag I got from the thrift store for 99 cents. If you want, find a duffle bag with an adjustable strap and sew that onto your quiver so it'll grow with your kid. **When cutting strapping make sure you melt the raw edges with a lighter so they don't come unraveled**

Attach the strap (so the strap falls off the bottom) first to the purse. Open the main zipper and lay the purse flat while using your sewing machine so you don't sew both sides together. 

What the inside of the newly sewn on strap looks like.

Then sew on the other end of the strap. You want your quiver to be straight up and down on your back so sew the next part of your strap on so the strap goes off the side of the purse. At this point I have cut a hole on the same side of the purse for the arrows to go in.

Now, if you want it to be a little more ridged you add a hard foam to the base and to the. top of the quiver. This is from a foam target. Roll it as tight as you can get it. Then stuff it in the bottom of your quiver. Hot glue will keep it in place but the bottom doesn't really need it.

Picture of the inside of the quiver with foam in it. Now do the same only add it to the top.

(I apologies for the lighting, I took this with a phone camera) The top foam will hold better if you glue it to the edges of the purse. I also found that if you have enough foam making a cinnamon roll shape for the top and then poking the arrows in between the foam will keep them standing upright.

You now have a place for those arrows to sit while you practice your archery.