Bulbasaur Costume for Children In Need

"As its Children in need on Friday we are giving you the opportunity to send your child into school dressed up as a character from a children's TV show!"

DUH DUH DUHHHHHH! 

Okay so here's the deal, Lil man is not a fan of kids TV [something I thank Jesus for everyday because I cannot cope with Topsy and Tim or Peppa pig]. Instead he chooses to either watch Disney movies [which I LOVE]  or he's a huge fan of sports shows like football and golf and of course for some strange reason he loves only fools and horses! Which left me in a bit of a pickle because what on earth do I send him as? Del boy? A football pundit? I mean the brief said KIDS tv!

Luckily I remembered that a few weeks ago him and Rikki binge watched the first few seasons of Pokemon and he really enjoyed it. We did try and find a ready made costume but the only ones we could find either cost upwards of  £20 or wouldn't arrive till December. So it looked like it was done to me to try and whip something up!

So I had a quick look through my fabric cupboard and found a piece of jersey that's roughly the right colour for Bulbasaur. And set about trying to make something [I started two days before he actually needed the costume because I'm a maverick like that!] 

And to make matters even harder the school had added their own list of specifications! 

1. Children must wear suitable footwear.

2. The costume must be comfortable to wear all day.

3. The child must be able to remove the costume themselves if they need the toilet/have PE

4. The costume must be warm and all children should still arrive at school with a coat! 

No pressure then!

I decided the easiest thing to do would be to send him in jeans [I added a few patches/scales to these] and to make him a simple hoody he could wear over a tshirt and to make the bulb part as a rucksack he could take on and off himself.

The rucksack/bulb is a ball of stuffing covered in "leaves" made from some green fabric I had. The leaves are lined in a salmon colour because that's the colour of the flower Bulbasaur has when he evolves [Pokemon evolve as they get bigger, its like the whole thing in the TV show].

For one brief crazy moment I did consider making it with a flower underneath so he could evolve throughout the day.... But then I realised that would be massive overkill for a costume that's only going to be worn once.  

All of the leaves are stitched on by hand to try and achieve a more natural shape and look. 

The straps are made from some webbing that I had in my stash, luckily It was a dammed near perfect colour match. And after much pinning and adjusting we found a good strap length so that Lil man could take it on and off himself. 

The pattern for the Hoody came from Freesewing.org  and saved me from having to draft a pattern from scratch. Luckily I already had most of lil mans measurements on the website the only ones I had to add were how big his head it and his wrist size. Both of which I had to guess, which is why I think the hood came out a bit shallow. But I just added a piece onto the front so I'd have enough room for Bulbasaurs face. 

I also didn't use ribbing for the cuffs etc like the pattern said because I didn't have any which is why the sleeves are a touch too short. In stead I chose to fully line the hoody with the same fabric [Luckily it was pretty thin so it needed lining to keep the shape] and them to top stitch around the edge. 

The jerseys is from my stash and I;m pretty sure it came from my friends Nans house and the darker patches are from one of lil mans old t shirts that was getting a bit scraggy. I appliqued them on using a zig zag stitch and it took blooming ages! The eyes are made from some small pieces of felt and the nose and mouth are black wool. 

I even remembered to insert some cute little ears into the hood. Although I am gutted that they don't stand up very well. 

All in all I'm really pleased with it! Even more so because it cost NOTHING! Even the zip was recycled from an old hoody! #winning

I was a bit worried that he'd be a bit obscure but lil man was really happy with it and some of the other kids immediately recognised him as Bulbasaur so that's a plus.

Now I just need to start planning for the next costume day! 

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

Quick Toddler Pirate Costume DIY

Yet another costume for lil man for nursery, seriously its starting to feel like I'm making one of these very week. And if its not a costume its wear a certain colour or wear transport themed clothes or something!

Anyway this week was pirates, and being me I wasn't going to pay for a cheap and nasty costume instead it was just quicker to do some googling and throw something together!

Okay so from the top!

-Bandanna, this ones my dads which I stole years ago but you could just use a square of fabric.

- white shirt, Its raining today so we went with a shirt but I did have a short sleeved t-shirt option if it was warm!

- waistcoat, this is from his wardrobe and I just appliqued a quick skull and cross bones to the back.

-trousers, I especially put these to one side just in case I needed to do a costume, they were too short in the leg so I cut them down in a zig zig pattern. I might hem them into shorts now pirate day is over!

- red belt, this is just a long piece of red fleece but you could just use a scarf.

- stripey socks

as always the priority was making sure he would be comfy for the whole morning at nursery, and warm enough for the walk down.

He didn't seem to mind wearing this too much, I think he might be getting used to costumes a bit more now hes older.

I can't say I'd change anything about it I think he looks pretty good to say it took about 10 minutes to make and I didn't spend any money!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

World Book Day

Its world book tomorrow, or at least that when our nursery is celebrating. And world book day means dressing up, which means mummy raiding the house for supplies and cracking out the sewing machine.

Naturally I decided to make lil man a penguin from one of his books "the happy penguin and the little seal"  [I'm not sure why I've linked that, probably because I know there's parents out there who can probably recite every word of every book their child owns so it might be nice to give them a bit of variety!]. Anyway as it goes penguin costumes are hard! and I didn't have any black fabric and it was all just looking a bit crap really so plus I'd procrastinated for a good three weeks and now had no other options other than to wing it [I can imagine my mum will laugh at this because she always said I used to change my mind ten times before any costume event, In fact one year she mad me a pony costume and then I decided to go as something else! Looks like my indecisiveness doesn't change.]

So I decided to send him as Link from "Hyrule Historia" I.e Link from legend of zelda the video game, which him and his daddy have been avidly playing!

Naturally I had to use what I had on hand, sooooo the trousers are his new chinos, the shirt is an old white shirt that only just fits I removed the collar and just left the collar stand, the tunic is two pieces of green fabric [stash] with some neck shaping, I simply sewed the shoulder and side seams, I left all the other edges raw. The hat is a triangle sewed up one side and I added a band to the bottom with elastic in to make sure it stays on his head. The shield I drew and painted, {its one of the designs from the game} onto card from the back of a notebook. The sword came from b and ms, because I wasn't happy with any of the ones I made, and because we knew we'de get use from it anyway! The belt is an old one of mine that I cut down!

And doesn't he look sweet! Even Rikki smiled when he saw it all come together! 

My main issue was making something he would be comfortable in and something he would be able to have a wee in at nursery. I know the staff have said before to please make sure that children can take themselves to the toilet in their costumes.  

Hopefully he likes it, he kind of looks like Robin Hood or Peter Pan as well so I think that's what the staff will think he is. Although they might have played the game when they were younger I suppose! 

So yeah I've not completely played by the rules because its originally game based but their is a book and I made a whole costume in like an hour and a half so that's a win! And seen as I think its going to be a class of superheroes tomorrow its nice that h'ell look a bit different! 

Here's him and his daddy seen as they are the "team game!" and "team boy" to quote lil man! I'm actually wondering if there's another occasion I can dress him up for and have Rikki dressed up as a character from the game too! 

So yay success, now I just have to sew for me for another year!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx