Tidy Victory - Although this isn't my personal victory because I did none of the labor, our front house revamp is finally DONE! I am thinking about publishing a post with all of our summer improvement projects that we did - we had to do some much needed maintenance, but it turned out beautifully! While my husband and I planned it, he did all of the contracting and direction, so all of the kudos goes to him for sure! Way to go, honey!
I do not sew. That's a fact. I can TRY to sew, complete the act of doing so. But that doesn't mean I can actually make anything.
However, doesn't the UPKer tell me he wants to be a ghost this year for Halloween. Ok then. A ghost it is.
I can't sew, but PERHAPS this one time I could try and see if I could come up with something that would resemble that famous sheet covered Halloween ghoul.
I hate the idea of buying a ghost costume from the store when I'm nearly certain I could make one.
Nana Patti made MANY of our Halloween costumes when my siblings and I were little. She has a sewing machine and really did a great job. She still fixes holes and ripped hems for me.
So I did some quick research on the World Wide Web and came up with a plan.
But first, in order to make your own DIY children's ghost costume, here's what you need:
- Twin or full size white bed sheet
- White winter knit beanie hat
- 1 yard of black mesh fabric
- Black permanent marker
- Pencil
- Sewing scissors
- Safety and sewing pins
- Sewing needle and white thread
Here's what you do:
- Place the white knit beanie on your child's head so that they are wearing it comfortably.
- Place the sheet as evenly as possible over your child's head, adjust as needed. Using safety pins, pin the sheet to the top of the knit beanie securely.
- Have your child hold out their arms. Carefully using your sewing pins, pin underneath their arms a few inches below where you will sew a hem to help keep the sheet on their arms.
- Lastly, have your child carefully bring their hand up to their face and poke their two pointer fingers through the fabric at you where their eyes are. Use the permanent marker to mark the spots.
- Carefully lift the sheet off of your child and tell them to do something constructive. Time to sew!
- Using your white thread and needle, use a simple running stitch to secure the sheet to the top of the beanie underneath the sheet. Be careful to only sew the top of the sheet to the very top of the beanie. Remove the safety pins.
- Next, sew another simple running stitch where you pinned underneath your child's arms, leaving enough room for their arms to fit through.
- Time for the eyes - place a magazine or piece of scrap cardboard inside the sheet underneath the "face" of your ghost. Use your pencil to draw two eyes around where you marked your child's eyes with the permanent marker. Make sure you draw them large enough so your child will be able to see out of them easily.
- Use your black permanent marker to draw a mouth shape, whichever your child will like (scary, happy, sad face?).
- Using your sewing scissors, cut the eye shapes out.
- Take your black mesh fabric and fold it so that there are four layers of fabric large enough to cover both eye cutouts. Cut off any excess that you don't need.
- Use your sewing pins to carefully pin the black mesh fabric over the eye cutouts on the inside of the sheet. Using your sewing needle and white thread, sew one last running stitch around the eye holes to sew the black mesh fabric in place. Cut off any more excess but leave an inch of the black mesh around the outside of the hem line.
- Call your child back from their constructive activity to try the ghost costume on. Make any necessary adjustments with hems.
- Lastly, use your sewing scissors to cut off the excess fabric at the bottom of the sheet so your child can walk freely without tripping.
- Bravo, you made a DIY ghost costume for your child! Make sure they say thank you!
I completed this project after two pinning/sewing sessions for lack of a good chunk of time to finish the entire thing. All in all, it probably took me 1.5 - 2 hours from start to finish.
A few tips for this project:
- The purpose of the beanie is to help keep the sheet in place on your child. I was thinking that if I just put a sheet over his head it would come off, get all bunched up, etc. When seated properly on the child's head, it will hopefully make he sheet stay where it is supposed to without much trouble.
- I purchased a whole sheet set from Walmart for this project. I figured I could always use an extra white fitted sheet and pillow case on the UPKer's bed. However, if I were to do this again, I might purchase some higher thread count fabric from a store or a better sheet - mine is quite thin but it will do the trick.
- I will also be purchasing a cheap white zip up hoodie for him to wear underneath his costume on Halloween night to keep out the cold and to blend better with the thin white sheet.
- Don't worry to much about frays from cutting with the scissors, it just adds to the ghosty look!
So I just made my first Halloween costume for my son - score!
What am I going to do next??????
Not going to Disney World anytime soon, unfortunately.
Perhaps when the UPKer is older and doesn't need a nap.
What am I going to do next??????
Not going to Disney World anytime soon, unfortunately.
Perhaps when the UPKer is older and doesn't need a nap.
In the meantime, I'll have a mug of hot cider with a cinnamon stick - DELISH!
Don't forget to make sure your child is safe with a glowing safety pouch for them to wear around their neck!
Have you ever made a Halloween costume?
What are you or your kids going to be for Halloween?
Trick or treat! :)
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