When we grew up my grandmother always made our costumes…beautiful outfits sewn for us when we lived miles away and only saw her maybe once or twice a year. Some of my costumes included: a Raggedy Ann outfit, Rainbow Brite (complete with hoop skirt), an Indian princess, and clown costume. My brothers didn’t get as many years of hand made costumes but some of theirs included: a cowboy, a bear, Tigger, and a clown costume. The year of the clown costumes my brother, Justin, and I went as matching clowns which I was SO EXCITED about because I loved clowns! If I can find a picture of us and figure out how to upload it, I will. But last year I talked Blake into wearing the clown costume because there was one for him and one for Bryan and it was adorable.
Just for kicks, here’s a picture of the bear costume Bryan wore to King’s Island last year:
So, clearly my grandmother has great skills and the costumes have held up over the years so that now her great grandchildren can wear them too! For two years, ever since we got a Wii for Blake’s birthday, he has wanted to be Yoshi for Halloween. Last year I managed to talk him into being a clown but this year I promised he could be Yoshi if he still wanted to…which given the typical attention span of a five-year-old I figured he’d forget by the time he was nearly six-and-a-half and ready for another Halloween costume choice. Of course, he didn’t.
I thought about buying a costume (though the thought of spending money made me kind of sick since we have so many beautiful costumes he could wear) but that lasted for about five minutes…long enough for me to find the only Yoshi costume sold in America for kids. It cost $30 plus another $5 in shipping. No, thank you! After seeing it, Blake was even more excited about being Yoshi and constantly reminded me of my promise to him. In addition, he was convinced that Bryan HAD to be Toadstool (AKA Toady) because then they could be like Super Mario Brothers/Mario Kart and go around together. The Toady costume (I hesitate to even call it that) cost $25 and was only a vest and a hat. Both costumes got horrible reviews and I was not about to spend that amount on a costume they’d only wear a couple times and then would end up in a box in the basement. But a promise is a promise, so off I went. Note: If you are looking to make a Yoshi or Toady costume there are no patterns you can buy. The task was beginning to be really daunting but I wanted to make good on my promise so I decided to give it a whirl and make my own costumes…after telling Blake that it might not happen. He looked me in the eyes and said, no lie, “Mom, you’re really creative and you can sew really good so I know you won’t let me down.” Yikes!
Now, to be honest, at that point my sewing machine had been used primarily to sew straight lines…blankets, curtains, hems, pillow cases, etc. Nothing exciting…nothing really challenging. Now I was facing the task of making a costume totally from scratch without any pattern or any idea of what to buy for it. Luckily Jo-Ann Fabrics was having a huge sale on their flannel materials and I found a coupon online. I was also lucky in that while all this process was going on my mom was in town to play with the boys and help out while I floundered through the creative process. After purchasing fabric for both costumes and orange spray paint (I spent about $20 total) I was ready to begin. And by ready I mean I had no idea how to start.
My first step was having Blake lie down on a piece of paper (we have a roll of easel paper and I taped two lengths together) so I could trace his body and figure out sizes from that. And my pattern-making basically followed that process…including having Blake lie on his side so I could trace his head to try and make the hat/head for Yoshi. Adventures all around, I tell you! I found myself sitting at my sewing machine with all kinds of paper cutouts wondering why I was going to try this…but I was also intrigued by the challenge so off I went!
There was little error but much paper-piecing and trial to see how best to create Yoshi. I looked at a lot of websites with characters and game boxes and just decided to go for it. Blake was really excited when it was done, and I was pretty excited too. Here are some of the finished product pictures!
The boys wore the costumes to every place that they possibly could and now they wear them on a fairly regular basis to play Wii or just to make up their own games. In the end, it was worth it to keep my promise to Blake. Also, I now know to be careful what I promise…because I may end up making it!
