Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Baby Mouseling

This year, I decided to dress my daughter up as a mouse. You see, about a decade ago, I bought a pattern as I often do, because it was just too cute. I simply fell in love with the Mouse on the envelope of Simplicity 9821. I always promised myself that when I got kids, I would make that costume. Last year, my Sweetheart begged me to make her an owl costume, and I expect that by next year, she will want to have a say in her Halloween costume; so really, this was my last chance to make her the Mouse.

Boy was it a lot of work! I have never made a mascot costume before, nor a Furry, but I imagine it is a similar technique. Sewing thicknesses of faux fur was tough enough, but that pattern kept asking me to hand sews things, like the stomach and pads on the hands and feet. Me? Hand sew? Well, I did it to fix the ears and cheeks to the head, but that is it. The rest went through the machine.

Also, as I started with only a week and a half to go before Halloween, I was already exhausted (and still am) from the other costume I have been making for other people. For two days, I sat at my machine, looked at the pattern and couldn’t make sense of it. Plus, since I decided to bag line everything for comfort and heat, I couldn’t always follow the instructions to the letter.
But I managed, I made it, and this morning my daughter saw it and now she keeps wanting to wear it and play with it, which makes me feel very appreciated.


But I know you want pictures:

Baby Mouseling costume - Front

Baby Mouseling costume - Back

I love the colour combination of the fur and light pink velvet; it makes me think of “Angelina Ballerina – The next steps” which we watch every Sunday (hence me calling this a Mouseling costume: for Angelina Mouseling). That is also why I put a great big pink bow on the head.

The pattern actually said to use pleather for the tail, but I like the result I got using the velvet. And for those of you wondering what the puffs on the side of the head are, they are supposed to be cheeks, and you would know that if I added pipe cleaner whiskers, but I wont for security reasons.

Daughter trying on the Baby Mouseling head

She is so cute! I can’t wait to see her wear it. I still have to fix the ears to get them to stand up, but otherwise, I am done with this one. On to me!

(Edit: I managed to get the ears to stand up by inserting a tie wrap inside the circle of the ear. It has the perfect shape and it is springy enough. Tie wraps are my new favourite costuming trick of the trade!)

1 comment: