Hel­lo, dear moth­ers and crafty afi­ciona­dos! I’m delight­ed to share my exper­tise as a sea­soned dress­mak­er, spe­cial­iz­ing in craft­ing bridal dress­es for the lit­tlest mem­bers of our fam­i­lies. Today, we’re div­ing into a whim­si­cal adventure—learning how to cre­ate a pre­cious tod­dler’s Hal­loween cos­tume, in par­tic­u­lar a Mer­ry­weath­er from Sleep­ing Beau­ty cos­tume. So, let’s embark on this journey!

Choosing the Perfect Fabric for Your Halloween Costume

To start, you to find the fab­ric that both match­es your char­ac­ter’s col­ors and tex­ture, but also appro­pri­ate in com­fort and cost for a toddler. 

I found fab­rics for my daugh­ter’s Mer­ry­weath­er cos­tume from Joann Fab­rics and Hob­by Lob­by. The total cost for the mate­ri­als was less than $30. (This cost did not include the big poofy Ana­gras­sia tulle skirt under the light blue skirt.) I sug­gest opt­ing for soft, breath­able, and light­weight mate­ri­als like tulle, satin, or organ­za. These will keep your lit­tle one com­fort­able and ready for a night of Hal­loween fun. (You can add warm lay­ers lat­er if it’s a chilly evening.)

Gath­er­ing Nec­es­sary Supplies

Before we dive into sewing, ensure you have all the tools nec­es­sary for the project. Some of the tools you need on hand are sewing pat­terns, fab­ric, elas­tic, scis­sors, pins, a sewing machine, thread, and a mea­sur­ing tape. 

 Tak­ing Accu­rate Measurements

Pre­cise mea­sure­ments are the secret ingre­di­ent to a well-fit­ting cos­tume. Gen­tly mea­sure your tod­dler. You will need to match her mea­sure­ments to a stan­dard pat­tern size or use them for your self-draft­ed pat­terns and design. The mea­sure­ments you will like­ly need are: chest, waist, girth, sleeve length, top cen­ter shoul­der to waist, top cen­ter shoul­der to knee, top cen­ter shoul­der to floor, and head circumference.

Tip for Mea­sur­ing: Before you mea­sure, dou­ble check your mea­sur­ing tape hasn’t shrunk or stretched over time. The small­est change can make a big dif­fer­ence for children’s clothing.

Designing and Sewing your Toddler Halloween Costume

Pat­tern Selec­tion and Alterations

Now that you have the char­ac­ter cho­sen or design in mind, you need a pat­tern. Look for pat­terns designed for chil­dren’s cos­tumes. If need­ed, don’t shy away from alter­ing the pat­tern to fit your vision perfectly.

For this Mer­ry­weath­er cos­tume, the sewing pat­terns are in-house Ana­gras­sia sewing pat­terns. The skirt and leo­tards were cut from stan­dard size Ana­gras­sia leo­tard and tulle skirt pat­terns. The cape was cre­at­ed from the Ana­gras­sia tod­dler cape pat­tern. (The satin blue skirt was made from scratch.)

My Tip: Don’t hes­i­tate to exper­i­ment with minor alter­ations or changes to a sewing pat­tern; some­times a small change can make a big dif­fer­ence. For instance, use the com­mer­cial lion body­suit pat­tern to cre­ate a dif­fer­ent ani­mal by chang­ing the fab­ric col­ors, applique and ears/mane/tail.

Cut­ting and Pinning

Once you have your pat­tern ready, care­ful­ly cut the fab­ric and pin the pat­tern pieces. Take your time to ensure pre­ci­sion, espe­cial­ly when deal­ing with del­i­cate fabrics.

Tips for pre­ci­sion: Use a rotary cut­ter to cut fab­ric from the pat­tern pieces. Use thin pins to pin pieces togeth­er while sewing and use a walk­ing foot for slip­pery fab­rics and thick lay­ers. If you want a pro­fes­sion­al fin­ish, always use pins, match notch­es, and give it a beau­ti­ful final press!

Sewing Tech­niques

Dou­ble check your nee­dles & machine ten­sion. If stitch­es are skip­ping or pulling, you may need a spe­cial nee­dle, need to adjust the ten­sion dial, or clean the lint out of the bob­bin and machine.

The blue stretchy Mer­ry­weath­er leo­tard need­ed a ball­point nee­dle for the stretch fab­ric. With­out this spe­cial nee­dle, I may have encoun­tered skipped stitch­es, puck­er­ing, or tears in the seams.

Adding Dec­o­ra­tive Ele­ments & Accessories

Now it’s time for the spe­cial piece that makes the cos­tume look like the spe­cif­ic char­ac­ter, thing, or ani­mal. You can sew the per­fect cos­tume, but it won’t work unless you get the acces­sories right. 

In the case of this Mer­ry­weath­er cos­tume, it’s Merryweather’s sig­na­ture wide brim witch’s hat with tulle wrapped around that makes one rec­og­nize the char­ac­ter. At first, I tried to sew the hat by using the cape vel­vet mate­r­i­al fused to very thick interfacing/Pellon craft mate­r­i­al and witch hat pat­tern (found online). 

After 1.5hrs, I did not come up with a wide brimmed hat that looked like a bowl bal­anced on the head under­neath the cone. So instead, I bought a clown hat on a head­band from the Hal­loween store. I ripped off all the attach­ments on the hat, paint­ed it dark blue and hot glued the vel­vet cone and tulle to the hat. It’s not what I hoped for, but it was good enough for a tod­dler cos­tume and I did­n’t have any more time to put into her costume.

Fit­ting and Adjustments

Ensure the cos­tume fits your tod­dler nice­ly. Use stretchy fab­rics and elas­tic waist­bands to make it eas­i­er to fit. Vel­cro is also a very easy enclo­sure to use and adjust fit.

Final Touch­es and Finishing

Iron the cos­tume gen­tly, clean up any loose threads, and ensure it’s pic­ture-per­fect. You’re near­ly there!

 Safe­ty and Comfort

Pri­or­i­tize safe­ty and com­fort for your tod­dler. Use non-irri­tat­ing mate­ri­als, secure clo­sures, and always keep an eye on their com­fort through­out the evening.

My Tip: Remem­ber that Hal­loween can be chilly, so lay­er­ing under­neath the cos­tume can keep your tod­dler snug.

Cos­tume Care and Maintenance

After the night is over, wash or spot clean the cos­tume. If you want to keep it in good con­di­tion for future cos­tume par­ties, store it in a cool and dark loca­tion. How­ev­er, I sug­gest throw­ing it in a wood­en play chest for your child to enjoy dur­ing playtime! 

Con­clu­sion

In the end, cre­at­ing a hand­made cos­tume for your tod­dler is a labor of love, a jour­ney of cre­ativ­i­ty, and a mem­o­ry to be cher­ished. With the right mate­ri­als, atten­tion to detail, and a sprin­kle of imag­i­na­tion, you will be proud of your work, and your lit­tle one will love their cos­tume. So, get your sewing machines ready, and let your cre­ativ­i­ty flow!