Honestly I wasn't going to dress up Lil Cinnamon for Halloween. I figured she will only be 8 weeks and quite frankly she's still a little blobby so what's the point. That was the sleep deprived me. Once I had my usual 8 cups of coffee the regular me kicked in and realized I would regret it forever if I didn't dress her up in something. And really aren't babies the cutest when they are dressed up? I 100% believe it's perfectly acceptable to dress your baby up in something with ears for no reason at all. Hoodies with bear ears, bunny ears on a bathrobe, etc.
But I don't have time to come up with an elaborate costume. A friend sent me a picture of a baby dressed as a candy corn and I knew that's what I had to make.
Because it was so easy I thought I'd share how I made it with you in case you want to do the same. It took a little over an hour and cost around $15 if that. Easy peasy.
First I bought 1/2 yard each of yellow, orange, and white fleece. I chose fleece because you don't have to finish the cut edges. You won't need that much white fleece but I always buy more just to be on the safe side.
Also I purchased an invisible zipper. A 14 inch zipper should do the trick.
Depending on the height of your purchased fleece you might be able to cut it in half which I did. Then I sewed the yellow and orange fleece together lengthwise.
I folded the sewn piece over in half and place a sleep sack that I had over it and traced. If you don't have a sleep sack you can just freestyle this drawing. It doesn't have to be perfect, just try to make it look like the bottom of a candy corn.
Take one piece and cut a slit about 12" long for a 14" zipper. This isn't an exact science, just make sure your zipper is longer than the slit.
A lot of people are intimidated by invisible zippers but you don't have to be. And explaining how to install it is much harder than actually doing it. **Please note that you'll need an invisible zipper foot for your sewing machine. If you have one you probably already know how to install one. If not don't worry, you can use a regular zipper or buttons, ties, etc. Get creative.
Open the zipper and place it on the left garment piece, on the outside of the fabric, with the wrong side of the zipper facing up. I lined up the zipper tape with the edge of the slit. Place the lefthand groove of the zipper foot over the coils of the zipper and sew.
Next, you will sew the other half of the zipper to your fabric. Line up the top of the zipper and top of your fabric, just opposite as before. Make sure the end of the zipper tape matches the cut side of the fabric. Again as a reminder, you should be looking at the outside of your garment but looking at the wrong side of the zipper.
Turn the zipper into the fabric and zip up. If you need more detailed instructions there are countless Youtube videos. Check them out!
Then place the front and back side of the body together with the wrong sides facing out. Sew around the body with a 1/4" seam allowance making sure to not sew the arm and neck holes together like I almost did! Turn inside out and you are done with the body. Easy wasn't it?
Lastly all we have to do is make the hat.
Measure your child’s head and add one inch to that. For my costume, that was 15″+1=16″. Then cut the fleece with that measurement for the width. I used 7" for the how tall it should be. Fold the cut piece in half and sew along the short side.
Now measure the width of the hat (not counting the seam) and divide that by four. For me, that was 8″ / 4 = 2″. Put a pin this distance from the left and another one this distance from the right. Then I placed a pin 2 inchs up on the sides. On each side, sew a row of stitches from the top pin down to the side pin.
Pick the hat up and squish the top end so that the gap opens up. Pull the top and bottom flaps so that the gap is closed, and you have what looks like a cross shape. There should be no hole in the top anymore. Put some pins in to hold it in place.
Sew a row of stitches on each new flap, going from the center of the top down to the same point on the other seams (1 1/4" up from the bottom)
Trim the excess and you should have a nice pointed beanie shape. Flip it inside out and your hat is done!
As tempting as it is, don't eat this candy corn!
Have a safe and happy Halloween!
Cheers!
