Halloween Costumes 2012- Pinocchio

2012 was a good year for Henry’s costume and I put a bit more effort into it compared to the mouse costume! I think others were a bit dubious about how his costume would turn out and were wondering why I wanted him to be Pinocchio! But I think they quite understood once they saw it complete.

I was actually planning to go on a trip to California mid October and getting back right before Halloween, so I was in a bit of a panic when I still hadn’t finished it when I was supposed to leave! My sister told me to just bring my stuff with and I could finish it there.

Well, my “little bit left” to finish turned out to take quite a bit of time, and my sister was so cute letting me use her sewing machine and even helping me by making his hat! We realized you actually need more than one small felt piece to make a proper hat but that was all I had brought, so she made it work! I think she did a most excellent job. She sewed on a satin scrap left over from the bow tie and added a red feather made out of felt.

Henry luckily happened to have a yellow shirt, I made a white peter pan-type collar that tied together in front in the middle (cut in a big “C” shape with ends almost touching), I backed up some blue satin fabric with fusible interfacing so I wouldn’t have a fraying issue and could eliminate having to do any sewing on the oversized bowtie (I hot glued it together and glued some elastic to wrap under his yellow collar to attach), and that just left me with a vest and the lederhosen part.

Aren’t Henry and his Snow White cousin just the cutest?! I love how serious and pensive they both look! haha! And I love how the colors on their costumes totally matched– all blue, yellow, and red! 

Is it possible for those chunky thighs to be any juicier?! I don’t think so! And the dimpled knees!!

That vest, oh, that vest! I feel like my sewing skills aren’t good enough to follow a pattern so usually I just “wing it” and make it up as I go, but this vest would have much easier I’m sure if I had followed some vest tutorial because it turned out to be way more complicated than I thought! I got a velvety fabric for it and eventually figured it out enough to pass for a vest!

(He just barely learned how to walk on his own the week we took these pictures! I love his mummy walk with his outstretched arms as he’s trying to balance!)

The lederhosen was rather humorous as well.. I learned this year that for pants, you cant just sew straight lines down. I now always know you have to curve it in to account for crotch and bum! Needless to say, I had to redo these several times and then it got too low on top, so I had to attach another strip of fabric (because of course I only got enough fabric to do it once and did not account for any redos!). It’s always a learning process! 😉
 

I finally got the size right where his hind end and juicy belly all fit inside, I sewed strips of fabric to the front with buttons, criss-crossed the straps in back and attached them to the shorts with elastic to allow extra stretch. I sewed ribbons down the sides of the shorts– the ribbons were a special touch because they were ribbons I got in Switzerland when I was little and traveled there with my family.

And tada! Pinocchio’s a real boy!!

Ironically, I was Snow White just like his cousin that year (not homemade…i actually made a “blue fairy” costume, or attempted to make that is… i was unsuccessful…Good thing I had a back up Snow White costume!)! And Jesse, most likely, went as a dentist. haha! don’t worry I eventually convince him to join in on the fun.. 😉