There are a ton of kids costume patterns out there, but if you’re looking to save some money with a DIY costume, you don’t need to dish out the extra bills! More often than not, costume patterns for children end up being the equivalent of a t-shirt and pants sewn together at the waist with a few embellishments – a strip of fabric around their head turns them into a ninja, add a mask and cape and they’re a superhero, some ears and a tail make them into any animal they want! The simple and free solution? Trace their PJs!
For this Flash costume, that’s exactly what I did. The 4 pant panels were all made with the same shape – the fabric I used was super stretchy, but to make it more comfortable and to prolong its wearability, I kept the fit fairly loose like the original pajamas. The shirt panels are also fairly similar, but whereas the front panel is cut one the fold, the back is cut in 2 so it can be closed with velcro.
All fabrics and materials used:
- 1.25 yards Red Dull All Over Foil Knit Pleather Substitute (The red currently says ‘sold out’ online, but if you call Mood’s website customer service, you can still order some!)
- 1/4 yard Whisper White Pebbled Vinyl
- 1/4 yard Oxblood Red Solid Vinyl
- Metallic Gold Jacquard Paint
- Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue
- 1 yard 3/4″ Black Sticky Back Velcro
If you’ve never sewn with a fabric like this before, it’s not as intimidating as it may seem! I just used a walking foot, a narrow zig-zag stitch, and a few wonder clips in place of pins (binder clips work well too!). The suit itself went together quickly and easily – attached at the shoulders and waist and added some sleeves. A 2″ strip of extra fabric made the perfect binding for the neckline, like you see both above and below.
The hood and lightning decals were a whole different story. Since most PJ sets don’t come with a hood, I decided to make my own pattern, which you can download a free template of below!
DOWNLOAD FREE TEMPLATE PDF HERE
The hood consists of two sides, with a 3″ wide rectangle down the middle top. The free template download is scaled for someone with a 21″-23″ head circumference, so you may need to play around with the sizing, but if not, you can print it out and use it like a regular pattern – no additional scaling needed!
The two larger circles become the chest decal. The white center piece is cut from the white pebbled vinyl, while the outer circle and lightning bolt were actually cut from the red and then painted with the metallic fabric paint, which worked absolute wonders! The ear decals were created with the smaller circles and lightning bolts. Remember to cut the two bolts out mirroring each other! I took some inspiration from the CW version of The Flash and kept the inner ear decals dark red.
All of them were attached to each other with tacky glue and to the suit with sticky back velcro so they can be removed to keep the suit machine washable, however they could easily be sewn or glued on!
The mask is built on top of an old generic superhero mask I had; the fabric was simply stretched over it and glued onto the back. No mask lying around? No problem! One cut from cardboard would work just as well!
All in all, it’s a quick and easy costume to DIY, plus it’s comfortable, versatile, and you can wash it! What could be more perfect for a kid?
So what costumes are you making this Halloween? Tell us below!
