I wasn't sure how to make this costume happen. They haven't sold a Doughboy costume in years, and I wasn't able to find a Doughboy pattern. I had to put on my crafting cap and come up with something because I made the mistake of telling my daughter about the costume before making sure it was possible. This is what I came up with...
I went to Jo-Ann to see if I could find a pattern that I could modify or take pieces from in order to make the costume. I ended up buying this Simplicity pattern...
I figured I could make the jumpsuit and belly suit like the pumpkin and then make the head covering like the lamb, just without the ears. I eventually ended up scrapping the one piece jumpsuit idea because let's face it, she's three... she's going to have to pee. I decided to try to buy a white sweatshirt and sweatpants to use instead. I found a white sweatshirt at Walmart (the last one they had), but I could not find white sweatpants anywhere. I searched high and low. So I decided to just use the jumpsuit pattern and cut it off at the waistline to make pants. I also saved time by purchasing a fully adjustable kid's chef hat at Jo-Ann.
The pants, belly suit, head covering, and scarf are all made out of fleece. If I ever see white fleece again, it will be too soon. I had never sewn fleece before. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it was pretty forgiving. Your stitches kind of disappear into it, and you can hardly see them. But I was sewing layers and layers together. At one point I was sewing 6 layers together at once. I went through 3 needles on this project!
Here's a rundown of each piece of the costume...
1. I cut the jumpsuit pattern off at the waistline in order to make the pants. After I sewed the legs together, I folded the waist down about an inch and sewed around the bottom to create a sleeve so I could insert a piece of elastic into the waistband. The pattern also called for elastic at the ankles, but I left that out and just hemmed them so they would cover her shoes a little bit.
2. The sweatshirt came from Walmart.
3. For the belly suit I followed the pattern exactly as it was written. It is made with three layers of fleece. It has a 3/4" elastic band around the bottom to help it poof out, and it has Velcro at the shoulders. This was by far the most time-consuming piece to make. I probably could have gotten by with two layers of fleece.
4. For the head covering I followed the pattern exactly as it was written, but I left off the ears. It has Velcro under the chin to hold it on. This was the first time I ever sewed darts on a garment. This was probably the most satisfying piece to make because it looks complicated, but it really was pretty easy and quick to put together.
5. For the scarf I cut a triangle out of fleece and tied a knot in the front. I didn't even hem it.
6. The chef hat was purchased. I added the Pillsbury logo myself. I did a Google Images search for "Pillsbury logo", copied and pasted the image into a Word document, resized it, and printed a mirror image of it onto iron-on transfer ink jet paper. Then it was just as simple as cutting it out and ironing it onto the hat.
In an earlier post I told you that I had trouble getting psyched up for this project. Well, it was worth all the work, needles, and late nights... It was a pretty fantastic feeling to see this little face light up when she stepped in front of the full-length mirror in her costume.
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