Obviously our red haired princess was Ariel for our family Little Mermaid Halloween costume. Since Baby Brother has a tendency to act like such a guppy, I figured Flounder would be the perfect character! To achieve this look, I created a rather simple hooded fleece sweatshirt, with striped sleeves to act as the fins, as well as a few fins along the hood.
Supplies:
-yellow fleece
-baby blue fleece
-navy blue fleece
-thread to match
1. Start with a nice big hoodie that fits your little fish. Tuck the sleeves in, then trace around the outside, adding 1/4" for seam allowance. You'll want to have one piece for the back, which will have a higher neckline, and one piece for the front, which will have a lower neckline- feel free to exaggerate that neckline to make putting it on and taking it off a little easier. Cut this front and back piece from your yellow felt. Next, pull the sleeves back out of the hoodie and trace around them, again with a 1/4" seam allowance. Cut 2 identical pieces for each sleeve from the baby blue fleece. Next, you need two long, thin rectangles of the navy blue fleece; the length should be the same length as the sleeve pieces, and the width is up to you, but I went with 1" for my toddler. Finally, cut two freehand ovals from the blue fleece; they will be placed on the back of the pullover, one on top of the other, as the stripes on Flounder's back.
2. Take the back piece and fold it in half both ways so that you find both the horizontal and the vertical center lines. Using these creases as your guide, arrange and pin the blue ovals onto the right side of the fabric, with their right sides up. You want the ovals to be placed along the vertical center line, with one just above and one just below the horizontal center line. Sew these on like appliques, using a zigzag stitch right at the edge.
3. Now you're going to attach the front piece to the back piece at the shoulders. Place the two pieces on top of each other, right sides facing. See how the front piece has very distinct, narrow shoulders? You're going to sew the front to the back at those two points only, using a 1/4" seam allowance. [It's important to note here that I'm not worried about hemming anything for a couple of reasons- it's fleece, so it doesn't fray like regular cotton fabric....and also it's a costume that's only going to be worn a couple of times.]
4. Next, you need to piece together the sleeves. Lay out two of the light blue pieces with each navy blue rectangle, like this. Sew the three pieces together with a 1/4" seam allowance. Do this one side at a time, placing the rectangle on top of the light blue piece, right sides together, lining up the long edge of the rectangle with what will ultimately be the top of the sleeve, and sewing straight down that line with a straight stitch. Then repeat with the other piece.
5. Now you're going to create that hood. Use the hood of your original sweatshirt as a guide to cut two hood-shaped pieces of the yellow fleece. Next, cut some shapes from both the light and dark blue fleece to be the little "mohawk" of fins along Flounder's head; cut two identical pieces of each shape. Put those pairs of shapes together and sew along three sides, leaving an opening (like a bunch of little socks) so you can turn the fins right side-out again. Finally, lay the two hood pieces on top of each other, right sides together, and sandwich the little fins in the middle, placed however you'd like along the curve. [I did end up hemming the edge of the hood closest to the face, just for a clean edge.]
6. Finally, you're going to put the whole thing together. Attach each sleeve to the bodice first along the shoulder curve on each. Once that's done, put the whole piece together so that you're looking at an inside-out sweatshirt and sew up the side of the body and then along the sleeve, from the armpit out to the wrist. Turn the sweatshirt the right way out, and then attach the hood to the neckline; leave a gap in the front for your fishie's big head! Now, you can put elastic in the wrists if you'd like, but I didn't think to do that before we took this little fish out, so I ended up rolling up the cuffs instead.
And there's your fish! Your Flounder can wear a light-colored T-shirt underneath his pullover, and whichever sort of pants are the most comfortable. (If he's going to be walking around much, yellow sweatpants would be great! Since our Flounder spent most of his time in a stroller, we went with jeans.)
What is your toddler wearing for Halloween this year?
Much love,
The Geeks
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