Q's Crafty Creations: One's Halloween costume

I decided to make One's Halloween costume this year. I probably would have made Five's, but he asked me to make him an Optimus Prime costume with cardboard boxes so that he could really transform. Um, sorry dear. No can do. He got a Walmart Optimus Prime costume instead. Since One has no preference, and no say, in what he wears (hehe) I can still get away with picking out his costume. I looked through some patterns and this pumpkin costume caught my eye.

The pattern is Simplicity 2788, view D. It comes in sizes 1/2, 1, 2, 3, and 4. I made the hat in size large (It comes in small, med, and large) because he has a big head for his age, and the rest is size 2. I also used the booties from view A, done in the same fabric as the jumpsuit from view D.

I've used Simplicity patterns in the past and this one met my expectations. The directions are easy to follow and the finished costume looked quite a lot like the one pictured on the pattern envelope.

I could not find the suggested fabrics so I used fleece for the orange part and sweatpants material for the green part. The black applique is cotton flannel. The closure in the back of the jumper is a long Velcro strip. The pumpkin part also closes with Velcro at the shoulders. I did get some pumpkin buttons but forgot to sew them on. I plan to sew them on the top of the Velcro so it looks like a button closure but will actually be Velcro.

I had the misconception that sewing my kids' costumes would save me money. Hah! Between the pattern, fabrics, and notions, (Not even counting the hours and hours it took to put it together) I spent about $60 on this. Ouch! I paid $25 for Five's costume for comparison. The payoff is that this is much better made, will last for many years, and I have the satisfaction of having sewed my child's costume. I don't know what it is about that, I feel like I've passed some sort of milestone as a mother. I'm not sure I will ever do it again, but I'm glad to have sewn at least one costume for my kids.

Some major things that I learned while making this are:

I suck at fusing paper-backed fusible interfacing. Seriously. You get one shot at it and I failed spectacularly. It just wouldn't stick, no matter what I did. I ended up tearing the interfacing off and using a zig-sag stitch to applique the face on.
You CANNOT fuse onto fleece!!! It will MELT! (all over your brand new iron). Fortunately the inside and outside pieces are almost identical so I made the ruined, melted piece the inside piece. I freaked and grabbed some scrap fabric and ironed that, which got most of the still-molten fleece off of the iron and onto the fabric. After it cooled, Hubby showed me that the rest of it easily scraped off. Phew.
I suck at sewn-on applique. By this point I'd already failed at fusing the interfacing and ruined half of the fleece so I just did it the best that I could, wobbly lines and all.

All in all, I'm glad I did it. It will fit him for many years (Five wanted to try it on so I let him and it fit quite well!)

They can use it for dress up if they wish, and it was a great learning experience. And I have the satisfaction of being able to say that I once sewed a Halloween costume lol. Plus the jumper part can be used all winter. I think it looks very Christmas-y with red socks and maybe a red bib.