Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Mickey Mouse Costume

Naturally, since we have a Daisy and Donald Duck, we needed a Mickey Mouse.
Duncan's costume should have been the most simple, and the basic pieces were. The shirt is a raglan tee from the 04/2010 issue of Ottobre, and the shorts are from the 03/2011 issue, but really any basic tee and shorts would do. For warmth, I made both pieces out of fleece. The tights are purchased.
But Mickey's ears gave me the most trouble! My initial plan was to add a hood (Ottobre conveniently provided one with this tee pattern), and put ears into the hood. Unfortunately, the fleece was too stretchy and soft and my poor ears were limp. I tried everything to make them stand up - hair canvas, fusibles, batting, even popsicle sticks - but nothing worked.
Finally, I gave up on the hood idea, and decided to see what knitting patterns were available on Ravelry for a Mickey Mouse hat. There weren't any knit patterns I liked, but this crochet pattern immediately caught my eye. Of course, I've never crocheted a hat, but there's no time like the present to learn!
Then we tried the hat on the boy. And this happened. Every time. The other two kids love the hat, so I know it isn't uncomfortable. Duncan is just ornery.
I added some elastic bands with a velcro closure under the chin. (Safety note: If you are adding a chin strap to a hat for a small child, you must be sure that the closure is easy to open in an emergency. This is a major strangulation hazard. Velcro or snaps are a good choice. Ties are not.)
Fortunately, the strap seems to keep it nicely on his head, and his ears are nice and perky. Come on, Halloween! We are ready!!

5 comments:

jmday said...

Ha! This is pretty much exactly what I'm doing for my 2 yo. Except, we have ears from our last trip to WDW, so I don't have to worry about that.

Cindy said...

Adorable! Glad that you were able to find/make a hat that worked.

Marjie said...

Your Mickey Mouse is just adorable. But of course he's ornery. He's almost 2! Glad you made ears that would stay up and stay on him.

I've always made costumes out of fleece, because it's cold here, too. Halloweening in the snow is absolutely the worst!

The Slapdash Sewist said...

That is ridiculously cute. Oh my goodness.

Anonymous said...

Awww-Weee! They're all so cute. How adorable and how ingenious of you! I love how you made the costumes. Excellent job, great tuttorial! Thanks for sharing this/these. The Goose Mother