Sew Can Do: DIY Halloween Costume: Baby Mr. Peanut

This year is the first trick or treating Halloween for my littlest guy, so he needed a fun & fabulous costume to make it memorable. Why not a DIY Mr. Peanut?

Here he is out for a stroll looking debonair with his cane:

The cuddly fleece fabric means it's soft and warm for the chillier night air:

I did a quilted texture to be more peanut-like too:

And of course he had to have the signature top hat, which I made out of felt and stabilizer:

And if you're not into product branding, it works as a fun little "plain" peanut costume too:

Amazingly, my 18 month old loves wearing it. There's still plenty of room for movement and it's comfy to wear so he gets a kick out of it. We do too, since he looks hilarious in it:

The elasticized hood keeps it from moving around and helps with the rounded peanut shape. The front zipper means it's easy to get on & off in a jiffy:

Here's how I made it & now you can too!

Materials:

- 1 yd tan fleece (for baby or toddler size)

- Basic zip front hooded jacket pattern*

- Plastic non-separating zipper (16 inch length for baby or toddler size)

- Tracing/tissue paper, pencil

- 1/2 inch wide elastic (1/2yd for baby or toddler size)

- 1/2yd black felt for top hat

- 1/2yd mid-weight sew-in stabilizer for top hat

- Pins, zipper foot, seam ripper

Optional, but handy: French curve ruler

* I used the Maahinen jacket from an old Ottobre Design magazine (the Winter 6/2009 issue), the 92cm size for my 18 month old sized guy.

Start with a basic hooded jacket pattern in the desired size and trace only the front, back and hood pieces onto a bigger piece of paper.

Extend the length to be about 4 inches longer than the original pattern's bottom edge. Starting from the bottom edge of the arm scythe on the front and back pattern pieces, extend the sides outward (by about 2 inches at the fullest point) and round them to get a peanut shape. I used a French curve ruler to make it easy. Curving the sides inward at the bottom by 1 inch to create an easy-to-turn-up hem. The length should be at least a couple of inches longer than the zipper length.

Cut out the fronts and back pieces using the new patterns, cutting the back piece on the fold. Cut the hood pieces, but extend the flat front edge of the hood forward by 1 inch (if it doesn't already allow for a casing).

To get the peanut texture, use a disappearing marker on and some yardsticks to draw horizontal lines along the front and back pieces every 2 inches on the fabric.

Do the same vertically. Repeat on hood pieces.

Top stitch along marking lines on all pieces.

Stitch the hood sides together along the curve, right sides facing. Trim off the excess.

Fold the raw front edge of the hood to the wrong side by 1 inch and stitch long edge to create the casing for the elastic.

Cut a piece of 1/2 inch elastic that's 4 inches smaller than the hood measurement (in my case it was 16 inches), then snake it through with a safety pin and stitch the ends in place.

With right sides together, baste the front center pieces together.

Trim off the excess.Open front and press open the seam by hand. Put zipper down over it - right side facing down and pin together, making sure the zipper has at least an inch of space at top. Stitch zipper in place from one side, around the bottom and up the other, using a zipper presser foot. Use the seam ripper to gently open the basting along the front

With front & back of costume facing, stitch shoulder seams.

Turn the costume body right side out and fold the raw edges of the arm scythes under by 1/2 inch and top stitch. Turn wrong side out and stitch the side seams together.

Trim off the excess.Open costume and, with right sides facing, pin the bottom edge of the hood to the neckline of the costume and stitch together:

Fold raw bottom edge under and hem:

Now the peanut part of the costume is done and ready to wear!

I'd made this felt top hat a few years back for one of my older kids. Of course I can't find the photos I took while assembling it. Buying a cheap one is probably easiest, but if you want to DIY-it too....

Mine required cutting the following from the felt and stabilizer:

(1) 6 1/2 inch diameter top circle

(1) 8 1/2 inch high x 20 1/2 inch rectangle for main hat

(2) 9 inch diameter circles with a 6 1/2 inch diameter circle cut out of the centers to be this O shape:

I basted the stabilizer to the backs of each piece first, then with right sides facing, stitched together the short ends of the rectangle with a 1/4in seam allowance and then pinned & stitched one end of the subsequent cylinder to the top circle. and trimmed the seams.

I put the brim pieces together with right sides facing and stitched the outer edges together, then trimmed and turned right side out. I pinned the open sides of the brim to the other end of the top hat and stitched together.

Make It - Love It has a free pattern for a similar one here, but you'd probably have to make it slightly smaller for baby heads and make the brim narrower to get the right shape.

For the rest of the costume I used solid black long sleeved onesie & pants. Given his age and ability to yank delicate things apart, there was no way we could safely do a monocle, so I digitally added it to a few pics: