Every pirate needs a parrot

I was so excited for Halloween this year. For my kids, of course. I began thinking of costume ideas last year-when I was still pregnant. I always thought it would be cute to do some type of 'group' costume with my kids. They are so going to appreciate it when they are teenagers and look back on these pictures! :)

But, I couldn't come up with an idea that seemed 'perfect'. Then I found a cute lion costume for my son at a mom2mom sale for $5. It is one of those full bodysuits with the hood/head. Very warm and cozy, so I bought it.

Then I found the absolute perfect costume for my daughter and she really wanted it. It was a boys costume but it was in great shape and was a high quality costume. For $5 (yet again) at a garage sale. I was content with the idea of them each being their own 'thing' when an idea hit me. And, I got to work.

I bought a red hoodie and some sweatpants at Wal-Mart for my son. Hoodie was $6 and pants were $3. I used a 20% off coupon for all of my felt at Jo-Ann's so that saved me some big money too. I went ahead and bought 1/2 yard of each color since I figured I would be able to use leftover anyways. I made sure to buy it when it was $1.99 a yard too!

I started doing this a different way but scrapped that once I tried to assemble it all. It would not work out so I won't even show you any of those pictures. I moved on to this idea after some tears and a lot of thinking....


I used a brown paper bag to make my pattern. I simply measured the sweatshirt from the top shoulder seam to the bottom of the sleeved-before the cuff. Mine was 11 inches and I made it 12 just in case. I drew a twelve inch triangle on the bag and then added my scalloped sections and figured out where each color would be:

 I then cut apart the whole pattern. First the whole triangle and then each section. I cut each colored piece out individually. After the green top piece I made sure to trim a little bit off of each side of the remaining ones to ensure it would fit in between the pieces above it. Starting with the green top I cut TWO pieces of each section except the bottom red one-I only needed one of those. Using my glue gun I glued the top of each piece together but left the bottoms separated for now...

 I then added the next section, sandwiching them between the one above it. I continued this method for all of the sections-gluing the last one red piece between the pieces before it.

 Once each wing was complete and dry I just glued them to the top shoulder seam about a 1/2 inch away from the hood seam. I also added a tiny bit of glue in the middle of the wing and then glued it down at the wrist really well.

 I cut a big oval out of white for the belly and cut it in half. I carefully glued it as close to the zipper as I could get so it still looked like one piece.

 I 'freehanded' the tail pieces. I cut three shapes out of red and then layered the other colors on top of them. I didn't do them uniform or from a pattern because I wanted a bit more of a feathered look. I glued them all together and then glued them to the bottom of the back of the hoodie.

 I wanted a really cool beak but by the time I got around to that part I was feeling tired and worn out so I went for simple.  A yellow triangle glued to the rim of the hood. Add some white and black circles to the hood for eyes and we were set.

 

 

Aren't they the cutest, I mean meanest looking pirate and her parrot?! :) I can't wait for Halloween!

 

 

I'm up for the challenge!

 

YAY!!