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30 Oct 2015

DIY Woodland Superhero Costume

I think this may be the cutest and most fun sewing project I have worked on in a long time.  It's Teddy Bear day at my oldest's school today.  The kids are to wear clothing with teddy bears on it or dress like a bear.  I decided to make a bear superhero costume for my little guy and I think it's a perfect way for a boy to dress up on teddy bear day.  I must admit that my "teddy bear" looks more like a woodland bear on purpose.  I wanted to add to our fox costumes from a couple years ago and to possibly make another super rabbit or hedgehog sidekick for little brother as well.   We'll have a team of woodland super heroes around here!  I did make a sidekick for my son to take to school with him, but since I just finished it last night, it didn't make it into these photos.  It's a knit super hero doll for which I made a matching super bear costume.  I'm sure I'll take photos of the doll soon and add one or two to this post.  I'm also hoping to share the knitting pattern/DIY for the doll here on the blog as well.  For now, I have the big boy costume to share.
The costume is based off of a couple patterns that I modified.

DIY WOODLAND SUPERHERO MASK

MASK

For the mask I used this template (it's actually three different woodland animals), but the bear mask is missing the eyeholes?  I used the eyehole band from the racoon though to make the blue superhero mask for my bear and was able to get the eye placement from that.  I simply rounded the fur edges from the racoon mask to match the rounded edges of the bear face and ended up with a perfect little mask for my mask. :)

This is how I put the mask together:

1)  Cut out the pieces using this template:  2 base bear masks (use the racoon mask for the eye placement), one nose piece (I rounded the top edges slightly), one snout piece, two inner ear pieces, and the blue "mask" piece (use the raccoon eye strip from the template and round the edges to match the bear mask), one strip of elastic (if you are worried about having a continuous loop for a young child you can substitute with some ribbon or cut the elastic in two and add velcro to hold it together)

2)  attach the elastic band:  I sandwiched each end of the elastic between the two bear pieces at the location of the eyes and zigzagged through all three layers on both sides.  the zigzag stitching will be covered up by the blue mask piece.

3)  Place all the rest of the pieces on the mask (you can see a closeup of the assembly further in the post below) and stitch by hand/machine through all the layers.

CAPE

I found this darling pattern for the cape.  The size I made was just a little longer than the 4T.  

I customized the cape to include the bear symbol which consisted of a circle of interfacing, a circle of striped fabric, a felt bear silhouette and a felt letter. 
  • The bear silhouette was cut from the mask template above.  I just added a rounded bottom.  
  • For the /s/ I printed an enlarged letter in Helvetica font.
Here's how I put the cape together:


1)  Cut out your cape pieces using the pattern above and the pieces for your symbol

2)  Assemble the symbol:  Iron on the interfacing to the back of the fabric circle.  Hand/machine stitch the bear symbol to the centre of the circle followed by the letter on top.  Once all the pieces are together use a very tight zigzag/satin stitch to attach the symbol to the outer fabric of the cape around the edge of the circle. (you can see a close up of the symbol assembly above)

3)  Follow the tutorial for sewing the cape.

**Please remember to be safe when your child is wearing a costume:   Supervise your child whenever they are wearing a costume/mask.  Do not let your child sleep in his/her costume**
My little one was so excited to wear his costume and boy, did he ever get into the super hero leaps!  I had so many pictures of him jumping.   The funny part about it is that he has never watched any superhero shows and doesn't really own any licensed superhero toys.  He just knows that superheroes fly and save the world.  He also had his trusty sidekick Nalle (whose name means "teddy bear") right there with him.


6 comments:

  1. Super cute custome idea! Please tell us about that nifty yellow light hanging on the peg!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Sara! The light is a battery operated lamp: http://www.amazon.com/Smile-Lamp-Kids-Light-Red/dp/B00QFQDYD8. Ours has a wood grain look to it, but I could only find the coloured versions. The brand is "PLAY ON". I bought it to use as a night light, but it's actually pretty bright.

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  2. Adorable! Love the mask with that cape! Too cute!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks so much Amber! I think he was pretty happy with it. :)

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  3. so cute! And I love the creative twist on the teddy bear idea :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Gretchen! I think the superhero part makes it more appealing for a boy to dress up as a teddy bear. ;)

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