Hungry Like the Wolf

Dave has a lot more confidence in my sewing skills than I do. When we were contemplating our options for Eddie's Halloween costume, he kept suggesting that I make the costume. My opinion was that if we could buy a costume, it would look much better and save me a lot of frustration. Then, we chose a costume that wasn't widely available (Max from Where the Wild Things Are). So, I decided to give it a whirl.

I found a great beige fur fabric at Fabric Center in West Jordan. Following the measurements on the pattern (a Winnie the Pooh costume pattern borrowed from Cheryl), I bought the amount of fabric indicated. I remarked to the fabric cutter lady, "that looks like an awful lot of fabric for a toddler costume."

It was quite the chore to cut the costume out because the fabric was so thick and furry. Plus, as I cut, it shed. By the time I finished, I was completely covered in fur, as was our carpet. Soon, our entire house was covered in fur. I decided not to even attempt cleaning it up until the costume was finished. After cutting out all the pieces I needed, I realized that I was right: it was an awful lot of fabric for a toddler costume. I ended up with way more than I needed -- even after having to cut out some sections twice after messing up.

So I started sewing. The suit was fairly easy, despite the fact that I made a few freestyle modifications to the pattern. I sewed most of the suit in a little over an hour. I am very proud of the neat job I did on the zipper. We found some buttons on clearance at Hobby Lobby and sewed them along the center seam on the front of the suit. The easy part was done. The only things left to do were the hat and the tail, which I imagined to be terribly complicated. So I put it off for a while.

About a week before Halloween and I suddenly realized that I was running out of time and needed to stop procrastinating. I had to design the ears and figure out how to sew them onto the hat so that they stood up straight. With Dave's help and a lot of talking to myself, we finally figured out how to sew them on. I hope you'll agree that they turned out pretty well, all things considered. Even the designer wolf suit we could have purchased online for $60 didn't get the ears quite right. I modified the hat from the pattern to try to more closely match Max's suit from the Where the Wild Things Are movie. It ended up too big for Eddie's tiny head, but wasn't bad enough to warrant a do-over.

The tail was a cinch. I bought a strip of black fur, sewed it into a tube, flipped it right side out, and filled it with batting. Then I hooked it onto the suit using safety pins so that it would be easily removed. The fabric and batting are stiff enough that it doesn't hang straight down and drag, but sticks out just enough that it doesn't get in between Ed's legs when he tries to walk.

All in all, it turned out pretty well. Of course, after buying the expensive fabric, a zipper, buttons, thread, needles, and safety pins, and taking all the time to sew it, it might have been worth it to just buy one online. However, if nothing else, it has given me a little more confidence in my sewing skills.