Frakenstein Costume Tutorial

HAPPY Monday! It was another normal day around the Kimery house. The boys headed to school, and Bobby had an errand to run. I did some laundry, watched Pan Am (is anyone else watching this show, I LOVE it), and put dinner in the crock pot. We had Chicken Tortilla Soup, and not only did I not burn it, it was sooooo good!

I have almost completed my Christmas shopping for the boys, and have been thinking of what to get Lucy. Santa had planned on bringing her this, but I after seeing her sit and play with a dollhouse at the party yesterday, I think Santa's plans have changed. I am looking for a wooden one, and on the shorter side. I have found some gorgeous taller ones, but I'm afraid they would tower over tiny Lucy! Hopefully we can find something perfect for her! Until then she will have to continue using her brothers Imaginext Firehouse instead... haha!

Today I am going to share a tutorial as well! Aiden wanted to be Frankenstein for Halloween. I started to look for costumes that were more cute then creepy, as cute is a lot more Aiden's personality. I found this one:

There were a few problems. A. It doesn't come big enough for him, and B. I was not about to pay $28.00, seeing as we had a suit and undershirt (that I scored from Goodwill for $3..whoot whoot) and all we needed to purchase was a headpiece. As I looked at this more, I thought "I can make this!" So that is what I did, and here is how it turned out:

Now I am going to give you the play by play so you can make one too!!

The first thing I did was draft a pattern. It may sound intimidating but it isn't, I promise. The pattern consists of four pieces:

In addition to the pattern pieces, I also cut out some accent pieces. I cut 2 1 inch wide rectangles that were as long as the top of the main head piece out of black felt. Then cut it to look like Frank's hair. I made a lightning bolt shape out of red felt, a thin strip from black felt and there small grey rectangles to look like stitching.

The last thing I cut was 4 T shapes out of grey felt for the knobs, sewed them together and stuffed them a little. 

Okay so once you have drawn the pattern and cut out your pieces, it's time to sew!

The first thing you want to do is sew the hair to the head piece. I went around every individual v shape for security.

Repeat this for the other hair and head pieces. Then you can look at the two and decide which head piece you would like to use for the face side. I chose the one with neater looking hair v's :)! When you have chosen  you will sew your accent pieces onto that piece (now it becomes the front head piece), and set the back head piece aside for later. When done you will have something similar to this:

Next you will want to sew the lining piece to the wrong side of the front head piece It is sort of difficult to see in this picture, but just lay it on top of the wrong side, and sew up the two vertical sides.

Now turn the piece back over so the right side is facing you, and line your face opening piece up in the center.

Cut around your pattern piece, being sure you cut through both the main and lining pieces. This will leave a hole where your child's face will go. Topstich around the opening.

Now take the back head piece you set aside and put it on top of the front head piece right sides together, adding the knobs we made earlier where the x's are in the photo. The knobs should be sandwiched between the two head pieces. (I forgot to add the knobs and had to go back and add them later, so some of the picture moving forward may not have them.) Now you can sew the two sides. 

The next step is to attach the crown to the top opening of the head piece. Carefully pin to the top and sew around.

Now you can flip the whole thing right side out and it should look like this (with the knobs being where the x's are):

I stuffed the crown a little for shape using polyfil, then pulled the lining pieces out and added a couple stitches in the center to hold the polyfil in. (This is where I ran into trouble. The lining piece made the whole thing to tight for my son, and I ended up having to go back and sew an extra piece of felt to the inside. I think adding some inches to the lining will help you avoid this.)

Push the lining back into the crown and Voila you are done! Put in on your sweet little Frankie and admire your craftiness!

 If you have any questions, I would love to answer them! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!!