Sunday, October 18, 2015

Pottery Barn Rainbow Costume Hack

This costume was featured on:
A friend of mine emailed me this picture and asked if I thought I could make it.  I'm pretty sure it was meant to look like the Pottery Barn version I kept finding on the internet.

The hardest part was deciding if I wanted to use fleece and stuff the arcs of the rainbow, or use felt and let it stand up on its own.

After a texting discussion with my sister, I decided felt was the way to go. And she pointed out something that made my life 100 times easier.  Those arcs are all just sewn on top of each other, rather than sewing curved seams.  The seams were what I was worried about, so once I realized I could do it without curved seams, life got easier!


Not having a 2 year old at home, I wasn't sure how wide I would need to make the red arc, so I bought waaaaaaay too much felt.  I knew it needed to be off the bolt because the precut pieces are too small, but I over estimated by a.lot.

When I got to her house, I decided 28 inches wide would stand out in a cute way from her body and I did 18 inches from the top of her neck down.


Next, I cut each arc of the rainbow for one piece.  I should have cut both the front and back at the same time, but I wasn't sure if the lengths would be right and I didn't want to waste the felt.  It would have been a time saver, because I had to keep rethreading the top thread.

I had planned to be all geometry teacher-like and get a string and do a proper arc, but we all know that's just not how I sew. I winged it, in case that's not clear.

Starting with the orange onto the red, I zigzagged in the color that would be on top for each one.  I didn't change the  bobbin thread because that didn't show through.

In the original picture, the front shows the arm sticking out the front in the yellow arc.  I didn't like the look of that, I wasn't really sure how I was going to pull that off and I kind of thought she might freak out of her hands were sort of free but really trapped in front of her.



I thought the easiest thing would be to make two little straps so it would hang like a sandwich board.  Her head could go in easily and her arms would be free.


And then when she had it on, I got the idea to zigzag from from the bottom up about 12 inches so she had plenty of arm room but it stayed together.


The only white felt I could find was glittery, which I actually thought might be fun for clouds.  It wasn't especially thick, so I doubled the layers because it would have looked cheap to see the rainbow through the clouds.

I freehanded the clouds, in case you can't tell that, either.  And zigzagged the edges of those too.  Until this project, I don't think I've ever zigzagged around something for it to be seen.  I kind of liked it!


And after a major meltdown because I tried to get her to put it on, we finally coaxed her into putting i on and she was thrilled.  It ended up more like a cute dress than I was expecting.  The clouds stick out a little on the sides, so it ended up almost looking like an A line dress when she had it on.

And we found out what a cute chair cover it makes when she's finished!

Linking up here:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/10/clever-chicks-blog-hop-161-chicken.html
http://lifeasweknowitbypaula.blogspot.com/
http://www.sewcando.com/2015/10/craftastic-monday-link-party-costume.html
http://www.skiptomylou.org/made-by-you-monday-259/
http://julieslifestyle.blogspot.com/2015/10/cooking-and-crafting-with-j-j-21.html
http://olives-n-okra.com/
http://www.flamingotoes.com/2015/10/show-and-tell-link-party-32/
http://www.thesitsgirls.com
http://www.myturnforus.com/2015/10/freedom-fridays-with-all-my-bloggy_22.html

3 comments:

  1. Hello JoAnna,
    Thanks for sharing this awesome rainbow costume with us at Cooking and Crafting with J&J.
    We can't wait to see what you share with us next time! Julie xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. HA! Adorbs!! :) Love the idea!

    Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi JoAnna,
    I really love how cute your costume came out.
    Thanks for sharing this at Cooking and Crafting with J & J.
    We hope to see you again. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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