Mama Makes Halloween

Mama Makes Halloween - Part Two

I split this post in two because it was getting rather long with both costumes. For Part One, click here: Princess Leia

Reptar was a bit more involved.

I started with this pattern:

Which proved to be a good base to start with. The first change I made was to use flannel instead of polar fleece, partly because I prefer natural fibers when sewing (especially for my baby) and partly because I found a remnant of cotton flannel in the right color without even trying.

I did end up having to go back to JoAnn's a total of four times for more fabric - twice because I forgot to bring a swatch with me to match the color (there were two dye lots of the same green flannel) and once because I had miscalculated how much additional fabric I needed. Oh, and then again to get the right color of invisible zipper.

But it was quite a fun costume to put together!

My inspiration

I did not want a contrasting center front section like the pattern called for, so I combined the front and center front pieces before cutting:

I also altered the hood to make the face of Reptar:

I added seam allowance all around the inside of the mouth before cutting it out. And on one side I split the lower jaw into two pieces to make getting the hood on and off easier.

I cut duplicates of the hood pieces from thick Pellon interfacing for stability and from black flannel for the inside of the mouth.

The interfacing made a decently stiff foundation for the head.

I made the spikes by sandwiching more interfacing between two layers of sky blue felt:

And zigzagged around the edges:

I sandwiched them into the seam of the tail:

Then I sandwiched the tail and more of spikes into the back seam of the main body. I also added spikes to the seam along the back and top of the head - I had to open the seam in three places to do so, because I had forgotten to add them before I sewed the whole thing together.

I cut out eyes from orange felt and slitted pupils from black felt, and hand-appliqued them to the sides of the head. Then I cut triangles of white felt for teeth:

Once the teeth were pinned in position and I was happy with the placement, I attached the black flannel hood lining all around the mouth (no photos of this) sandwiching the teeth into the seam. Turning that whole thing right-side-out again was no picnic, let me tell you! I trimmed the seam allowance with pinking shears, but still had to clip very close to the stitching along the inside curves to get everything to lay nicely. And then I had to top-stitch all around the mouth opening to get it to stay that way!

I kept the hood as a separate piece from the jumpsuit, finishing the neckline with a bias facing. This made it much easier to get the sweet pea into the costume, plus I could remove the hood if it was bothering her.

To finish the hood, I attached the two sides of the lower jaw together with a folded triangle of green flannel, and stitched a long folded rectangle to the neck all around the back:

The lower jaw attached to the left side of the hood with a single large snap:

All in all, I'm very proud of my work on this one!

The hood was a bit floppy, so in order to keep the top of the jaw from falling down into her face, I jury-rigged it with a chopstick and some large safety pins: