Carter's Costume: Part Two, Monkey See, Monkey Do...

After deciding that my little man would make a great Monkey for Halloween, I did a google search and found the most perfect costume to base it off of.  And it didn't look that hard to mimic!

First I began with our undergarments, I picked up a pair of brown sweat pants, and a tan turtle neck (they didn't have brown of coarse). And I also got a brown and tan striped shirt that might look cute too.

Then using those as my color base, I went to my fabric shop and picked up 3/4 of a yard of brown fleece, and 1/4 of a yard of tan fleece. For a total of 5.99!  Much better than the original costume price!

Then I went to work, drafting a pattern from a hooded sweatshirt that currently fits.   I took a couple sheets of printer paper and taped them big enough to fit my sweatshirt on it.

I tucked my sleeves inside the sweatshirt and pretty much traced around to base my pattern from. Because I wanted a hood and not a hat, I traced the hood off of this sweatshirt to create three piece pattern too.  I also made a pattern for my belly, ears, and tail by free handing onto my paper and cutting out.

Cutting out my fabric was next. This was pretty straight forward.

Sew!  The best part! At least I think so.  I started by sewing my belly onto my front piece, but left it open and stuffed it with a little bit of pillow stuffing to make him a chubby monkey. Then, I sewed the shoulders together, and then the sides.

Sew!  The best part! At least I think so.  I started by sewing my belly onto my front piece, but left it open and stuffed it with a little bit of pillow stuffing to make him a chubby monkey. Then, I sewed the shoulders together, and then the sides.

After trying it on, I decided that it wasn't chubby enough, and ripped out my side seams and added a rectangle about 4 inches wide on each side to make him extra chubby!

Sew my additional sides in, and retry on. Perfect fit! Onto the hood!  I assembled the hood first and then attached to the back of the monkey suit.  Added my tail and done!  Perfect, nice and warm for our Upstate NY Halloween night, which I feel like the last couple years it has been freezing or raining. Yuck.

And that's it!  How cute did it turn out???  Love it!

(*Sorry about the black and white images, they color was way off as this was a midnight oil project!*)