Baby Costumes

So I'm making my girls their costumes this year because most costumes are so outrageous in price and are so cheaply made. Plus when I was a girl my mom made all my costumes and I loved it, So it's definitely a tradition I'm looking forward to carrying on with my girls. I chose to do an Indian and Cowgirl this year because my husband and his sister have a childhood photo of them as an Indian and Cowgirl for Halloween when they were young and I thought it'd be cute to replicate their costumes. So far I have gotten the dress done for the Indian costume with my older daughter will be wearing. It was very easy to make and I spent under $10 for my materials. Mind you I had a few things before making the costume such as a sewing machine, thread, hot glue gun, hot glue sticks, and ribbon which could make your project more expensive if you don't already own them.

For this project I purchased:

1. Brown fleece- which only cost $2.47 a yard from wal-mart. I chose to go with this material since it tends to be a bit colder during Halloween.
2. Felt- which cost 23 cents a piece. I used brown and red for the detail on the neck line. Which with the felt all I used to apply the pieces together and onto the dress was hot glue.
3. Fringe- I got the fringe from wal-mart for $2.50 and i sewed that part onto the dress to make sure it was secure.
4. Ribbon- I used black and turquoise ribbon for the design around the neckline and along the fringe on the bottom of the dress to give it a little more detail.

Steps to making the dress:

1. Step one, I used a dress that fits my daughter as a reference to cut out the material. I cut out the front and back shapes. Dipping in a little bit on the front piece so the neck line wouldn't be to tight. When you're cutting out the shapes along your dress reference don't worry about cutting them directly up against the dress. It's probably better if you leave an extra inch all the way around your pattern because you will lose some of it sewing your dress together.
2. Step two, I sewed the zipper into the back pattern of the dress. I cut a slit directly down the middle of the back the length of the zipper. Then I pinned the zipper with the material folded in a bit so there wont be an ugly seam hanging around the zipper. Once my zipper was pinned I sewed it down. Most of you probably already know this but if you're new to sewing make sure at the beginning and end don't forget to back stitch so your seams do not come undone.
3. Step three, I sewed my exposed edges of the dress. This would be the bottom of the front and back pattern, the neckline and the arm holes. Don't worry about the tops of the sleeves or sides of the dress yet cause that will be taken care of when you sew the patterns together. 
4. Step four, My dress has a zig zag pattern sewed into the front and back just for a little extra design. It's very hard to see it in these pictures but if you choose to do that design now is the time for that. All I did was freehand zig zags across the whole front and back patterns along the bottom.
5. Step five, I made my design for the neck line. I cut out the shape I wanted on my neckline with the brown felt and then I used ribbon and hot glued my first design down. Then I cut out triangles also felt and glued those in between my ribbon. 
6. Step six, I hot glued all my pieces that were being attached to the dress. First I did the neckline. My pattern was already made so all I had to do was glue it down along the neck line. I left the bottom of the pattern open to glue down last because I was tucking fringe underneath the bottom. So this is when the fringe goes in and I hot glued this piece of fringe since it was going to be covered with the pattern anyway. Once my fringe was in place I glued down the rest of the pattern and then I used a piece of black ribbon to hide the seams and glued that over the top. After this was done I glued my turquoise ribbon to the bottom of the dress right above the fringe. 
7. Step seven, Sew the front and back pieces together! Place your pieces right side in and pin the dress down the sides about a 1/4 inch in sew down the sides making sure to back stitch at the top and bottom so your dress doesn't come apart. After the sides you will do the same thing with the straps at the top.   
8. Step eight, Lastly after the dress was all done I used orange puffy paint and added the dots on the neckline pattern. Make sure to do this step last so the dress can sit and dry for a good couple of hours.

This dress was very easy and fun to make. I'm in no way a great sewer. I teach myself mostly everything I know or have picked it up from watching my mom when I was a kid. If you can work a sewing machine and know how to use a hot glue gun you can make this dress.

I still have a headband and bow and arrow to make as well. I will be posting more pictures in a couple days when I have everything together and actually on my little girl so you can get an idea of what it looks like.