The Taynors

The Taynors

Thursday, November 12, 2015

DIY Ninja Turtle Halloween Costumes

This year I decided to do something I have never done before.  I made the boys their Halloween costumes!  And I learned how to do some basic sewing in the process.

Ryan declared very early on that he wanted to be Leonardo (because he is the leader) and that Patrick had to be Raphael (because Red is one of his favorite colors).  Ninja turtles are super popular right now, so I had plenty of options for buying one, but I decided to make it myself for the following reasons:

1.  The store bought ones were a little cheesy.
2.  Knowing how popular the turtles are, I also knew that there would be a million little boys in the same costume.  So I wanted them to be a little bit different.
3.  Ryan is in big kid sizes and Patrick is in young toddler sizes, so even if I did buy them at the store they would be in different costumes.  I could not find a costume in a size 24 mo and size 6 that were matching, and appropriately Leo and Raph.
4.  My mom use to make our costumes when we were kids, I wanted to continue that tradition.

Thank goodness for Pinterest.  I was able to search TMNT costumes and found many bloggers with step by step directions.  I needed all the help I could get.  I picked this particular tutorial because it was very detailed and I felt like I could actually do it.

I did need to employee the help of my mother.  I can not sew, haven't done it since 8th grade home-ec, and this costume required a decent amount of sewing.  I pretty much following the bloggers directions step by step.  I also bought white sweat pants and shirts from Amazon and then used  RIT fabric dye to get them green.  I mixed the Kelly Green and the Dark Green color to try to get a little bit darker and more turtle like then the one in the tutorial.  At first I was afraid the color came out too dark, but once it was put together I think it was perfect.

I also decided to buy the boys turtle shells off of Amazon instead of making the shells because I wanted something a little more sturdy.  Dress up clothes go well beyond Halloween in our house, so it was worth the money to have turtle shells they can play with all year round.

I was able to buy all of the supplies at AC Moore or on Amazon.  Once I had everything together, the work did not take long.  One evening I dyed the sweats and washed/dried them to be ready for the the next evening.  I decided to use the stove top method for dying the clothes.  I thought it was the quickest and the cleanest way to do it.  I was nervous to put the dye through my brand new washing machine.  I was happy with the stove top results.  Then it took my mom and I a few hours the second night to cut the fabrics, pin everything in place, stuff the chest, and sew on all the pieces.

The costume turned out perfect.  I was happy and the boys were even happier!  They looked adorable and we now have a simple turtle costume in our dress up box for playtime.  Thanks again The Scrap Shoppe Blog for the inspiration and tutorial on a great boys Halloween costume.

Tons of pictures coming soon!

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