spider halloween costume

Tim has been bugging me for 4 years to make the halloween costumes instead of buy them. My reply has always been "who do you think I am?" Both of our mom's handmade all of their kids' costumes but I knew that I didn't have that kind of knowledge. But this year, I'm not sure what came over me. I felt like I could make anything that the boys wanted and even seriously considered making them both dinosaurs.

Probably for the best, Logan's dinosaur phase was short-lived and he settled on Spider-man which I refused to make because I knew it would look homemade. So I was down to making a costume for just one kid and a small one at that--how hard could that really be?

As it turns out, I pleasantly surprised myself!  To go along with the theme, I made Trenton a spider.  Amazingly, I was able to find a black pajama one-piece and a black beanie hat so I only had to make the vest.  I am very proud to say that I constructed the vest without a pattern.  I used some black furry fabric for the spider's hump and black fleece for the vest to keep him warm.   I also added 4 additional stuffed legs to the sides of the vest.

I thought I understood how to attach the back and vest together, but I messed up something (I'm still not quite sure what) and I had to top stitch the vest to the hump. One side turned out a little crooked, but since it's all black, I didn't really care that much--it's for a one-year-old afterall.

And I am still having a hard time understanding zippers. I still haven't found an explanation of how to sew on a zipper that I can visualize so I usually end up trying to visualize my own way. Inevitably, I screw it up once or twice, but I'm sure with more practice I will get better. I also used the wrong type of zipper. I have always used a non-separating zipper, so I didn't even think that I would need something different this time. I needed a separating zipper for the vest, but I used a non-separating zipper (if that's what they are called) so the costume was more of a pullover than a vest--but again it's for a one-year-old and he didn't seem to care either way.

I think it turned out pretty great for my first one (although it was nothing fancy)!  I've seen a lot better online, but I know I'll get better over time.  Perhaps my husband knew all along that I had it in me.