Superhero Costume - Guest Post by Jaimee from Craft Interupted

Good morning my dear readers I have a special treat for you today!  Another wonderful gal who volunteered to help me out while I am crazy busy with Halloween orders for my Etsy shop.  I am pleased to hand it over to Jaimee from Craft, Interrupted.  (PS check out these amazingly cute Lullaby Baby Bears!  I think these would make a great baby gift!)

Hi!  I'm Jaimee from Craft, Interrupted, and I'm popping over here today to B is for Boy! do my first ever Guest Post.  So exciting!  I'm also a mom of boys.  I have three wild and goofy tornadoes of testosterone.  Our house is full of Star Wars, plastic reptiles (and a real one, along with fish, frogs, and a dog), and lots of dump trucks.  If you came here, you'd be stepping over scooters and muddy boots on the front stoop.  You'd see Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Lego City books on the coffee table.  You would get thumped with a giant inflatable crayon, and have a caped crusader peek around the corner to pelt you with a nerf bullet.

If you could navigate the Angry Bird-esque set-up in the front hallway, you'd enter my studio.  My own room for crafting and sewing, now that we moved into a bigger house.  About a year ago, I started a blog about my projects and inspirations.  I'm so happy to have rediscovered my love of all things creative, and to finally carve out time for myself , to sew and craft, even if it is repeatedly interrupted by requests for more apple juice ; )

I'm going to share a recent project with you that was a test run for an idea I had for my etsy shop.  My creative goal for my etsy work has been to develop a line of dress-up costumes that could be comfortably worn by kids with sensory problems, like my oldest son.  Most of these children cannot tolerate the scratchy fabric or accessories of costumes, or the way they rumple up over top of your regular clothing.  Many of these children have huge difficulty participating in Halloween activities.  I read a lot of special needs blogs (and also write one of my own), and I was struck by some of the posts around Halloween time, about how these sensory kids couldn't wear costumes, or just wore the same football jersey they had worn for the prior three years and called that their costume.  I'm sure some of these kids want to be princesses and superheros, too, and I started thinking of how I could make that easier.

As a bonus, my design is also Mom-Friendly, in the fact that it is easy on/easy off.  Dress-up time in our house usually consists of ten minutes of straightening and stuffing and velcro'ing...and whining and wiggling...and two minutes later my superhero wants to switch characters, or move on to Legos, and we are already on to the disrobing.  Take this process times three children, with the impatient jumping up and down or the Spiderman web flinging poses as you are trying to get the sleeves up...well, let's just say Momma sometimes wants to hide even as they approach me with the first outfit ; )

Here's what I did - we had a Superman costume bought on consignment after Halloween, thin fabric that started ripping and fraying at the seams after a month or so of use.  I thought this was a perfect guinea pig to try out my idea.  I ripped seams apart and cut the front of the costume to fit onto an apron shape of felt.  Once I got them adjusted to the same shape, I sewed right sides together, flipped, ironed, and top stitched. 

I added a velcro waist strap and an elastic neck strap, and then shortened the cape and sewed it along the neck.  I need to fiddle with the measurements of the straps, and the elastic bit, and think about how to get around the front part looking like a skirt (on the boy costumes at least), BUT, I was happy with how it came out.

It goes over the head, and the strap goes around the back to velcro at the side.  No sleeves, no legs, just quick as a superhero in a telephone booth ; )

My little man like it so much, he wore it to the bus stop to meet his big brothers : )

My five year old wore it at the dinner table that night, too.  Ha!  I love having saved this Superman costume by transforming it into an easier version with a longer lifespan.  I'm looking forward to tinkering with the pattern, and at some point in the future, I will have apron costumes for sale in my etsy shop!

Huge thanks to Erica for letting me visit here today to share one of my creations, as well as the story behind it.  Craft on!

I think Jaimee has hit the jackpot with this idea! 

Thanks again Jaimee!