assembling the children's costumes is honestly one of the highlights of the year for me. i enjoy the creative challenge, and asher's puss in boots costume is definitely one that pushed me to think a bit outside the box.
for context:
- if you do an internet search for "cat costume", most of the results are pretty feminine looking
- of those results, a large percentage also fall under the "s-e-x-y" category (yeah, not so much)
- we actually owned a cat mask already, but it was too itchy
- i wasn't really up for sewing an entire cat suit (i wanted something more clever, less literal; also it just seemed like a lot of work)
anyway, you can see in the photos the finished product. i ended up sewing a mask. asher chose the colors and details, and supervised the labor. (i remember doing the same thing with my mom--hanging around + watching her work at the sewing machine. i don't know, she probably wanted to be left alone to sew in peace, but i thought it was so interesting and fun!)
i used a leather-like material i found at walmart for the main part of the mask and wool felt for the features. i love sewing with felt, but my experience is the kids find it uncomfortable on their faces; hence, the leathery stuff. i wish i knew what it is called. it isn't stiff like vinyl or shiny like pleather. it's soft with just the tiniest bit of stretch. and just like felt it doesn't fray, so it was a dream to work with.
i also used the "leather" fabric to sew cuffs for his boots. the rest of the costume was assembled with pieces from his closet and the dress-up box. the cape is repurposed from last year's vampire costume. my favorite part of the whole ensemble = the fur trapper hat (from the gap a year or so ago). a last-minute stroke of genius if i do say so myself.
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