Toy Story Costumes cont: Jessie Chaps & Woody Vest

Supplies:
White Vinyl
Black Felt
Black Piping
Fabric glue - I used Fabri-Tac by Beacon
Sewing stuff.
Jeans you don't want (or that have huge holes in the knees even though they are really nice jeans)

I wanted to use a really heavy fabric for the chaps and vest so they would hang like real leather. luckily the craft store had two large fabric remnants of white vinyl. Nice.

I searched the Internet for Jessie pics and Jessie costumes to find ones that were close to the character. I used this inspiration pic to get a feel for what the chaps should look like>>

Then I just started cutting. I pinned one chap to the pair of pants I was going to donate to this costume, refined the shape a little more, and then cut another one for the other leg.
It is very helpful to have a toddler help you practice being "scary" while you ponder upon the shape of the chaps.
Then using tracing paper, or tissue paper, I cut out some cow print spots that resembled the cow spots on the actual Jessie character's pants.

You can guess the next part. Cut, place, glue.
Finally I sewed the black pipping around the outside edge, and added a few white frills off either chap.

Then, well, this is the part I hadn't thought of till it was upon me. I had to hand sew each chap onto my jeans. I don't know what else I was thinking, but I really thought this step would be easier. It wasn't bad, I'm just not very talented at sewing so it was slow.

Buuut:

wala! Jessie cow chaps!

Honestly the vest is exactly the same process just no black piping.

Using a vest we already had, I just traced the outlines onto the vinyl, cut it out, and sewed the ends together. Poof. Vest!

 Then again with the analyzing Woody's cow print on his vest and making my own similar cow prints.

Lots of glue later...

OH yea. I added a Styrofoam ring and some rope on a safety pin to make pull strings for us both.

How to make a Woody Costume

Woody is actually not too hard of a costume- especially for a guy. Blue jeans, boots, a hat, a red scarf, a sheriff's badge- are all things you either already have or you can get a dollar type store. We actually are not cow people and didn't have boots and couldn't find them for cheap, but the costume turned out just fine anyway. Woody's yellow shirt and cow vest are another story...
Ya see, these two items and the hat, are what make up the Woody caricature. With out them you are just a cowboy, so it is important to make them look as proportionately close as possible.
Okay done lecturing.

I found my yellow shirt at a thrift store. It was actually a challenge to find a "yellow" collared shirt.

The stripes...
How do you think you would put stripes on a shirt??
Yes that is exactly how you do it.
Red fabric marker and a ruler.

Tip: Start with the back so you can get the hang of it on the side that will be covered up by the vest!
I slipped my fabric cutting board under the shirt and could see the grid lines through it! So I just used those as my guides rather than measuring each line!

Tip: For the sleeves, create parallel lines using the top of the sleeve as a guide for the horizontal lines. It doesn't matter where they begin or end really, just keep everything at 90 degree angles. The same goes for the vertical lines. Just as long as they are square to the horizontal lines. (the top of the sleeve in the photo is the part by the horizontal ruler. sorry it looks confusing)

What! It already looks like Woody! In the end I used 7 fabric markers and took 3 trips to Joannes.  You probably could use a sharpie, but they bleed a bit.

Wondering about the vest? We'll get there. Check back soon!

Costume Time

We are going to Disney's Not so Scary Halloween Party this year..

My husband suggested we dress up as a family...

Toy Story Style.

So naturally I couldn't just go BUY Toy Story costumes! (Even though I would guess it is cheaper than making your own when you are ridiculously detailed like I am). So the hunt began...

 I spent half of last week hunting for shirts, hats, fabric and glues of all kinds. Then I spent the rest of the week working on various parts of each costume. My Jessie shirt is the only thing complete at the weekend's end. But I think I will have everything done in time.

I started with a Goodwill $4.95 shirt with 3/4 short sleeves.
(this is going to be in Florida! I'm not wearing long sleeves!)

I had to find a yellow Woodie shirt for Brian, then I could match a yellow fabric for my shirt. Using tracing paper, I drew/traced the shape I wanted, cut it out, fixed things, then used Under Wonder to iron the yellow fabric onto the shirt. This was actually the most difficult part of the whole thing. Ironing onto stretchy material is difficult. You have stretch EVERYTHING so it is perfectly flat before ironing.

Next I drew my Jessie swirls on tracing paper, and then hand traced that onto the yellow fabric. I used Tacky glue and glued down the red rope, but I sewed it down later. I figure I'll be holding Bradley, this stuff needs to stay put!

Many pins were used to hold the rope in place while it dried. I am not a talented sewer, and could have NEVER just sewed these swirls on!

Ta da!

We are slowly approaching:

I tackled the sleeve cuffs next.

Mine are going to be at my elbow though. Which I think is a way cute spin on the costume, but you can decide.

I used tracing paper to make an arm band, then cut it out of the yellow fabric. I ironed the yellow fabric to some really thick Pellon stuff. I don't know what it is.

Then I tried various swirl designs. Big ones and little ones.

Ya gotta go with the little ones, even though they are more work. They look so much closer to the original charater. I didn't want to redraw everything, twice, so I traced it on! Brilliant!!

 Again with the pins.

 A little sewing  and some felt pieces and I have my super cute, Jessie arm cuffs!

Now I need red yarn hair!

Don't worry, I'm working on that too...