Monsters Inc Costumes How To

Monsters Inc. Costumes Tutorial!

So a lot of people have been pinning these costumes and asking how I made them.  I figure even though its a little after the fact I might as well link up a quick how to for anyone who is interested.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the process but I will do my best to explain what I did.

Now let me just make sure you are well aware- I am by no means a seamstress.  I just get an image in my mind and do my best to whip it up.  Sometimes- ok most times that involves a glue gun and I try to limit the amount of sewing I do- since that never looks as good as I would hope. Plus I like quick so since I never use pins I can't do too much fine sewing anyway.

Sulley

Sulley was by far the most difficult costume mostly because I had nothing already available for it.  I bought a couple yards of fleece fabric in the bright blue (to get the most accurate sully fur without lots of shedding).  Then I got a yard or so of the purple for the dots and light blue for the belly.

My husband works at a hospital and wears scrubs everyday so I grabbed some of his scrubs to use as a pattern.  I chose scrubs because they are baggy and would allow a larger appearance to the sulley costume. 
I folded the fleece so that I could cut both the front and back at the same time and I put the scrubs on top.  I traced around the scrubs adding an inch all along the edge.
Next I removed the scrubs and cut. 
Then I sewed along the edges leaving as much room as I could.  I of course left holes for the hands and feet and when I got to the neck I sewed it up from the shoulders then afterwards I cut slit down the middle back.  When I was finished I sized it up on my husband.  I made some adjustments due to my lack of sewing skills and then added Velcro to the back to allow him to hop in and allow me to be able to lock him in there! 
Then I cut an oval out of the light blue fabric that fit on the belly- I had my husband keep the costume on until I got the size of the belly just right.  Then once the oval was the right size I guess you could  say I "frayed" the edges a bit so it looked like fur- I think this really helped with the whole look of the costume!  Then I glued it on!  That's right I glued it so I didn't have to sew it! Plus I liked the finished look a bit better.
Next I cut random sized circles and ovals out of the purple fleece and layed them out on the front of the costume.  Once I liked how ti looked I glued these on as well.  I did the same for the back.  Remember you want these to be random and not symmetrical because it is a monster after all. 

The head of sulley was a little tricky. In fact I am having trouble remembering exactly how I did it. (See below) I believe what I did was play around a little with a piece of fabric.  I made a loose tube- kindof by folding the fabric in half (sewing it) and had it sewn at the top close it off.  Then I cut the hole out for the face.  This might be the simplest way- I added the little place right above the forehead just to make it seem more read and have less hair showing but having it like a hood would probably be just fine. 

I had some gray cotton fabric lying around so I traced some large horns out of that.  Then I sewed the edges of that and left the widest side open.  I turned it right side out and filled it with cotton.  Then I sewed these onto the hood/hat- just so they would stay in the upright position.  Next I added more purple dots to the head. 

Finally Sulley was done!

Mike

So the mike costume was easy!!  I went down to savers and found the brightest green sweatshirt I could find (it can have something on it and you can turn it inside out- mine was blank!).  The one I got was also v- neck fleece which was perfect for a monster so that was a bonus!  When I got home I cut the arms off and I used the back as the front so the v was in the back and I could add Velcro to cinch it up later.  I then folded the bottom and sewed a new seam with room for an elastic.  Then I cut two holes in the inside of the fabric to get the elastic in and then out and put the elastic in and tied it up to fit my little guys waist- this gives the ball look!  Then I cut out the eye and a mouth from some black and white felt I had lying around.  I used denim for the blue of the eye.
We bought the green pants from the girls section at kohls (shhhh don't tell).  Then we bought the green shirt at a thrift store.  The Mike hat was bought at iparty (they have them in all colors)  I printed the monsters inc. logo from the internet. I had some gray fabric lying around and made little triangle pillows out of some small piece.  I cut 4 triangles and sewed two of them together on two sides, stuffed them with fill and sewed up the other side then I glue gunned them to the top of the hat.  Sorry I am not more technical- I do not have much training in any of these areas!!

Celia

So Celia was pretty easy. I got my purple shirt and pants from Walmart and then bought fabric to match for my head piece.  I bought the scaly fabric at JoAnns it was probably with the mermaid stuff but it worked perfect.  When I made the dress I just took one of my dresses and traced it then sewed the sides and tops and added a hem.  It was a cinch! I made it a little big- tried it on sewed a bit to adjust to how I wanted it to fit- no pins no tracing- not smart but it worked!  Then I found an old lei lying around that looked like the cute trip around the collar and glued that on with a glue gun.
The head dress was the trickiest part.  First I took some jersey fabric that I had from an old purple shirt and made a little cap- you can find a newborn baby cap tutorial all over the internet.  But to sum it up you just cut out two large half circles a little bigger than your crown and sew the round part of the half circles, turn it right side out and you've got it. I used this as my base.  It doesn't have to be perfect it just needs to fit. I  cut long about 15 in x 4 in strips of fabric and folded them in half the long way- then I sewed up the side and one end with a somewhat rounded shape.  Then I turned it right side out and stuffed it with cotton.  The closed rounded out end with the nicer finished look was the end I glued the googly eyes on because it had a nicer edge.  I repeated this process to create a total of 5 snakes. Then I cut little pieces of felt for the tongues and glued them on along with the eyes. I made some long sewn pieces without stuffing or eyes to add on top of the other pieces to kindof make the head look like a pile of hair. I glued like a crazy woman until it looked just right. I threw on a pair of flats and I was ready to go!

Boo

The hardest part of this costume was having a baby girl who was so adorable and looks kindof like boo but I pulled that part off like a superstar so the rest was a cinch!!

The Boo costume obviously was so easy.  Purple pants and a pink shirt.  I made our pink shirt out of one of my old pink shirts so I could get the longer nightgown tunic length so it would be more accurate.  Throw some pig tails and pink ribbons or bows on her and you are good to go!!

So there it is folks.  Nothing too fancy- not too tricky and believe me when I say my sewing skills are very very basic.  The nice thing about halloween costumes is that they are usually only worn once and don't need to be perfect.  They are just plain fun!Sorry this is just a quick overview but people were asking and I did my best to remember what I did.  I will try in the future to do tutorials as I go.

Learning to write your name!

When I was studying during my undergrad, I had an AMAZING professor. Katie had taught special education and knew the ins and outs of the profession.  But more than that, she was creative and really individualized everything she would do for her students.  She taught us this one neat trick that I used with a lot of my students who had low fine motor skills.  I have also used it with my own children.  Its a fun and adaptive way to teach writing.  I told my aunt about it recently and she asked if I would make some for her preschool students who have Autism.  So I thought I would share it with you.  Weather you are a teacher, a mom with small children or someone homeschooling their children this is an easy and reusable way to work on writing!

First I grabbed some cardstock and wrote the students name with a thick marker.  Then I laminated the paper.  After I cut the size I wanted I was ready to go.

I grabbed my hot glue gun and traced around the edges of the name. (When you are doing this keep in mind that you will be leaving enough room for a dry erase marker to trace right where your letters are.  You are creating a thick barrier so the marker is easily and correctly guided.

Once you are done you let it dry.  Put added glue on if needed.  Now I know this is not the most atractive looking diy you have ever seen but it really works.  I would use this in my classroom and have the students practice their names while they were waiting for the other students to arrive.  When they were done you could easily erase the name and use it over and over again.  In addition as the student gets more proficient you can peel and reglue with a thinner line.  Also you could slowly remove one letter at a time as they got more independent with it, thus preparing them for complete independence.  I love this creation so therefore I think EVERYONE should know about it.  Enjoy!!

Candy Corn Craft

 I have seen these cute candy corn yarn decorations before so this year I decided it was time to try making them! I had a weird experience while making them, it was easier than expected, yet harder than expected. Let me explain...

These little darlings, don't actually use any glue. The styrafoam acts as velcroe and holds the yarn well enough while you start wrapping the the multiple layers of yarn. When I was done with one color I would leave the end sticking up into the area of the next color so as I was wrapping the next color it would secure it. When I got to the top and was finished wrapping the white, I took the end and poked it into the top of the foam with a pencil.









I used the cheapest yarn I could find at Walmart, although I will say the orange wasn't that cheep. They didn't have a shade of orange that I liked in the cheapest brand, so I had to go a step up.


The foam cones I found at Jo-Ann's and I had a coupon. Good thing since they cost more than I thought they would.

This project took me about two hours to complete, mostly because I was watching television while I was doing it. As you can see in this picture if you are looking at the cone from above you can see the top is still green, I think I will paint the top of the cones white with some acrylic paint so it blends better.





You can really make as many as you want, or just one, I just tend to like odd numbers of different sizes. They are super cute! I can't decide if they will be a center piece of my table, or on my fireplace mantle. Suggestions anyone?

Simple Halloween Craft

A friend of mine called me up the other day and asked if I would be interested in doing an easy Halloween craft with my kids, because she had some extra supplies from doing it with her granddaughter. I said sure and off I went to pick up the supplies. What was the craft you ask? Pumpkin jars! (My kids are having so much fun painting!!)


Here are the supplies you need: jars of different sizes and shapes (preferably without labels), orange acrylic paint, black acrylic paint and spray mod podge.





First you paint the jars orange, you can use a brush or your fingers! :)


















Then you paint the tops of the jars black. 










Once the orange paint dries you then paint your faces on the "pumpkin" (We practiced different faces on paper before actually painting them. I also laid the jars down next to the paper so my daughter could see about the size she had to work with.)

                   

After the face dries then spray the "pumpkin" with the mod podge. This will help the paint not to chip and give it a nice sheen since the acrylic paint is flat.

Now we made a mistake while doing ours. I had the jars upside down as we painted the orange on them so that we could paint the bottom of the jar, but when it came time to paint the faces, I forgot to turn them right side up. So when you make yours, just remember the lid should be on the top of the pumpkin to act as it's stem. I think even though they are upside down they are still pretty cute on my porch! And it is always fun to do an activity with your kids, especially when it is a manageable activity with only 4 steps and no sharp knives!!

I went to Walmart and bought some battery operated tea lights in the Christmas section. I will put  one tea light in the small jars and two in the big jars. You'll have to forgive our camera, it isn't fantastic, but you get the idea about them glowing. 

Another great thing about these pumpkins is that they won't spoil and start to rot in a few weeks, you can keep them for year after year!! 

Halloween DIY

 

These cute Halloween decorations can be made very quickly and very cheaply. They are simply, used bowling pins (donated to me by my local bowling alley) cheese cloth, black paint pen, mod podge, and  brown stain. It is as easy as it looks. 

I simply draped the cheese cloth on the bowling pin for the ghost. I did put a dab of mod podge on his head to keep it in place. And his face is on the bowling pin, NOT the cheese cloth.

The mummy is wrapped in cheese cloth strips with mod podge painted on the bowling pin. After it was wrapped up I dipped a paper towel in some stain and rubbed it all over the mummy to make it appear to be dirty.  Simple and fast!!