Sewing for Halloween: Bat Boy

Happy Halloween 2012!

Bat cape and headpiece: Made by me | Top: Circo via Target | Pants: Toughskins | Shoes: Sperry

At first he wanted to be a pumpkin bat which I thought was a fun idea. But then changed his mind and wanted to be just a bat which was helpful for me since I didn't have to make him a pumpkin costume as well. Anyway, I liked the look of this bat costume at MADE, although I didn't really want the shiny silver or purple lining. Instead of polyester lining, I used black cotton muslin. It's not really a tutorial but I figured out what needed to be done and it didn't take unreasonably long. The most challenging part of the costume was probably attaching the bat ears on the headpiece.

Process notes on the bat cape:

After cutting out your cape and lining pieces (measure your child's arm span then add an extra inch for seam allowances), pin them right sides together. Sandwich the straps between the two fabrics. Here I used four straps -- two for the shoulders and two for the forearms. Measure your child first to figure out where the straps should go.

To finish the straps, use velcro or sew directly on the cape:

For my straps, the only black webbing available at the Jo-Ann's here was a stretchy cotton/nylon webbing. Turns out, if you use stretchy straps, you don't need to use the velcro at all; you simply sew the ends of the straps to the cape lining, which is more secure. I definitely wish I'd figured this out beforehand since it is tedious work to apply iron-on velcro. Instead, I decided to sew the ends of the straps on around the velcro squares, managing to cover up the velcro. That's time I'll never get back again, but oh well, live and learn. And hopefully you won't make the same missteps I did!

xo, Gladys