STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE COSTUME

Nicole wanted to be strawberry shortcake. The costumes I saw on the magazines were very cute but Nicole would freeze. That’s the problem with the majority of the costumes; they are cute but not really made for October weather. And if you are wearing a coat then what’s the purpose of having a costume on if no one can see it?!

I decided to make Nicole’s costume just like we did Jerry’s. I printed a picture of Strawberry shortcake and took it with me to the store to buy the materials.

And, let me point out… I am not a seamstress!!!

Figure out how much fabric to buy. I didn’t measure… I just guessed! Went to Joanne Fabrics and looked through the entire store for any fabric that had strawberries on it. I also bought a package of ½” wide elastic.

I had never made a skirt before!

Here’s what I did:

1- Fold the fabric short end to short end (unfinished end to unfinished end) with right sides together. I sewed them together. This seam goes down the back of the skirt.

2- Make the elastic waistband casing. Turn down the top edge of your skirt 1” and sew. (Do the same thing to the bottom edge of the skirt and sew.) Don’t forget to leave a 1” opening at the back seam to insert the elastic through.

3- Stretch the elastic and measure the waist. Cut it, and then attach a safety pin to the end of it. Thread the elastic through the waistband casing. Overlap the ends and then sew them together. Sew the opening in the casing shut.

The skirt was done… now I needed to do the shirt. Again I had never made a shirt before. Nicole is always cold when we go trick-or-treating so I decided to use both the polyester fleece for the main part of the shirt and for the arms I used the same material as the skirt.

So here’s what I did:

1- I went in Nicole’s closet and picked a shirt that fit her to use as my cutout pattern.

2- I folded the fabric in two pieces. Then I traced the shirt and then cut out the pattern piece. (I traced the sleeves separate then the chest and back because I used two different types of fabric)

3- Sew the chest and the back parts together. I used my sewing machine. When you sew make sure you do it inside out so you don’t see the sewing lines after.

4- Sew the arms to the shirt (I can’t really explain to you how I did it because I had to keep trying until I got it right. I got it wrong a couple of times.) (Next time I’ll do a video clip so you can see me doing it.)

5- Hem the bottom of the shirt.

6- I used elastic to make cuffs on her sleeves.

Once I finished the skirt and shirt I decided to add a strawberry to the shirt so it wouldn't look so plain.

I made the hat the same way that I made Jerry's Mario hat.