“Batman and Robin” Part 2

The Robin costume is done!  I don’t know who is more excited – me, Noah or Elijah!  🙂

[If you are just tuning in, click here to view the Batman costume post – which by the way was linked on the Craftaholics Anonymous and Jolynn’s Hobby Shop pages on Facebook!!].

Here is how the Robin costume came to be . . .

SUPPLIES (less than $12)

• 1 yard green fleece – for sleeper (JoAnn sale price – $4.49)
• 1/2 yard black taffeta (JoAnn sale price – $3)
• 1/8 yard black felt – shared with Batman Costume (JoAnn sale price – $0.37)
• 1/8 yard yellow felt – shared with Batman Costume (JoAnn sale price – $0.37)
• 1/4 yard red felt – (JoAnn sale price – $0.75)
• 1/4 inch wide black elastic – for cape & mask (JoAnn – $0.49)
• 20 inch green zipper – for sleeper (JoAnn – $2.29)
• 2 decorative buttons (from home that matched the Batman Costume)
• Sticky velcro (from Grandma)
• Clear thread – to eliminate changing bobbins! (from home)
• Vintage Kwik Sew baby sleeper pattern (from Grandma)

• Note: Fleece material is great for keeping baby warm but any fleece sleeper will need to be sized a bit larger to accommodate – it’s not as stretchy as the fabric normally used for sleepers.
• I followed sewing instructions included in the pattern for the majority of the sleeper.
• I DID NOT use sewing instructions for the footies, arm ribbing, or neck ribbing – instead, I seamed the arm holes, leg holes and neck opening to finish the edges.

LOGO

Easy-peasy.

• I found a graphic logo of Robin’s symbol online and re-sized the file to be 3″ wide to balance the size of the sleeper and the red-felt shirt.
• I printed two copies of the logo, and cut one to be the black oval pattern and one to be the yellow “R” pattern.
• Both were cut from their respective pieces of felt and machine sewn to each other.

RED SHIRT
Stay with me – this will be the most complicated part of the whole costume – but it is still do-able!

• Shirt pieces were traced directly from the fleece sleeper (allowing room for a seam) onto red felt so that it would be an exact fit (2 pieces for the back and 2 pieces for the front).
• I seamed the two back pieces together, and the two front pieces at the sides to the back, leaving the front of the shirt open.
• The shirt was machine stitched directly to the back-side of the sleeper first – at the neck, arms, and bottom.
• The Robin logo was machine stitched to the right side of the front of the shirt.
• The shirt was then machine stitched directly to the front-side of the sleeper at the neck, arms and bottom (still leaving the front of the shirt unattached on either side at the zipper).
• I trimmed the right-front side of the shirt to be even with the seam of the zipper and then hand-stitched the red felt to the zipper for a clean edge.
• I allowed the left side of the shirt to overlap the zipper (to hide it) and machine stitched the felt to the left side of the zipper to secure it.

SHIRT EMBELISHMENTS

• I hand-sewed two buttons to the front of the sleeper to attach the cape to.
• 8 yellow rectangles were cut from yellow felt (1-1/2″ wide X 1/2″ high).
• I machine sewed rectangles together in pairs (to strengthen them) and then stitched them to the left of the zipper directly to the shirt (and sleeper – also by machine).
• I used small squares of sticky velcro to fasten the yellow rectangles to the right side of the red shirt (keeping that green zipper hidden underneath the red felt shirt).

CAPE

My favorite part of the entire costume – If I could get away with it – I would make myself one :).

• I cut the black taffeta fabric across the top and seamed it in the middle so that it became 1 yard wide.
• I trimmed two inches off of each side of the cape.
• I seamed the right, left, and top sides of the cape.
• I cut the cape to be 19″ long (based on Noah’s height) and seamed the bottom.
• I threaded the 1/4 inch wide black elastic through the top seam of the cape and measured the gather to drape around his shoulders and fasten to the buttons.
• The elastic was seamed into a loop at the end of the cape that enables the cape to be fastened to the sleeper via it’s buttons.

LEGS

• Leg pieces were traced directly from the sleeper pant (allowing room for a seam) onto black felt so that they would be an exact fit.
• Leg pieces were seamed, turned inside out and hand-sewn onto the sleeper (top and bottom)

BELT

• The belt was created from two pieces of black felt (machine sewn together) 1.5 inches wide by the length of Noah’s waist.
• The buckle of the belt was made from two pieces of yellow felt (2 inches square) stitched together with a black felt piece (1.5 inches square) stitched to the middle.
• The buckle was machine sewn onto one side of the belt
• I placed sticky velcro to the back of the opposite side and to the belt itself.

MASK

Grandma and Mike think it’s funny that I actually made the Robin mask for a 7 month old.  As expected, he will not wear it.  BUT it is super cute and I didn’t feel like the costume was finished without it.

• I placed Noah in the Baby Bijorn facing me so that I could measure his face (with minimal craziness) to make my own pattern for the mask.
• I measured the following:
  – The left-most part of his left eyebrow to right-most part of his right
  eyebrow (5 inches)
  – The distance between his eyebrows (1 inch)
  – The distance from the center of his eyebrow to his face – the height of
  his eye socket (1.5 inches)
• I plotted the previously mentioned measurements onto a piece of paper (to make the “eyes” of the mask) and connected the dots with the curvature of a cup.
• After the “eyes” of the mask were plotted, I measured one inch from every plot point to get the shape of the remainder of the mask and connected the dots again with the curvature of a cup.
• The pattern was used to trace two masks onto black felt, which were machine stitched together for strength.
• I measured elastic around Noah’s head (again very tricky with a baby!) and stitched it between the two masks.

Here’s the finished product (minus said mask!):

It is much more difficult to get a full body shot because he’s so squirmy (and heavy!) but you all get the idea.  So excited for the boys’ first Halloween together :).