Curious George & Banana Costumes

I'm pretty sure dressing up these girls is just going to get more and more fun each year. This idea all started when I was explaining to Raleigh what dressing up meant and asking her who she wanted to be for Halloween this year. I'm not sure she fully understood the concept but every time we talked about and each time I asked her who she wanted to be she said "mun-tee dowge" which means "monkey George" (what she calls Curious George). I wanted the twins to dress as something that went along with whatever she picked out so inevitably the idea of bananas came to mind. Also very fitting since they inhale those things like they breathe air. It was pretty fun to come up with how I was going to create their costumes. I'm a big fan of creating a costume that doesn't cost and arm and leg as well as being able to use pieces of it over again. I'm proud to say that all three of their costumes  I created took only one stop and cost me less than $25 total (Thank you Wal-Mart)!

Monkey George costume materials:

brown long sleeve t-shirt, brown pants/sweats/leggings, tan felt, brown felt, cotton, needle and thread

I started with the shirt and tan felt, cutting out a half oval shape that would be used for the chest piece on the shirt. Lay down the tan felt on top of the shirt to get a good idea of how big you will want this to be. Once its on the shirt draw the half oval shape to fit just right. Cut out your shape and lay it down on the shirt again. I used pin needles to hold the felt in place so it wouldn't move as I sewed it on. Take your needle and thread (with enough thread to go around the whole piece) and hand stitch the felt piece on top of the t-shirt.

Next, take your brown felt and draw a monkey tail shape on one half of the felt. Cut out that shape and trace it onto the other half (remaining) of the felt and then cut out your second shape. Lay both pieces on top of each other so they are aligned evenly. Again, I used pin needles to hold both piece in place as I sewed around. Take your needle and thread (preferably with a matching brown color thread) and sew the two pieces together around the very edge. Once you are about a quarter of the way finished turn the tail inside out and stuff it with cotton to give it the nice 3D look. Once your cotton is filled to where you left off sewing, stitch together the rest of the tail and close it off. Now that your tail is finished take the very end of it and place it onto the back of the brown pants in the place you want it to hang. Sew the tail to the pants! Voula! Now You have a monkey costume!

Banana costume materials:

white long sleeve onsie, white nylons, RIT yellow dye, yellow and cream color felt, hot glue gun, needle and thread. 

First thing I did for these was dye the white nylons with the RIT dye. I googled how to use the dye to get the best result of the color I wanted. For the nylons I wanted it to be bright like a banana peel so I left them in the dye for about and hour to an hour and a half. I knew I wanted the onsies to be a lighter yellow color so I didn't want them to be dyed as long. After dyeing the nylons they need to washed to get out excess dye so I decided to wash the white onsies with them to see if they would take on the excess dye from the nylons. It worked perfectly! Once the nylons were washed I separated them from the onsies and washed out the onsies one more time to dilute the color a little more. (This isn't necessary, its just what you prefer). 

The next thing I did was make the banana peels. Much like how you make the monkey tail, I took the cream felt and made the shape of half a banana. Once you make the shape cut it out and lay it on top of a yellow felt piece and trace it. Cut out your yellow felt piece and place the cream felt shape and yellow felt piece on top of each other. I used a hot glue gun to attach these pieces together. I was able to get two shapes out of each felt piece I used. Repeat this step until you have the amount of banana peel shapes you want for your onsie. Once you are done creating your banana peels place them on the bottom half of the onsies and put them in place using pin needles again. Take your needle and thread and hand sew the bottom of the peel to the onsie so it still flops over. Repeat this step until all of your banana peels are attached to your onsie. Now you have your banana costume! (I also used left over yellow felt and tied it on a headband for the twins to give the look of a banana stem).

So far, this has been my favorite costume I've made for the girls. Although last years three little pigs was pretty cute, I just can't get over those flopping banana peels when the twins hobble around all over the place. It makes me laugh every time! 

Hope your Halloween is a safe and fun filled one friends!