DIY No Sew Cookie Monster

A couple of weeks ago, I shared with you that I had decided that Colton would be Cookie Monster this Halloween.  It was a decision I did not make lightly, and if you're so inclined, you can read about it here.  Once the decision was made, the lack of originality and high cost ($50-$60!!!) of the store versions of Cookie Monster made me turn on my DIY wheels...and guess what?!?  It worked!!!!

Let me preface this by saying that I have absolutely zero sewing skills, so this is a dummy version of making your own costume.  

To start, I headed out to buy my supplies.  I needed Colton's size sweatpants and hooded sweatshirt (Josh thinks I should have gotten a zippered version to make it easier to put on and off, so you can heed that advice if you wish)...I picked both up at Kohl's for $15 total.  I also needed blue fabric fur, which delightedly my local Hancock Fabrics had plenty of...and for 50% off ($6 total)!!!  I bought 2 yards which was more than we needed (even despite errors) for Colton's 18 month, peanut-sized frame. Because I'm a no-sew lame-o, my essentials also included my trusty glue gun and plenty of glue sticks, but luckily I already had them on hand.

With my supplies purchased, I headed home to get started.  I started with the pants because I figured they'd be easier, which they were!  I laid Colton's sweatpants down on the non-fuzzy side of the blue fur and traced the outline plus about an inch all around.  I did that twice...one for the front and one for the back...and cut them out.

To prevent the pants from getting glued together, I laid newspaper in the sweatpant legs.

Next, I whipped out faithful glue gun and started attaching the fur to the pants.  I started at the waistband (although I left about an inch at the top so it wouldn't be scratchy on Colton's poor skin) and just laid down a line of glue on the pants and then pressed the fur on.  I followed the same process on the sides, wrapping it where necessary.  Here's the pants all glued down.

I followed the same process for the sweatshirt.  I said earlier that I found the pants to be easier, but really  the sweatshirt's real issues came with the hood which I just could not get right.  I ended up having to cut it in half  (along the back seam).  I didn't take any pictures of the sweatshirt process, but it was the same as the sweatpants...trace, cut, glue and wrap.  

Although it was already pretty obvious Colton was going for the Cookie Monster look (shoot, the lady at Hancock Fabrics knew as soon as we were buying blue fabric fur...I guess what else would you buy that stuff for?!?), I wanted to jazz his costume up a bit.  I decided to add some cookies to the front.  All they required was a sheet of tan felt which I cut into wavy ovals and hot glued on to the front of the costume.  For the chips, I sprung for the self-sticking black felt, thinking that was better than trying to hot glue down each individual chip...good call!  And of course, Colton's cookie monster needed eyes.  I used two styrofoam balls and hot glued (are you surprised?) them to to the top of the hood.  Using my same stick-on black felt, I cut out two circles to use as the pupils and attached them to the balls.

And although you've already seen the finished product, here are some more shots (including the only one I was able to capture of Colton actually keeping the hood up...in his car seat!).

Oh, and in case you're wondering...no, I did not just make my son parade around in his Cookie Monster costume a week early!  Colton had a Halloween party to attend last Friday, so he proudly sported the costume there.

And in the interest of full disclosure, I will concede that this costume is certainly not "perfect" close up.  There are a couple places where the seams overlapped a bit too much or a bit too little, especially on the hood where I mentioned I had some issues.  BUT...for something Colton will wear twice, one time mainly in the dark, I think the $40 price difference plus the pride of creating something original certainly outweighs the minor flaws.  Plus...the most important aspect of this costume is how it will look in pictures considering they will live on forever.  And for that, I think it looks pretty darn cute (if I don't say so myself!).