ninja costume

silent “e” is like a ninja…

We finally decided on a costume for Owen and I finished it last night. This was one of those projects that I just couldn’t think about doing anything else until it was done… phew….I feel much better!

I followed this tutorial from Sew a Straight Linefor the muscle shirt.

I tried just adding layers of quilting batting {instead of the nu-foam because I have a lot of scraps of it on hand} to an existing shirt…not easy. The batting was fine, but working with an existing shirt was hard.  I kept sewing it crooked no matter how hard I tried to be careful. I also am still green in the sewing department and used my regular sewing foot…not the zipper foot {makes me nervous}…go ahead you can tease me. 🙂

In the end I unpicked the whole thing, deconstructed the shirt except for the neckline and sewed everything flat. Then, I reassembled the shirt. It worked much much better.

Next time…I will just make a shirt from scratch. Seriously. It was a fun adventure to figure it all out but I am glad I am done!

It is worth it to see my son instantly switch to a ninja character complete with scowl and clenched fists. He loves it! I was going to do leg muscles and back muscles…but I am not going to think about that anymore. 🙂 The arm muscles and the stomach muscles I think count the most as far as impact anyway.

I did jersey knit shoe covers with some black knit from an old black skirt and red shiny knit strips sewn in the front to tie around his legs. I think I might add elastic to the bottom but …I don’t know if it will make that much of difference and will just make them more vulnerable to mud?… Still not sure.

He has wrist cuffs with straps and his hood is just a long beanie “hat” tucked into this collar, with a slit cut for the eyes. The first time around I cut a face hole but the knit stretches too much so I re-did it and just cut a slit which works much better.

I am not sure if the cuffs, shoe covers and mask will last as long as the shirt and pants {sweat pants from Walmart for $3.50} but I like the idea of being able to use the shirt for other things later. A different colored/kind of ninja, Batman, a gorilla… And knowing my kids, they will want to be something completely different later so I didn’t spend a great amount of time and money on these details.

I am not a great sewer but it feels good to finally know enough to do this project this year. I have always been too afraid to Owen’s costumes. Unlike his brother he has an opinion on what it looks like :). I hate buying the cheap costumes for $10 from the grocery store because they feel like they won’t even make it through all the parties and Halloween night… and paying an arm and a leg for just a great costume isn’t an enticing thought either.

This costume? It only cost me $5. That is rounding up. Feels good. 🙂