Two years ago for Halloween I was Rainbow Brite and Creamie was my little sidekick. I first posted pictures of these costumes for Halloween 2009. And since then I have had dozens of requests for a tutorial, or for me to make costumes to sell. I have priced out what I would charge to make a Twink costume. And it is over $150 for time and materials. It isn’t a hard costume to make, but like most sewing projects, it takes a while. And I am not interested in working for free. I charge for my time for custom sewing (and so should you!). And a few people were interested, but not enough to pay for it. So, instead of selling finished costumes I thought I’d just write the tutorial and if someone is interested then they can make one themselves. And then everyone is happy.
This tutorial is just for a Twink costume. I didn’t make the Rainbow Brite costume. I borrowed it from my sister, and she and my mom made it years ago. It is a royal blue dress with a full skirt. It has a heavy interfacing petticoat underneath to make it stick out. Add white trim around the bottom (this is fusible fleece) and a red belt. The finishing touch is rainbow striped thigh high socks. You’ll need two pair. Cut the feet off of one pair and wear as rainbow sleeves. Add some killer red shoes and you are good to go. Now, onto Rainbow’s little Sprite named Twink.
For my twink costume I purchased rainbow striped tights (I found mine at a thrift store, but Rainbow Striped babylegs/legwarmers are pretty easy to find. This pair on Amazon is only $4. I also purchased a red long sleeved onesie for her to wear underneath her Twink costume. Now, onto the sewing!
The Twink costume is basically a white fluffy pumpkin. When I was talking to Scott about it he said “It’s a pumpkin in fun jeans!” (please tell me someone else remembers this episode of TheOffice…) I used this basic Simplicity pattern and combined the pumpkin bodysuit with the hood from the lamb costume (sans ears). Simplicity has renumbered their patterns and this is now labeled Simplicity 2788. It is available at Joanns, Hancocks, Hobby Lobby, Amazon or any number of different places. I bought mine at Joanns on one of their 99 cent sales I think. Use the measurements on the back for yardage required. I am not going to go into that here because it’s all right there in the pattern that I used.
The white fuzzy fabric I used is white Silky Furry Fleece. I got mine at Joanns (here it is). It comes in Red and Brown and Cream and Black and White. I lined the whole costume with regular white fleece. You’ll need to line it because the stuffing goes in between the two layers. Creamie was only 9 months old when she wore this, and I had to take about 10 inches out of the smallest size because it was so large. The costume has velcro at the shoulders and elastic around the bottom and it goes together pretty easily. I did modify the hood just a bit, besides leaving off the ears. I added about 1.5 inches to the length in the back so that it would be long enough to cover all of her neck and meet up with the bodysuit and to make it look like one piece.
The belt was really easy. 1: I used royal blue nylon webbing and a bit of Velcro to hold it together. After I had the bodysuit finished i measured around it while it was on Creamie and cut the nylon to length. I used less than 1 yard. 2: For the little pouch to hold star sprinkles I used a scrap of red felt (about 2.5″ x 6″.) Round the corners on the top flap a bit and then just stitch it together, no need to turn it inside out. Sew on a button and make a tiny slit for the button hole. 3: The star is from a sheet of stiff yellow felt (you can buy pre stiffened felt at craft stores.) It is 3.5″ across. I hot glued a belt loop onto the back so that I could thread it onto the blue belt. 4: Thread the star and the pocket onto the belt and you are good to go. I decided to make them all separate pieces so that I could wash the bodysuit separately if I needed to.
Her little star antennae are also separate pieces. Because I was sure the hood would need to be washed after she wore it.
Cut four stars out of the stiff yellow felt and hot glue a big fat fuzzy pipecleaner in between them. Then I attached the pipe cleaners to two alligator clips with a little hot glue and by wrapping the wire around the clips. I clipped the antennae onto the hood by sliding the bottom side of the clip through the fuzzy fabric. I could have made button holes or something but I just shove the clips through the fabric.
I tried to find cute little red shoes for weeks but in the end decided it would be cheaper to just have her wear socks over a pair of shoes she already had. I bought a pair of red socks and cut off the tops. I just zigzagged around the edge of them with my sewing machine and she wore them over her shoes.
Put all of that together and it is one of the cutest costumes I’ve ever made. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them here as well.
A few nuts and bolts things: 1: If you are traveling, take off the bodysuit before you strap your kid into their carseat. That one should be pretty obvious. 2: I am not affiliated with Amazon or Joanns or anyone else and I am providing links to products they sell as a convenience to you. I am sure similar items can be found other places. 3: If you want to make these to sell in an online shop or at a craftsfair or whatever, go ahead. But please provide a link back to this tutorial in your listing or on a tag attached to the costume. That’s just being nice. 4: I’d love to see any costumes you make, please email them to me at pinksuedeshoe at gmail dot com or leave a link to your post/picture/whatever in the comments. Happy Halloween!
