Friday, October 29, 2010

DIY Jessie (Toy Story) Toddler Costume - no sewing!


DIY Jessie from Toy Story Costumes - no sewing involved!



A few weeks ago, during one of my recent trips to Dollar Tree, I picked up a couple of red foam cowboy hats for my girls. They reminded me of Jessie from Toy Story and thought they would be fun for playing dress-up. Well, sure enough, my girls decided that they BOTH wanted to be Jessie for Halloween. Given how cheap frugal I am, I knew I wanted to try to make the costumes - especially since I needed to do 2 of them. In case you aren't familiar with Jessie, here is my model and her crew...

Via fanpop.com
 So I tackled the hat first...

Dollar Tree hat and ribbon from Michaels

I used my mini hole puncher to make holes around the rim of the hat about an inch apart from each other. Then I strung through some string-like ribbon I bought at Michaels (half-price sale, baby!!).

Holy cow, that's alot of holes!

All strung up!

Next I took some plain white ribbon (from the dollar bin at Michaels!) and secured it around the hat with my glue gun in one long piece. This didn't work quite as well as I had hoped due to the width of the ribbon and the slope of the hat. So the first strip I glued around was all wrinkly and gross looking. So then I cut smaller strips of ribbon and glued them around one at a time. This worked better and helped cover up some of the mess from the first attempt. It isn't perfect but good enough for a 3 year old! Lastly I added some more of the string-like ribbon to act as a tie around the neck since the hat is kind of loose. (not seen in this pic)

Ta-Daa!

Not too bad if I do say so myself! Total came to about $3 for the hat plus the amount of ribbon I used up.

For the shirt I had to improvise since neither of my girls have a long-sleeved button-down collared shirt and I certainly wasn't going to invest in one just for this costume. Thankfully, at Target, I found short-sleeved polo shirts that were on clearance (only $4!) since they were intended to be for a school uniform. I didn't let the short sleeves deter me since I knew I could layer it over a long-sleeved (non-collared) white shirt.

$4 on clearance at Target

I purchased a sheet of yellow self-stick felt at AC Moore ($0.79) and cut it to form the bodice of the shirt and stuck it on. Then I took some red sparkly rope-like ribbon (1/2 price at Michaels so less than $2 for the whole spool) and hot glued it to the bodice, copying the design of the "real" Jessie. :)

Bodice added

Next, I cut a sheet of yellow felt in half ($0.29 at AC Moore) and shaped it to form the wristlets. I attached a piece of self-stick velcro (left over from another project) to one edge so it could easily be wrapped around my daughter's wrist without having to be a permanent addition to the shirt. I added a little more red ribbon and some white felt fringe with my hot glue gun.

A strip of self-stick velcro will keep the cuffs closed around their wrists



Hot glued on some details


Then I tackled the pants. I purchased some cow print fabric at Joann's (on sale for 60% off!) and cut it the size of the front of the pant legs, shaping it like a pair of chaps. Since I didn't want to damage the jeans, I simply pinned the fabric on using safety pins.

Time for chaps!

Lastly, I made a simple belt out of some black felt (extra from a future project - stay tuned!) and a piece of self-stick sparkle foam ($0.99 for a sheet at AC Moore). I cut an oval out of the foam and stuck it to a piece of really thick cardstock (I think it was actually that cardboard stuff that new sheets/curtains are wrapped around). And then I used a piece of the self-stick velcro to "close" the belt.

Felt, glittery foam and velcro make a belt

And here is the finished product all together! (imagine a long-sleeved white shirt underneath). Oh and you'll have to wait until after Halloween for a picture of the girls modeling them - I'm not going to risk something being spilled on those white shirts! We're talking toddlers here!! LOL




TA-DAAA! A DIY Jessie from Toy Story Costume (well, close enough!)
  
Not bad for less than $10 each! And the bonus is that the felt can be peeled off the shirts after Halloween and can be used as regular clothing so if I take that element out of my cost, you're talking around $5 each! Not too shabby!

**EDIT** OK, here are the girls on Halloween... 





SweetPea and Boogey as Jessie from Toy Story
Halloween 2010
    Not bad for about $5 (each) out of pocket!! And they loved them and had a blast trick or treating! And THAT is worth a million! :)





Linking this project up to the CSI Project's DIY Halloween Costumes Challenge
Visit thecsiproject.com



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26 comments:

  1. These are so amazing!!! Super cute and they look so much better then the ones you can buy at the store. Awesome job...I'm sure your girls love them!

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  2. that is just too cute for words! You were so creative with everything- they will be the cutest Jessie's out there!

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  3. So cute!! I love that you made them all yourself and they look great!!

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  4. The tutorial about making the toddler costume of your site is quite easy and clear. I find it easiest of the all tutorials. Thanks for sharing it.

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  5. Gracias por la idea, está genial el disfraz.
    Thanks for the idea, the costume is great.

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  6. Thanks so much my daughter has a big day coming up with her Beaver Scout Colony,there will be over 500 kids in fancy dress, she wanted to be Jessie but I really didn't know where to start. Now I have it sorted thanks to you and it hasn't cost me the earth!
    Thanks for the tips and the tutorial!!
    Janet

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  7. Wow! Can I copy it? (^_^)
    My baby's attending a toy story themed party...

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  8. Thank you so much! I just ran across this post today as I worked on my daughter's Jessie Costume. Your post was so helpful!!!!
    www.myhomeschooltale.blogspot.com

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  9. Thanks for sharing! It made my life so easy this weekend!!

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  10. My twin girls' 2nd birthday is this weekend and the theme is toy story. I too ran across the hats at dollar tree and was thinking of how I could make the costume of Jesse. I'm so glad I came across this. Thanks so much! I will let u know how they turned out. :)

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  11. My twin girls' 2nd birthday is this weekend and the theme is toy story. I too ran across the hats at dollar tree and was thinking of how I could make the costume of Jesse. I'm so glad I came across this. Thanks so much! I will let u know how they turned out. :)

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  12. You have no idea how much this post is saving me!
    Thank you soooo much!

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  13. These are adorable, well conceived and constructed. Thank you!

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  14. Omg I love it!!! My 2yr old son is going to be woody for Halloween and I wanted to be Jessie, now im going to use this to make my adult size Jessie costume :*) lol thanks for sharing!

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  15. Thank you for the great tutorial! My kids are going as Woody, Jessie, and Buzz this year. All the Jessie costumes I saw for purchase looked so junkie. Your directions were very easy to follow. I love the finished product and have already received a lot of compliments at our costume activities so far. While your instructions were easy to follow, I would NEVER have come up with it on my own. Thank you for sharing your creativity with us mere mortals!

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  16. thank you for sharing your idea for the jessie costume!! it made my daughters halloween a memorable one because we made it together! :)

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  17. TOTALLY CUTE and very creative.

    Hope you don't mind me adding another option for dressing up the shirt and an ideal solution for non sewers is to use 'thin craft foam' and a Poster Paint Pen for the details. As for the cuffs the same can be applied and all can be glued on. (ie: Fabric glue or a cool glue gun .... not hot.)
    -Brenda-
    Tip: Thin craft foam can also be machine stitched. Comes in sheets and most craft stores (or even $-Stores) carry it.

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  18. Any ideas on where to get a hat if I can't find it at the dollar store?

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    Replies
    1. I got one for my daughter on Amazon about a month ago.

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  19. I just want you to know that I used your blog as an inspiration and for play by play instructions when I made my daughter's Jessie costume. Thank you so much. And I even found the red hat at the Dollar Tree!

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  20. Thank you so much! Perfect! Now I just have to figure out the boots. Any ideas? Also, I saw somewhere else that someone had put haircombs in the hat - not sure if hot-glued or sewn in - which might help keep the hat in place. Thank you for taking time to help others!

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  21. Just made this for my daughter! She LOVES it. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  22. Thank you very much. Your posting is very great.

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  23. Thank you so much for your posting this. I just finished one for my one year old Grand Daughter. She loves it.

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  24. I am doing a disney run as Jessie and this was helpful thank you

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