Many people prefer to make the carnival costume themselves. It's also a great opportunity to create something unique that no one else has. This is a wonderful way to surprise your child in particular. Today we would like to show you instructions that will help you make a carnival costume yourself that looks like the chameleon Pascal.
– ca. 2 Meter Fleecestoff in Dunkelrün
– 0.5 meter fleece fabric in light green
– 30cm zipper
– Polyester wadding
– Styrofoam ball (approx. 7.5 cm diameter)
– for the eyes: felt or fleece in black and brown, as well as white felt fabric
– Hot glue gun
– Rubber, 2.5 cm wide
1. Cut out the body for the costume from the dark green fleece. To do this you need two parts. To get the right size, you can also use one of your daughter's dresses to get the right size, as well as the holes for the arms and head. The back part should be 2.5cm wider and split in the middle as this is where the zipper will be added later. You can also make these parts a little wider towards the bottom.
The light green fleece should be cut out so that it starts right at the collar of the dark green front piece, but doesn't go all the way to the bottom, giving it an oval shape. Place this “belly” on the dark green piece of fleece and begin sewing it in place. But leave the bottom part open for now. Now fill the belly with some cotton wool to shape it. Now you can also sew the bottom opening closed.
Now let's get to the back part. Add the zipper to this. This extends to over half the length. Sew the back piece together all the way down.
2. Cut out the sleeves. To do this, measure the length of your child's arms or use another piece of clothing to help you. The width of the sleeves should correspond to the diameter of the armholes.
Sew the front and back of the costume together at the neck area (inside out). Add the sleeves. To make sure that they sit correctly, you can attach them with pins beforehand to make any necessary movement possible. Then sew the sleeves, front and back together. However, leave out the bottom edge.
Now turn the costume over to sew the sleeve hem. It is best to choose a zigzag seam to make the sleeve edge more elastic.
4. Now let's move on to the tail. For this you need two pieces of the same size. These should start wide and become narrower towards the tip of the tail. Again, sew the edges together, leaving the wide end open to fill the tail with batting after turning it inside out. Here, too, you should not use too much cotton wool, otherwise the tail will not be able to be rolled up well later.
Fold over half an inch to an inch of the edge and sew the finished tail in place. (Tip: You can just pin it again at the beginning to check the position and only then start stitching.)
Then roll up the tail and secure it in several places with a needle and thread. The roll should not reach all the way to the end of the tail.
5. You also need pants. You can use green tights for this or sew pants from the green fleece. You can see exactly how this works here:Sew pants.
6. To create hands and feet that each have three fingers, you will need a paper stencil. This way all the pieces will be the same size and have the same shape. The end of each piece (the ankles and wrists, so to speak) should be as wide as the ends of the sleeves. Using the template, draw the hand on a dark green piece of fleece, but the hand is slightly larger than the template itself. You will need this excess for sewing. So you need two pieces for each hand/foot.
Sew the finished feet and hands onto the trousers and sleeves. You also sew rubber on the underside so that your child can slide their feet and hands in and the feet are fixed when worn.
7. Finally, all that's missing is the head. The cap consists of two semicircles that you sew together. The eyes are made from the Styrofoam ball that you cut in half. Then wrap this with the white felt material and glue it together on the back with a hot glue gun. The excess fabric is then simply cut off with scissors.
Added to this are the dark green eyelids, each consisting of two semicircles. You can use the eyes as a template for the shape. Sew them together and stuff them with cotton wool, then glue them to the eyes.
Cut out a circle from the brown fleece (for the iris), a smaller one from the black (for the pupil), and a small triangle from the white fleece (for the light reflection in the eye). Glue everything onto the Styrofoam ball and then glue it onto the cap. You can also sew on the eyes.
8. For the comb, proceed as you did for the eyelids, except that the individual pieces are not exact semicircles, but rather resemble a rainbow that gets a little wider in the middle. Sew the bow together, stuff the comb with cotton wool and sew it to the cap.
The original instructionscan be found here.
