Saturday, November 03, 2012

Playing with Food: Felt Pizza Costume

Suparna requested a tutorial for the pizza costume that Lila wore on Halloween, so here it is!

When I started toying with ideas for a costume for Lila, the requirements were (1) it should be quick and easy to make, using mostly materials that I already have on hand and (2) it should be very easy to put on and not be too cumbersome or she wouldn't want to wear it at all. 

The material I had on hand was lots of felt in an off-white color. It had been purchased for another project a few months ago which I never ended up doing. I also had sheets of colorful felt. The inspiration came from this post. I thought the costume looked adorable and simple to make. Also, it is food themed which is always a plus as far as I am concerned. And who doesn't love pizza? I much prefer these cute costumes to the scary ghoulish ones.

One way to make this costume is to have a front and back with a head opening, so the kid is sandwiched between the front and back of the pizza. Mine is a bib style which simply ties around the neck. This costume is very easy to make even for someone who is completely new to sewing, and really fun because you get to customize the toppings!

{Please click on pictures to see the larger versions}


My pizza slice had three layers. One was the back (plain felt), the top was the one you see with the toppings and to give some "body" to the costume, I added a layer of sturdy interfacing in the middle. In a pinch, you could use a piece of cardstock for the middle too. 
  • Measure across the child's shoulders. 
  • Sketch out a pizza-slice shaped triangle on a paper using this length as the base of the triangle. 
  • Cut the pizza triangle from the paper to make a template. 
  • Cut out one piece of felt and one piece of interfacing using this template. 
  • For the third piece, the topping, cut a strip of brown felt, a wavy strip of red felt and the rest of the triangle from off-white felt and sew those together (machine or simple running stitch) as shown.

  • Now the really fun part- make the toppings. The toppings can all be cut out of felt and glued to the pizza. Just for fun, I made some of them (tomatoes and onions) using crochet just to give it a more three dimensional look. I pasted the felt toppings using ordinary white glue (you might need to weigh it down and leave to dry overnight). A glue gun could also be used. The crocheted toppings were sewn on.

  • Now the top layer is done. Sew the three layers together using blanket stitch on the edges. I used this video tutorial to teach myself blanket stitch- very easy and fun to do. If you don't want to sew, the layers could also be glued together. I personally love the finished look from the blanket stitch.
  • Finally, sew on pieces of ribbon to be used as ties.
Wear your pizza proudly!

Another cute and simple felt costume: chocolate chip cookie.

And that concludes day 3 of NaBloPoMo. What are you doing this weekend?

17 comments:

  1. Cutest pizza ever!! I am loving nablopomo more than ever before :-D

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    1. Glad you're enjoying this bizarre stream of posts :)

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  2. Oh how I wish I was as crafty! Have you ever used those Iron on hems (?) or those sticker like tapes that are used to stick 2 layers together?
    I don't know how else to convey what I want to say, just that I saw something like it ( basically no sew) in Walmart once.

    Our weekend was nothing special, but I did drag my boys to Michael's to get stuff for my Wilton's Course!
    Ofcourse, Diwali shopping! I got me a nice Salwar kameez ( my first 'Indian clothes' shopping in the last nearly 7 years here)! and now, 'Diwali Faral' list!
    What about you?

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    1. I've heard of iron on hems but never used them. Sewing (even for an absolute beginner like me) is easy enough but I know "no-sew" sounds alluring :)
      How fun that you're planning all this for Diwali! I should get my act together and at least make one or two faral dishes.

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  3. hey nupur seems so simple when you jott it.. liked it :) btw couldn't get thru the video link for the tutorial,i think you forgot to link it. " I used this video tutorial to teach myself "

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    1. Oops- thanks for noticing! I've added the video link now :)

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  4. Thanks Nupur for posting this. I just woke up and read this post. and it truly made my day. I will surely make this next year.:) thanks !!!
    Lila looks adorable!
    Lots of love,
    Suparna

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  5. Soo cute costume, Lila looks choo chweet with her pizza costume.

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    1. Thanks Priya! Yeah, we were nibbling on her :)

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  6. Hi Nupur,
    This is Shilpa (the one guilty of reading your blog when should be studying....).I have to say this is getting exciting indeed! I get up in the morning wanting to read your posts before catching up on the daily news.
    Truly, I do enjoy reading your blog, kudos to you for all your effort that keeps us all readers hooked.
    Your daughter Lila looks cute in that pizza!
    Have a lovely weekend.
    Shilpa.

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    1. LOL I hope I'm less depressing than the daily news, if nothing else! Thank you for reading along- that's what makes it fun for me to write every day. Hope the studying is going well!!

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  7. I love the pizza slice and the chocolate chip cookie! Both are simply adorable! I love home made costumes! Halloween here reminds me of 'Fancy Dress Competitions' back in schools and colony events in India. Those times were so much fun, we made all my costumes at home. At one such event, a girl was dressed as 'mixer' (the indian kind that grinds chutneys and pastes). She wore a easily flippable apron with cutouts of all ingredients that go in a green coconut chutney. She would twirl around a few times and flip the apron while doing so, then stop and show the other plain green side as finely ground chutney! LOL! She got the most creative costume prize that year! This memory always makes me laugh. Thank you Nupur, I can't wait to read your next post.

    This weekend we did nothing :) just relaxed, cooked, ate and had fun at home. I love weekends!

    - Priti

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    1. OMG the mixer idea is so cute!!

      Yup, I LOVED fancy dress in India too, and all the creativity that poured forth. I was Jill from Jack and Jill in kindergarten, carrying a little plastic bucket as my pail :D

      We also had a chilled out weekend, just went to the playground and out to lunch.

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  8. It turned out so cute! I love the crocheted tomatoes.

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    1. Thank you for the inspiration! Your website is full of inspiration- I need to find a few hours to look around.

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  9. I did not visit for a short while and look what I missed, that's one adorable baby wearing the cutest costume ever! Look at the pride in her eyes!

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