sew | halloween costumes

I am a big fan of homemade halloween costumes.  My mom always made our halloween costumes when we were little, and I took over making some of the costumes after I learned to sew when I was 7.  I haven't really had time to make costumes since before college so it was fun to get back into it this year.

I thought it would be fun for us to dress up as a shark/lifeguard combo, and since I would rather be warm and Isaac would rather be cold, I figured Isaac could be the one to wear his swim suit in October.

I found some shark-perfect gray fabric on sale for $1.00/yard at Walmart.  Total cost for the shark costume was $7 (4 yards of gray fabric and 2 yards of heavy interfacing, I already had thread and elastic for the bottom).  I painted Isaac's lifeguard t-shirt with red fabric paint and picked up a whistle for $1.99 from the hardware store.  Total Halloween cost = $8.99 for two costumes.

I didn't have a pattern so I penciled a basic shark shape on the length of fabric and sewed the tube shut with a pointed top. I cut a hole in the side of the head for the mouth and used extra stiff interfacing to make the teeth. I ran a length of elastic through the bottom of the shark to taper the body, and to finish him off, I used black and white circles of paper to make the eye. Voila, Fred the shark is ready to go and hungry.