I had a wild week of Halloween sewing last week. I spent any moment of spare time I had sewing Guardians of the Galaxy costumes for my 3 littlest boys.  I'm pretty excited about how all they all turned out. I posted some pics on Instagram but I wanted to post them here too and tell a little about how I made them.

Guardians of the Galaxy Costumes Inspiration

DIY Star Lord Costume

My biggest boy wanted to be Star Lord. So for this costume I basically just had to make a jacket.  I drafted a pattern from a couple of shirts that fit him and then made up a practice version out of junk fabric just to make sure I was on the right track.

I picked up a yard of Vegan leather from Girl Charlee for the real jacket.  This fabric is really amazing. I'm impressed with the quality.  You can stretch it and the vinyl finish on the front doesn't crack or anything.  (I bought the 12 oz weight fabric). The needle does however leave piercing marks so you have to be a little careful.  I used every bit of the 1 yard to make it. I also used bits and pieces of other vinyl I had on hand for the rest of the accents like this shoulder pad. 

I learned a few things working with so much vinyl for these projects. You can't really pin vinyl because the piercing marks will show, BUT if you pin right where you are going to stitch it works out just fine. I also used a leather needle to stitch through all the layers. And I occasionally needed to put a little dab of machine oil on the vinyl where I was stitching in if the machine was having a hard time advancing because the presser foot was sticking.

To finish it off I bought a set of snaps at Joann and used a strip of brown cotton to face the placket. All in all the coat took me about $15 in materials to make.

DIY Rocket the Raccoon Costume

Next up  we have Rocket Racoon. I spent the most time on this costume. There were just so many details that I had a hard time knowing when to stop. Plus I was just having a lot of fun looking at all the Rocket pictures and trying to copy this outfit in a doable way.

 The jumpsuit is just basically a front piece and a back piece sewn together with a jersey knit strip sewn in at the crotch to make it moveable.  This vinyl was felt backed and ultra stiff (purchased for $5 at Joann) It was the only thing I could find that was the right color but it was a pain to work with. I made the pattern for the jumpsuit and tested it out a couple of times in junk fabric before I cut it out of the vinyl. I stitched it all up using a basting stitch to make sure it fit right and then I unpicked most of the seams to be able to sew on all the detail.

 I spraypainted the leftover vinyl with silver and black to make the detail pieces. Here's a peek of the back. I used a hook and eye to close the back and stitched on a little tail at the last minute.

For the fur I just hand stitched some fur pieces to the sleeves of a black long sleeved shirt we had on had. I made some fur leg cuffs that didn't really fit right and called it good.  Really I could have done a better job on these but I was loosing steam and running out of time. He loved it so I'd say it was a win. Total price was $5 for the vinyl, Everything else I had on hand. The awesome fur came from my Mom's basement fabric stash. It was perfect.

DIY Baby Groot Costume

 Lastly I made a Baby Groot costume for the littlest guy.

I whipped this one out in about 4 hrs and turned 1 1/2 yards of interlock knit into a wearable mass of tangled roots and thread. Its a little crazy but I love it. 

To make it, I traced a sleeper for a pattern and added a zipper to the back seam. I sewed up the shoulder and the sleeve seams and then appliqued a ton of rolled 3" strips to it before stitching up the side seams. I basically just hemmed the neckline and trimmed the thread and I was done.

For the hat I made a wide headband and sewed more "roots" to it. Sadly his little hat got lost on Halloween night. Oh well. 

And that's that for the Guardians of the Galaxy costumes! I forgot how much I love sewing Halloween costume. Can't wait until next year. 

For More Halloween costume inspiration check out my HALLOWEEN COSTUMES PAGE

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