{KCWC Day 2 & 3 ~~ Black Cats}

 

It's that time of year again, time to make Halloween costumes!  For the last 2 days I have been busy making black cat costumes for my nieces.  Last week I made two more black cats for a friend.  I feel like I have just produced a litter of black cats!  The fun part is that all 4 cats will probably go trick-or-treating together.

 

A Black Cat with Green Accents for the 3 year old.

 

 

A Black Cat with Pink Accents for the 8 year old.

 

For these costumes I used black panne fabric that I have had for many years and layered it with fleece.  The fleece layer was done for two reasons.  First for warmth, here in Colorado Halloween is usually pretty chilly if not down right cold.  Second was to give the costumes a bit more shape.  Panne is a very stretchy, soft and flowing fabric so the fleece gave it some body as well as made it easier to work with. 

 

The two I made last week and the pink cat are all the same size. I used an old pajama pattern (think 1996 Simplicity) for the pants and the top.  I did need take the top in quite a bit on the sides and then added the hood with ears.  The lining of the ears was done in satin.  I also added a pocket on the front to keep the hands extra warm.  The green cat was made the same way but I used different patterns. 

 

For the tail I used a jumbo chenille stem.  I found a 6 foot piece at my local Michael's and knew it would make perfect cat tails.  The big cats have 18 inch tails and the little cat has a 12 inch tail.  On one end I hot glued a piece of felt that I had put a button hole on.  The other end I covered with an approximately 5 inch tube of satin fabric and hot glued it in place.  The tail buttons right onto the seat of the pants.  

 

I completed the look with some cat paw gloves, satin ironed on to knit gloves with heat 'n bond then sealed the edges with fabric paint.  For the little one I made cat paws on mittens the same way.  All four cats have collars made from grosgrain ribbon with snap closure and a star shaped "tag" with their first initial embossed on it.  I origionally wanted to make the tags from gray or silver Sculpey to look like metal but someone had bought the store out of those colors but I found a great replacement, especially for Halloween, glow in the dark Sculpey.

Black Cat with Blue Accents and  Black Cat with Purple Accents

 

Now if my almost 6 year old son would just make up his mind about what he wants to be.  Every day he comes up with several different ideas :0)