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Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Tutorial Part 3: Upcycled Finds into Wild Kratts Costumes for Less Than $35



Holy Tamoley! So, yesterday, a lovely lady name Marney commented on Part 1 of this tutorial, asking for a link to Part 2. I replied with the link and then started editing the first two parts to make sure they both had backlinks to one another when - BAM - I suddenly realized, "I never did write part 3 about the gloves!!"

You guys, seriously, I'm crazy sometimes, and the blog has been WAAAAAAY on the backburner for the last couple of years. If you've seen my last few posts, you've probably gathered that I spent most of last year working out of town on reserve duty, and in the meantime, I'm still wading through my parents' estate, almost two years later. (That, blessedly, is soon to come to an end.)

But I'm back now, so, please accept my apologies, and with love, here's the final installment to the Wild Kratts costume!

Blessings!

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So, this is the easy stuff. Start with a couple of pairs of black gloves...those dime store one-size-fits-all stretchy ones work great for this. I used one pair of those, plus one pair of old fleece gloves I still had in the box from our Colorado days.

Step 1: From your green and blue fabrics, cut 5 little circles for the finger tips and one larger circle for the palm. The size totally depends on your gloves. I winged it, but my finger tips were about 5/8" in diameter and my palm circles were a shade smaller than 2" in diameter...about 1 3/4".

Use the same fabric glue you used in Part 2 -- (I used Mod Podge Fabric) -- to glue them to your gloves.

At this point, you could go the easy route by skipping to Step 3 and being done. Your kids will be just as happy, and if I had it to do over, that's what I would do. 

Step 2: Not knowing any better, though, I took it one step further, and made the gloves come up the arms a bit like the Kratts, and made a strip of binding from the colored fabric for the edges. That was easy with my old fleece gloves...they were already longer.


It was a little tougher when it came to the dime-store gloves, so I cut two cuffs from leftover fleece from Part 1, and put the green colored binding on the edge.


From there, it was simple. Fold right sides together, stitch a seam, turn them right side out and voila!


No need to finish the top, because the fleece won't fray or ravel. I didn't attach them to the gloves -- they fit nice and snug, so once we put them over the gloves, they stayed in place.


Step 3: From there, I used Tulip Glow in the Dark Dimensional Fabric Paint -- no, I'm not getting paid by any of these companies...just telling you what I used -- to outline the colored circles.


That's really the money step. If your kids are into Wild Kratts, you know certain parts of the outfit glow. I didn't ring every single piece that glows on the Kratts, but you could. The gloves were enough to delight my kids, who holed themselves up in the closet, admiring the soft glow of their fingertips, for the better part of a day. :)


Ta-Da!! You're done! (And I finally got back to finishing this up!)

This has been one of my most popular tutorial series. Thanks for hanging with me, and please share photos of your finished costumes!

See Part 1 of this tutorial series here.
See Part 2 of this tutorial series here.

Into making kids' costumes? Consider trying this Craftsy class:



I have NOT taken this class, (though I've been intrigued by it for a long time!) If you decide to try it out, please let me know what you think!

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As always, the modest revenue that comes from pattern sales and blog ads helps me support my family, as well as my sewing and quilting addiction, which then lets me share those tips I learn and tutorials I write with you. If you find that you want to purchase a class or item I recommend here, please consider using the links I've embedded. And by all means, if you try a class or product I recommended, or have your own recommendation to share, allow the rest of us to benefit from your experiences by sharing them in the comments!