Olivia the Pig--Costume Tutorial

 This year I decided to dress Olivia up as "Olivia" (the pig). We own almost every book  and when I was naming Olivia, I found out about those books and new she had to be her one day for Halloween. Well this year was it! Maybe I should have chosen another year-- a year where she would keep the ears and nose on... but I thought she looked too freakin cute even without those!

So here is a little tutorial. and it includes a picture-by-picture that may clarify this tutorial.

Materials Needed:
red cotton knit---something stretchy (dress)
white broadcloth or other white fabric (collar)
velcro (collar)
black felt (stars)
black and white stockings or leggings (or make your own)
black fabric or ribbon (collar/tie)
pink felt/peach felt (ears)
headband (ears)
nose (I ordered one on amazon for 60 cents)

 1. start by folding your red fabric over, making sure it is going to stretch horizontally (if it doesn't stretch both ways).
2. lay a shirt that fits, made out of similar fabric on top.
3. Trace it, leaving about 1/2 in or more on all sides for the inseam.

 4. cut. it. out.       (I just pictured Joey from Full House as I wrote that).

 5. create a tube of fabric to be the bottom of the dress. my tube was kind of large, but it worked. (cut out two rectangles and sew down each side).

 6. sew the top of the dress together, and then turn it inside-out.
7. Pin the tube, right sides together, to the bottom edge of the top.

 8. sew it down....

 9. Then turn it right side out! done! (I ended up hacking my sleeves off because I made them too narrow. oops. thus her undershirt in the photos above).

 PART 2: The Collar (My favorite part).
1. I drew out the rectangular part first (on two pieces of fabric), then made the circle a little larger than the neck of the dress. I drew out one side, and then cut and traced it onto the other side so it was symmetrical.

 2. Then I..... cut. it. out.

3.I sewed it together, leaving a small hole.
4.Then I turned it inside out and topstitched the whole thing, including the hole.
5. I sewed some velcro on.
6. You can use a ribbon or do what I did for the little black tie part: I sewed a tube out of black fabric and then turned it inside out an sewed the ends closed. I then tied the fabric (or black ribbon) in a knot and hand-stitched it to the collar (covering the velcro stitching).
7. cut black stars out of felt and hot glue them on the collar.

EARS:
1. I cut out two long ear shapes in pink felt, and then the inner ear part out of peach felt. I then hot-glued them together, overlapped the sides of the ears (to give it more of a pig look), and then stuck them on a headband I had covered in pink.

 At least she kept the ears on for a few seconds.... and next to her is her friend Charlie. Dressed as a ballerina because he walks on his toes all the time and loves to twirl around! hhaaaa.

Done. now go to a party with your little piglet and wear a pink furry dress.
( I dressed up as a souvenir at the last minute..... I wore souvenirs from most of the countries I have visited....it was too hard to wear them all and I had about 10 minutes to scavenge them from around the house).