Jake Costume From "Jake and the Neverland Pirates"

Halloween has come and gone, but I thought it would be nice to share with you one of my recent projects.  As a mother, I find it fun to create my son's costumes.  There will come a day when he will want to be a ninja or something and he won't want a homemade costume anymore.  So, until that day comes, I will enjoy making his costumes.

When we figured out that our son wanted to be Jake.  I immediately began searching the internet for pictures of Jake to get costume ideas.  I saw a few on Pinterest that included jeans.  Since our son is so young, I figured making this costume easy to wear was our best bet.  Excuse the sippy cup, he wouldn't let go of his water for the picture.

I made him a blue vest with gold trim.  I know, the real Jake has lapels on his vest, but ours doesn't.  I thought it might be too much for him.  Remember, I wanted this costume to be easy for him to wear.

For the vest, I  used one of his t-shirts and folded the sleeves in to create a pattern.  I drew the pattern out on parchment paper, drawing about a half inch larger than the actual shirt.  I also shortened the length of the shirt a little, I didn't want the vest to be as long as a t-shirt.  Then, I folded the parchment pattern in half, matching the armholes together.  Using the other half of the pattern (folded under), I evened out the lines.  I had to do this because I am a terrible tracer.  My hand is unsteady and I struggle with drawing straight lines.

If you are better at it, you could absolutely skip this step.  Unfold the pattern, this will be the back of your vest.  To create a pattern for the front of the vest, place another piece of parchment paper over the pattern you have created for the back portion of the vest.  Trace the shoulder seam, armhole, outside edge and bottom on one half of the back of the vest.  Draw a line up to about halfway the vest, then bring the line over at a slant to meet the top of the shoulder seam.  This will be the front of the vest.  You will cut two of these for the vest.  Use the patterns you've made to cut one back panel and two front panels.  Match the armholes of the back panel to the armholes of each of the front panels (right sides of the fabric should be together).  Sew the shoulder seams together.  Then, sew the sides of the vest together.

Hem the bottom of the vest by folding about a quarter of an inch of fabric under (wrong sides of fabric together).  It is easier to do this if you iron the fabric in place prior to hemming.

To add a bit of gold trim to the vest, insert the inside edge of the vest in between the opening of the bias tape.  I folded the edge of the tape in once before sliding it around the vest.

Then, I stitched as close to the end of the bias tape as possible, bring it all the way around the inside edge and neckline of the vest.  My stitching is not quite straight.  I started moving kind of quickly and my stitch got out of hand.  But, hey, this is a kid's costume.  He will most likely wear this once in his life and possibly use it to play later.  I added some gold buttons to the front of the vest.  These were hand sewn, of course.

Our little Jake needed a tattered undershirt as well.  To create this, I used a white t-shirt.  (Like the ones you find in a multi-pack near the underwear section.)

I cut some slits in the sleeves.

Then, I cut a "V" at the neckline.

Using a seam ripper, I poked four small holes, two on each side of the "V".  These holes are for lacing the shirt with some black cord.  I did a simple "X" pattern for the lacing and tied the ends in a knot on the inside of the shirt.  To keep those knots from irritating my son's skin, I applied one piece of clear tape over the knots.  This help them in place and made the costume more comfortable for him.

To simulate a belt, I took a piece of black fabric and folded it in half.  I hemmed the edges of the fabric, all the way around.  Then, at the fold, I stitched only the portion of the fold nearest the shirt to the front bottom of the shirt.  Doing this kept us from having to have another piece to fool with around his waist.  He's working on potty training, so we didn't want to have anything that would have created another obstacle for him in going to the bathroom.

He wore a red bandana tied around his head and brown boots over his jeans to complete the look.  I also made him a pouch for his gold, but he refused to carry it or even allow me to tie it to his belt loop.  He also had a sword, but we didn't let him bring it to school.  He only had it at home for his real Trick-or-Treating experience.

If you are not good with a sewing machine, you can always use iron-on hemming tape to create this look.  Costumes don't have to cost a fortune.