How I Planned and Sewed Ada's Simple Skeleton Costume

How I Planned and Sewed Ada's Simple Skeleton Costume

Last year Ada started kindergarten and I wanted to be sure she had her own version of a perfect costume for when she’d get to wear it to school for Halloween. As September progressed she decided on being a skeleton and was quite firm in that decision. At first I considered keeping the costume simple and buying one but when I looked around online the only ones I saw seemed to be too expensive, constructed poorly, or both. I even went to Walmart and Michael’s Arts and Crafts for inspiration but found nothing other than a little dangly skeleton that had been constructed with one leg backwards. I finally just decided to make my own skeleton costume for her and this outfit was born!

Pinterest image showing four skeleton images (all shown below too), the blog title, my main URL, and a couple Halloween-themed clipart.

When Ada chose to be a skeleton for Halloween I quickly realized that I wasn’t sure how I should start the project. I did realize; however, that I needed to start out with a black outfit to hold the bones so I temporarily ignored the issue of how to construct the skeleton itself and instead focused on figuring out the perfect base for the costume. At this point in time I had recently pattern tested the Firecracker dress and top through Ragamuffin Patterns and, since the girls loved it, figured that would work perfectly for this outfit. I had also bought the incredible MyFit Leggings, through Apostrophe Patterns, a couple months before so choosing the looser fitting version of the pants made this even simpler. With the top and bottom figured out the next step was the fabric. For the black outfit base I chose a lightweight black cotton Lycra fabric, that may have been from Girl Charlee, with a 40% four way stretch and then found some lightweight white knit, with a bit of stretch, in my fabric stash for the bones. Sometime during all of that I came across a post by mummydiarysx on Instagram that showed her life-sized skeleton puzzle. I loved it and immediately asked her where she got it which lead to me creating an account on twinkl, where you occasionally get a free item, and thus I had my life-sized skeleton paper pattern pieces for the costume’s bones.

Collage showing screenshots of my inspiration. The first two images (on left) show my Amazon results for skeleton costumes with a T Rex, Pterodactyl, and romper with candy. The middle image shows @mummydiarys' Instagram skeleton puzzle post while the fourth image shows twinkl's life-size skeleton cut-out. The final image is a realistic and sanitized contents of a person's torso showing the skeleton and organs.
The two images on the left show my Amazon search results when I was looking for inspiration for Ada’s costume. I loved the dinosaur skeletons and the candy hidden in the skeleton’s stomach. I finally came across mummydiarys’ post on Instagram that showed her life sized skeleton puzzle. I asked her where she got the pieces from and found twinkl for a life-size skeleton cut-out. The final image shows my image result when I was trying to figure out where the stomach was located relative to the bones so I knew where to put the candy on the costume.

While planning the skeleton costume I considered taking it a step further by adding black mittens and a hat. For the mittens I considered using this free mitten pattern, on Fleece Fun, where I was then going to attach the skeleton’s hand bones to the top and bottom side of the mitten. I ended up skipping the mittens, still haven’t even tried the pattern, as we live in California and I worried Ada would get too warm with them on. I instead chose to make the sleeves of the Firecracker top longer and add a thumbhole so Ada could choose when she wanted to cover up her hands with the sleeves, showing off the bones, or push the sleeves up when she needed to use her hands. This way there were also no extra pieces that she might lose. For the hat I had planned to use the Brighton Beanie, through Peek-a-Boo patterns, but right when I was about to start making it for Ada, just after trying on the finished shirt and pants, she mentioned wanting to be a firefighter skeleton, by wearing a firefighter hat from the previous year’s costume, so I put off making the beanie and then ended up skipping it. I was planning to make the beanie in black, like the shirt and pants, and attach the skull piece to it somehow.

I started out by cutting my black fabric as it was the easiest as I just needed to cut out the pattern pieces for the Firecracker top and the MyFit Leggings. I did; however, first extend the sleeves on the top along with extending the bodice’s length so it would overlap over the pelvic bone crotch of the leggings. I then, later, forgot about that logic, overthought the shirt’s length, and ended up trimming the top shorter which I now regret.

The white skeletal bones were more difficult than the base; yet, since I had gotten the life-sized skeleton cut-out through Twinkl it was so much easier than I had feared it would be. I started out by printing the skeleton and then, after writing what each bone section was on the bones themselves, I started cutting them out. I quickly realized that cutting them out individually was taking a lot of time and decided to just cut the paper at the same time as the white knit fabric using my rotary cutter. I pulled out my fabric, cutting mat, pattern weights, and rotary cutter before getting to work cutting out two, mirrored, pieces for each bone piece. Since I wanted the pelvic bone to sit on the front and back of the shirt and the leggings I made sure to cut four of them out instead of just the two I did for all the other bones.

Image shows the scattered stacked skeleton printouts including the skull, feet, hand, neck, and a femur bone. The printout has the name written beside each bone section, which was going to be cut off, so now each bone section is now labelled with a pen.
After printing out the full-sized skeleton I made sure to label each piece, within the bone section, before cutting them out so I’d be able to keep track of them. After I had cut out several bones I decided to instead cut the bones out while using my rotary cutter on the fabric so I could streamline the process better.
Image shows the table with my supplies: printed bones, white fabric, cutting mat, rotary cutter, and scissors laid out. In the background Zoey dumps out a vase-full of buttons.
I set Zoey up with a sensory bin and then grabbed my supplies.

For each paper pattern piece I folded over the edge of my white knit fabric so there would be a doubled layer of the fabric that was just as wide as the bone itself so I wouldn’t waste too much fabric. I then laid the paper pattern over top and added spaced out pattern weights so the paper would stay down and not move while cutting. I then took my rotary cutter along the outer section of each bone cutting through the paper and the fabric. I found switching to my smaller, 18 mm, rotary cutter made the smaller sections even easier. If there was a small hard to reach section I left it uncut and then later, after lifting the paper up, took my fabric scissors that area. Once the outside was, mostly, cut out I worked on cutting any details within the bone before lifting the paper up. Each set of bones were stacked, with the matching paper piece, so they wouldn’t get lost. For the pelvic bone I repeated this process a second time, so I ended up with two mirrored sets or four fabric pieces, rather than just the two pieces.

Image shows the cutting mat with a section of folded over fabric with the pelvic bone placed overtop with three washers holding it down (two wrapped in embroidery floss). Off to the side there's another washer, a rotary blade, and a pile of paper bones.
I folded the white knit fabric over so it was as wide as the bone section I wanted to cut. I then laid the paper over top and put enough pattern weights down that the paper wouldn’t budge when I cut it out.
Image shows a closeup of the white fabric on the cutting mat. On the fabric is the pelvic bone with the outer edge cut along with the small sections near the bottom of the bone. Sitting on the bone sits two decorative washers and a plain one so the paper stays in place. Under the paper bone sits two different sized rotary cutter.
After the paper was weighed down it was time to cut out the bone. I started by going around the outside lines using my 28 mm rotary cutter before going inside and cutting out the empty spaces. When the lines were too small I switched to my smaller, 18 mm, rotary cutter.
Image shows the cut out fabric pelvis with the empty spaces emptied and the fabric around it slightly pulled away. The cutting mat is visible under the fabric while the paper pelvis and the two rotary cutters sit below.
Once done I removed the pattern weights and the paper pattern from the fabric. I then checked to see if I was able to remove the inner pieces from the bone and the bone from the fabric. If they were still connected I used my fabric scissors cut them apart. Since I folded the fabric in half I was now left with two, mirrored, bones.
Image shows the left hand pattern piece on the folded fabric with two metal washers blocking half the hand from the rotary blade.
Some of the smaller and detailed pieces were harder to cut out with the pattern weights in the way. You can either free up a space to cut and then carefully move the weights over or you could carefully hold it in place with your one hand while cutting with the other hand.
As I finished each set of bones I stacked them so they were easy to separate and ready for the next step.

For the bones I was originally debating using a grey fabric marker to shade them so they appeared more 3D-like and the areas where the bones crisscrossed, liked the rib cage, would be more obvious. I then started second guessing whether I should color them since I didn’t want the white thread, when sewing the bones to the black base, to stand out against the grey colored fabric. I also remembered how Zoey’s Doc McStuffins costume was pressed, to set the ink, when it was just one layer of fabric and it still faded in the first wash. I ended up deciding to make the plan simpler and chose to leave the bones as they were: solid white.

Once all the fabric was cut and I decided not color the bones the next step was to attach them all together. I wanted to add the white bones to the black fabric before I sewed the garment pieces together as it would be simpler to sew while the fabric lays flat and then I wouldn’t have to worry about the fabric layers getting in the way. The first step would be laying out the bones on the fabric and, as I wanted to be one hundred percent sure they were laid out correctly, I found one of our encyclopedias and opened it to the skeleton page so I’d have a reference while I worked. I then grabbed the cut out black garment pieces, my white knit bones, and lots of pins to stick them together and I was ready to go.

Laid out on the car mat sits an opened book to the skeleton section with a wooden vehicle laid overtop to keep it open. The bottom left of the image shows a pile of black fabric, with the odd visible sliver of white paper, with a pile of the white bones overtop. Perched on top is a purple tomato with pins in it and two extra containers of pins just in case it's needed.
I found a good reference for my skeleton within one of my kids’ books. I used a readily available car to keep the book propped open and then gathered my cut pattern pieces and pins so I could put it together.

I was going to start adding the bones to the shirt willy-nilly but first decided to build the skeleton, while referring to the book, so I’d have a good place to start and wouldn’t need to analyze as much. I then laid the white bone pieces onto the front, and then back, shirt pieces. While laying out the bones I started analyzing how far apart the bones had to be to reach the whole way and decided to shorten my shirt so they’d be able to fit closer together; however, now looking back I wish I hadn’t as the pelvic bone on the shirt would’ve covered the pelvic bone on the pants rather than ending above like it now does.

I figured it would be easiest to figure out the layout if I built the skeleton puzzle first.
Image shows the a car mat with the folded black shirt, then the paper pattern, and finally the paper neck, ribs, spine, and pelvis laid out over top.
I started out by laying the bones on the sewing pattern and then tried to figure out how long I wanted the shirt before trimming it to the right size.

As I started laying out the bones on the front of the shirt I realized I wanted to add a heart under the rib cage. I quickly went to my fabric stash and could only find some red woven fabric which I was worried about at first, as it wouldn’t stretch with the shirt, but then decided it wouldn’t matter since it would cover such a small area. After cutting out the heart I remembered the Halloween onesie I saw on Amazon that had some candy in the skeleton’s stomach. Since I already had the red out I decided to quickly cut some candy-looking pieces with the red fabric and I made sure there was enough for both the front and back of the shirt. Looking back, if I were to do this again, I would choose to use another color for the candy as Ada told me, after school the day she wore it, that some of her classmates thought it looked like blood.

With the red heart and candy pieces cut out it was time to figure out where they should go. Since I was going to sew the red fabric on first, to go under the bones, I decided to lay out the bones using the paper pattern pieces since they were easier to place and move around compared to the white fabric ones. Once I was happy with how the bones were placed I confirmed where the stomach was and then carefully laid the cut pieces of red fabric, underneath the paper pieces, until I was happy with how it all looked. I then removed the paper pattern pieces, pinned the red fabric in place, and used red thread to sew them all on. I was a bit concerned with the fabric unraveling so I tried to sew close to the edge, with a zigzag stitch, and hoped the stitching would hold it in place well enough that if it did start unraveling it would just look raggedy.

Image shows the shirt opened up over a car mat. On the shirt sits the paper bones for the neck, rib cages, spine, and pelvis. Scattered around under the bones are the candy and heart.
I grabbed some red woven fabric and quickly cut out a heart and then followed it up with some candy. I wanted it to be obvious that it was candy yet simple enough to cut so I made some looked like wrapped candy and the rest were small circle shapes for suckers.
Image shows a closeup of the black shirt with the paper bone pieces laid overtop. There are four red candies placed around the vertebrae.
I laid out the paper pattern where I wanted it and then played around with how the red heart and candy might look before deciding on a final location and carefully removing the paper.
Image shows a section of the front and back shirt pieces highlighting the red flannel heart, candy, and circular pieces pinned to the black knit fabric.
I then pinned the heart and candy fabric pieces into place so they wouldn’t shift when being sewn.
Image shows the front of the shirt, right side up on the right side of the photo, and the back side of the shirt, wrong side up on the left so you can see the difference between the front (red shapes) and back (thread outlines) of the fabric.
I sewed around the outside of the heart, candy, and circles using a zigzag stitch. For the circles I wanted them to look like suckers, or lollipops, so once I sewed around the circle I turned, at a 90 degree angle, and sewed away to create a sucker stick.

Once the red heart and candy were sewn on I brought all the pieces back to the living room and laid the white fabric bones back on the shirt pieces. I played with how they were laid out and once happy I pinned them in place so they couldn’t budge. While laying them out I did realize I’d have to add binding to the neckline so I left the very top of the neck unsewn but, other than that, I sewed around the outside of each and every bone so they’d stay secure. Once I got to the pelvic bone I made sure to sew along the inside of each of the holes, but, once I got to the ribs, I chose to leave the smaller holes unsewn and justified this choice as you could then see the heart underneath the rib, by pulling slightly on the fabric, and by how much work sewing each hole would’ve been. I gambled on the fact that Ada wouldn’t stretch the ribs out too much after the fact and knew, if so, I could always sew more later on.

Image shows the front (left) and back (right) of the sweater laid out side by side. The front has a red heart sewn on while both have candies sewn on. They both have white knit neck, ribs, spine, and pelvic bone pinned on.
After the red candy and the heart was sewn on it was time to place the bones on the bodice pieces. After I was happy with how they were laid out I carefully pinned around it.
Image shows a closeup of the front of the shirt close to the sewing machine. You can see the stitching around the outside of the neck, ribs, spine, and pelvic bone. There's still a pin in the center of the ribs but all the other pins were taken out.
After pinning all the bones on I took either side of the shirt and sewed around the outside of each bone, securing it, and then sewed along the holes inside the pelvic bone. I left the small spaces inside the ribs unsewn, but if I was worried about Ada stretching out the ribs I could’ve sewed them down too. I left the top of the neck bone unsewn so I could fold it down, out of the way, when it was time sew the neckband on the shirt.

Once I was done sewing the bones from the torso on it was time to do the arms. Originally, I had planned to make mittens or gloves for the skeleton hands but instead decided to make the sleeves longer and add a thumbhole so Ada could pull them down to cover her hands whenever she wanted ‘skeleton hands’, but also easily push up her sleeves if she needed to use her actual hands to do something. After choosing that I also chose to leave the sleeves unhemmed, easier and also longer, and thus was able to have the finger tips reach all the way to the end of the sleeve without being concerned about a hem or band covering the fingertips up in the future. Anyway once I was done sewing the torso on, I next lined up the shoulder, arm, and hand bones on the sleeves and pinned them in place.

Image shows the car mat with the front of the shirt laid out on it. All the center bones, candy, and heart are sewn on while the arm, and related, bones are pinned on. Below you can see the extra bone pieces that haven't been used and above it the opened body book with the bottom of the skeleton diagram showing.
After sewing the torso onto the shirt front and shirt back it was time to add all the other bones. I carefully lined up the shoulder, arm, and hand bones before pinning it into place so I could easily sew them on.

After sewing the arm, and related, bones onto the front and back of the shirt all the required bones were secured and it was time to sew the shirt together. I sewed it up according to the pattern’s directions while being wary to not stitch over any bones. While sewing up the sleeve I was careful to add a simple thumbhole, near the skeleton’s thumb, by leaving a spacing in the seam. I; however, had messed up the first sleeve by sewing the hand bone on facing the opposite direction from how Ada would probably naturally hold her hand. Because of that I ended up creating two thumbholes, on both the top and bottom of each sleeve, so Ada could easily put her thumb in no matter how twisted the sleeve might get. Additionally, with the neckline, I had originally decided to fold the top of the neck bone down while I sewed the neckband on and then fold it back up so I could sew around the bone as it laid over top of the neckband and it’s seam. Once I got to this step I remembered that I had chosen to create a binding instead so I sewed over the neck bone, trim the excess bone down, flipped the binding down over the last seam, and topstitched the binding in place.

Image shows multiple hands sewn onto the shirt. On the right, on the foreground, are two white hands sewn onto a black background. My thumb is sticking out showing the edge of the fabric to show how the thumbhole works. In the background, to the left, you can see the underside of the sleeve with the thumbhole pointed inside. Since it's the underside you can't see the white fabric but can see the white thread zigzagging the outline of the hands on the reversed side.
I made a super simple thumbhole on either side of both sleeves, so it would work easily whether the sleeve twisted or not. I created the thumbhole by creating a gape on the seam by backstitching to secure the seam, jumping ahead, and stitching, with backstitching, to the end. I was able to trim off the excess thread once I finished sewing.
Image shows the opened neckline with the binding sewn on, right side to wrong side, so there's black thread zigzagging over the white bones.
I ended up sewing the neckline with a binding before I sewed the second shoulder seam. I decided to sew over the bones, when sewing the binding on, trim the excess white fabric, fold the binding down, and topstitch it. This added a clean finish to the top of the shirt without me having to sew the top of the bones down over the binding and, maybe, lose some of the binding’s stretch to get the shirt on over Ada’s head.

As I pinned and sewed the bones onto the shirt I also pinned and sewed them onto the MyFit Leggings fabric pattern pieces but I decided to wait until now to show you what I did for the pants. Unlike the shirt, where I sewed the bones onto flat pattern pieces and then sewed the pieces together, for the pants I, instead, had to wrap my head around where the bones would go since I had a pattern piece that would include both the front and back side of the body as it stretched around the leg. I considered starting with the pelvis but then decided it would be easier to start with one set of leg bones and then work my way to the rest. To do this I folded my paper pattern piece in half lengthwise and laid it over top of the fabric pattern piece so I could better visual where the front of the leg was and differentiate from the back of the leg. I also knew I shouldn’t add any of the bones too close to the edge of the fabric or too close to the center as they’d then wrap around the leg instead of staying on the front, or back, of the leg. As I chose a section to start on and played around with different positionings of the bones I realized that my pants seemed a bit too short for the bones and I had to add the paper pelvic bone on so I could better understand how it might look once finished. Looking back I wish the top of the leg bones had been a bit further away from the pelvic bone but overall I’m happy with how it turned out.

Image shows two black flat fabric legs laid out with the matching crotch lines facing at the top. You can see part of the paper pattern piece being held over the half of the right leg. At the top center is the paper pelvic bone and descending from there are the upper and lower leg bones. The bottom of the leg bone stretches pasts the bottom of the pant leg by a bit.
I folded the paper pattern piece in half lengthwise so I could use it to block the reversed side of the leg making the fabric whole leg into just the front, or back, of the leg at a time. I then grabbed the pelvic bone to help understand how it might look once it was sewn on. Based on those two aids I then laid out the other leg bones onto the pants.
Image shows both pant legs with the upper and lower leg bones pinned on. To the left is the unused pelvic bone and the paper patterns for the leg bones.
After I was happy with how the legs were laid out I removed the paper patterns, pinned them in place, and then swapped the legs around so I could go through the same process on the other side.

After pinning the leg bones onto the pants and sewing them in place it was time to sew the crotch seam so the left and right pant legs would be sewn together. I started by sewing just the front crotch curve so I could lay the front of the pants down flat and it would be easier to position the pelvic bone over the seam, pin it into place, and sew it on. While doing that I made sure to leave the very top of the pelvic bone unsewn so I could fold it out of the way to make room to sew the waistband on afterwards. After sewing the front of the pants it was time to repeat that process on the back by sewing the back crotch curve, position the pelvic bone, pin it in place, and sew it, mostly, on.

Image shows the front of the leg bones with the pelvic bone not added yet so you can see the front crotch seam.
The front of the legs after the front of the crotch seam was sewn and the pants were laid flat on top of the kitchen table. You can still see my faint chalk ‘F’ so I could tell the front apart from the back easily.
Image shows the front of the pants with most of the pelvic bone sewn on including the holes inside the bone. The top is unsewn, folded down, and held in place with a white headed sewing pin.
I then placed the pelvic bone over top of the leg bones centered over the crotch seam. I pinned it in place and, leaving the top unsewn, sewed the rest of the pelvic bone on including along the inside of the holes. I then folded the top down and pinned it in place so it wouldn’t get caught when sewing the waistband on later.

Finally it was time to add the waistband. While sewing it on I was careful not to sew through the white bones. Once finished, I unfolded the top of the pelvis, on the front and back of the pants, and carefully pinned the pelvic bone into place. I then took it back to my sewing machine and carefully sewed it on going over the waistband and it’s seam.

Image shows the finished pants with the bottom half of the pelvic bone and leg bones sewn on. The top of the pelvic bone is pinned in place overlapping the waistband,
After finishing sewing the pants together it was time to fix the top of the pelvic bone. I unpinned and flipped the top up before smoothing the white knit fabric and pinning it in place. Once I was happy with how it was placed it was time to sew it on.

At this point I hadn’t sewn the bands on the bottom of the leggings but figured I should try it on Ada before I went ahead in case it was long enough as it was already. All in all I was already happy with how it turned out.

Image shows the pants, with an unhemmed bottom, and shirt laid out on the car mat. The shirt overlaps with the top of the pants so there is only one pelvis. Through the neckline you can see the inside back of the shirt showing the bone's outlines.
The shirt and pants, almost, all sewn up.
Image shows both garments inside out so you can see the outlined bones, heart, and candy. The shirt is beside the pants so the image is in landscape mode. You can easily tell the difference between the bones and the candy/heart as they used different thread. The bones are outlined in white zigzag stitches while the candy and heart used red.
I flipped the shirt and pants inside out so you could see how it looks from the inside as that easily shows where I sewed and chose not to sew.
The back of Ada is shown while she skeleton walks away from the camera towards the living room.
Ada tried the garments on and absolutely loved it.

After trying the outfit on it was time to sew the cuffs onto the bottom of the pant legs. Like with the neck binding I had left the bottom of the bone unsewn so I was able to simply fold up the bottom bone so it was out of the way and pin it into place. I next sewed on the cuffs and then unfolded the bone so it would overlap with part of the finished cuff. Before sewing the bone in place I grabbed the foot pieces and pinned them so they draped below the pant leg. I pictured them laid out over Ada’s shoe giving them the appearance of a skeleton’s foot. This appearance didn’t happen and after wearing the costume out the white knit feet got browned, curled, and stretched. After getting home I cut them off and, since the fabric was knit, I didn’t have to worry about the cut lines unraveling.

Image shows a closeup of the bottom of the pants with the white bones folded up and pinned in place. Hiding the bone fold is the cuff clipped in place.
Like when I added the binding to the neckline I started by folding the bottom of the bones up and pinned them to keep them in place. I then took the cuffs, clipped them in place, and sewed them on.
Image shows a closeup of the bottom part of the pants along the pant cuff. The bottom of the leg bone is overlapping the seam on the cuff and is pinned over top. Above it sits the top of the foot bone. It is also pinned in place.
I folded the bottom of the bones back down, pinned them in place, and then, on the front side, grabbed the two foot pieces and pinned them along the top so they draped below the bottom of the cuff. I next sewed these onto the cuff and it was hard to get into the small space with my sewing machine.
Image shows a closeup of the skeleton's hands and feet. The two sleeves are draped down from the top of the image on the left while the two feet drape down on the right. The one pant leg is folded up so you can see the backside and how the foot is only sewn on the front side.
The final hands and feet. As you can see I only attached two feet so there was only one on the front of either pant leg.
Image is bright and looking down at Ada's shoes. The skeleton's legs are showing from the thigh down. The feet are stretched out with the toes all curled up and lengthened out. They're brushing the ground.
Halfway through the evening at Ada’s school Halloween party I looked down and noticed the feet were all rolled up, dirty, and had become a tripping hazard.
Image shows the bottom of the skeleton's leggings where the bones are a bit wrinkled from having been worn. The foot pieces have been cut off and they're laying on top of their respective pant leg rolled up and dirty.
As the night out went on they got stepped on more and more. Once we got home I quickly cut the feet off, right below the stitches so they didn’t come apart, and since the fabric was knit I wasn’t worried about the fabric itself unraveling.

And the skeleton outfit was officially finished and even test driven! Ada loved it. In fact when she first saw the finished outfit she rushed to get her candy-decorated socks so her feet could match the costume’s stomach. I ended up having to make sure the socks were in the wash alongside the costume so she could wear them together. I’m so glad it worked out and she loved her costume.

The image shows Ada from her neck down dressed as a skeleton with candy socks on to match the candy in her skeleton's stomach. Her arms are folded up as she wears the sleeves over her hands.
Costume on and Ada’s loving how there’s thumbholes so the sleeves could fit over her hands making them skeletal.
Ada is standing in the living room with one arm down and one slanted up a bit. Both arms are slightly blurry as she swings them to the side and back again.
Skeleton dancing!
The back of the skeleton is facing the camera as she spins in the costume.
Spinning skeleton!
There was a tree that was perfect for a quick photo of the costume.

And with that Ada’s skeleton was done. I had debated adding a (Brighton) beanie to the outfit so I could, somehow, attach the fabric skull to the costume, but while I was debating Ada mentioned being a firefighter skeleton so I put off deciding on the beanie and then didn’t end up making it. I figured she might end up wearing her fire hat from the previous year’s costume or some other dress up hat we had, but she left her head unadorned instead. Even though the outfit was a lot of work and mostly sat in her dress up drawer all this year I’m still glad I made it as she loved it over Halloween. It worked great with the Ada-approved patterns (Firecracker top and MyFit Leggings) that I had already made and recently sized her for but I’m sure, if you were interested in making this, your favorite top and pants pattern could work too.

If I were to sew this skeleton again I would leave the black top longer and stretch out the bones in the torso to fit. I originally planned to have the shirt longer so it overlapped the pant’s pelvic bone but I had second guessed how much they’d overlap and unfortunately removed the extra length. I wanted the pelvic bone on the shirt to cover the pelvic bone on the pants so there appeared to be only one pelvic bone while looking at the costume without any of Ada’s skin showing if she lifted her arms up.

I know we’re in a pandemic but what are you doing for Halloween this year (or future years if you’re reading this later on)? Are you including costumes in your plan? If so are you buying a costume, making one, or doing a combination of both choices? I made this skeleton for Ada’s costume last year, but this year I went for a simple Costco-bought one since Ada wanted to be Wonder Woman for her birthday party, back in August, and I stumbled upon it in time. She’s now planning on wearing it for whatever we end up doing for Halloween. I’m kind of hoping her class will show off their costumes to each other, through Zoom, at some point around Halloween. Whatever you’re doing, whether you celebrate or not, I hope you have a good October.


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