The Littlest Fishie

A Simple Baby Costume

Hey there!

So this is my first tutorial - hopefully clear enough and easy to follow. (Be warned - there are a LOT of pictures).

Also, some of the pics may not be super clear, sorry. My camera charger has run away.

OK, let's get to it!

My friend, Lindsay, just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl a month ago and was having trouble finding a small enough costume for her little squish. So I came up with this!

I just love how it turned out. And it's fleece so she'll be cozy warm.

Want to make one? Here's how i did it.

First, I dug out a 3 month shirt from the Pooka's baby things to check aize. Then, I just freehanded a basic shape for the body. I cut two the same - front and back. (See a couple of chunks missing at the side, there? Yup, using scraps. )

I cut the shoulders longer on the back so that they could fold over and snap closed.

Next, I cut some orange fleece stripes (craftily covering those missing chunks) and stitched them onto the body, close as possible to the edge.

Make sure the front and back stripes are positioned as evenly as possible.

I then cut some 2 inch wide strips from the end of a black t-shirt and ironed them in half to make some binding. This covered all the raw edges :-).

In the pic above you can see how I attached the binding. I lined up the raw edges of my folded binding with the line of stitching on the orange stripe. 

Then I sewed the binding on at just the width of the presser foot. You want it to be just outside the edge of the orange stripe.

Once you've attached black binding to all the stripe edges, flip the folded edge of the binding onto the orange stripes and topstitch it down. 

Now it's starting to look cool, right?

Ok, next, every fishie needs a tail, right?

So I googled pictures of Nemo - because that's what this lil fishie is looking like. Got the shape of the tail, and cut two layers of orange fleece for the tail.

Then I stitched the two layers together around the edges, right sides together, turned it right side out, and stitched some black lines into it.

Cute? I think so!

Now, center the tail on the bottom of one of the body pieces, like below.

Then we put the other body piece on top of this, right side down, and pin around the edges. This is the time to make sure your stripes are lining up - fleece is fairly easy to smoosh or stretch a little if you need to.

Now, use some more t-shirt binding to finish the raw edges at the armholes and neck. You can do this all in one continuous strip. 

I lined up the raw edges of my folded binding with the raw edge of the fishie, on the WRONG side of the costume and stitched it on about a quarter inch from the edge.

Then, I trimmed off the edges, as close to the stitching as possible, to reduce the bulk. And then flip the folded edge of the binding to the right side and topstitch it down.

All that's left is to add some cute snaps. Or, if you prefer to add buttons, that would be cute too - though I'd add the buttonholes before doing the binding.

And there you have it - cute, cozy and not too difficult.

Pooka had to "help" with this pic!

But then,

I couldn't leave it at that.

What about that tiny noggin - Halloween in NY has a habit of being chilly.

I couldn't find any tiny baby hats in the house so I really just winged the size and shape of this. Plus, I only had a TINY amount of orange fleece left - otherwise I'd have done a bigger stripe of orange on the hat.

You can see from the quilting mat, it's about 8 inches in both directions, at the longest/widest part.

Cut 2 of these.

Then, from my tiny scraps of orange, I cut a double layer of fin for the top of the head, again googling to find roughly the right shape.

And just like we did for the tail, I sewed it right sides together, except for the bottom edge, turned it right side out, and stitched some black lines for a little definition, and to help it stand up.

Then I used my very last orange scraps to add these patches at the ear area (because that was the only place to fit such little bits) and added the binding just as I did for the stripes on the body.

Then, I pinned the fin between the hat pieces, raw edges and right sides together, and sewed it together. It's not all the way pinned above, but I just eased the raw edges together as I sewed.

Heehee, so tiny and cute!

At this point, I trimmed that point off the front forehead area.

And lastly, I added more t-shirt binding all around the edge. 

I did it just like before on the costume armholes and neck - first sewing it on raw edges together to the inside of the hat.

Again, trim everything close to the stitching to reduce bulk and make it easier to turn.

Then flip the binding to the right side, topstitch all around and you're done!

Now, I just have to wait for pics of the little squish in her fishie costume. 

Here it is all together.

Pretty simple and cute, no? 

I'd love to hear what you think, and if you have questions I'm happy to answer them :-).

Have a great day!