Kids Curious George Halloween Costume

This year my son decided to pick his own Halloween costume and he chose Curious George. He had been watching the Curious George Halloween movie on Netflix and it was all he wanted to watch over and over again! I was on board since I had the material leftover from a previous year where I thought I could take on 2 costumes.

My biggest challenge for this costume was trying to actually capture the look of Curious George and not just make him look like a generic monkey. I started with this picture as a reference.

STEP 1: Start with the head

As usual, when I’m trying to figure out a new pattern I have a tendency to forget to take pictures as I go along. My goal for each costume is to design around my child’s face. I prefer to let their cute little faces shine through the costume rather than hide them behind a mask or some google eyes lol. For this particular costume it was even more of a challenge to implement that and capture “Curious George’s” facial characteristics. I decided he needed to have some:

• big cheeks to capture the shape of his face
• the widows peak
• the little tuft of hair at the top of his head
• and some low monkey ears

Creating a pattern for the head is a little tricky because you really have to think in 3-D. I usually try to think of the head in  terms of 2 main pieces (the front and the back) and try to make the seam around the sides.

Be sure to stitch all of the little components together first…such as the tuft of hair, the ears, the cheeks. Flip them inside out and then integrate into the main part of the face. 

1. EARS… cut the pattern out so you have 4 pieces, stack 2 pieces back to back and sew along the edge leaving the bottom open. Then flip them inside out. Next fold the side edges in sort of like a pleat and sew that fold in place to create a 3-D effect.
2. HAIR TUFT… fold your fabric so you get 2 pieces when you make the cut. Make sure you stack them back to back with your finished sides on the inside for when you flip it inside out. Sew along the edges leaving the bottom open to flip inside out.
3. CHEEKS & CHIN… Place the the 2 back cheek pieces on the chin piece with the finished sides inside. Stitch around the edges but not the bottom of the back chin pieces. Flip piece inside out.
4. Sew 3 head pieces to each other. Be sure to sew the hair tuft piece in between.
5. Sew the back cheek edge to the side pieces on both sides. You should now have the full front of the face put together minus the ears.
6. Sew the head to the front neck piece and sew the back head piece to the back neck piece. You should now have a front face piece and a back of the head piece. Sandwich the two pieces back to back with the finished sides on the inside. Place your ears inside both pieces and pin them in place. Sew the two pieces together leaving the neck hole open.

The cheeks were a little floppy so I tacked them to the side of the head.

The body pieces are pretty straight forward…

1. First fold and sew the unfinished ends of the wrists and ankles.
2. Attach all pieces for front side together.
3. Cut the length of the zipper up the head and the back piece. Pin and sew in the zipper.
4. Attach all the pieces of the back together.
5. Pin the front to the back piece with the finished side on the inside. Sew all appropriate edges and flip inside out.