Coolest Homemade Mad Hatter Boy's Halloween Costume Idea

My (now) 6 year old nephew has a real talent for picking complicated costumes. But, he usually picks it right away and doesn’t change his mind. He lives 150 miles away from me, so it was tricky getting him and the costume in the same room at the same time to finish it. It was also difficult to picture all the little details he wanted. Though he was more interested in the orange hair, which I couldn’t help him with, he seemed pleased that I was able to include everything he asked for.

The coat is made out of scraps of brown upholstery chenille, corduroy, and faux leather. None of these fray so they are great to use if you don’t want/need to line/hem a garment. I used the same pieces from the vest I made him, just made it bigger and cut the sleeves to fit the armholes. I drew the lapel on a piece of paper, cut it out of the fabric and sewed directly onto the coat.

Strips of ribbon, too short for any other use, but couldn’t bear throwing away, for one pocket and the cuffs. Scraps of hot pink satin and white lace were used for the handkerchief and cuffs. I purchased the white daisy and wooden spools. I covered the spools with different colors of thread. Clear nail polish on the thread to keep from unraveling from the spools and wove ribbon through them so they’d hold together like a bandoleer.

The pants are made out of brown pinstripe cotton with hand embroidered leaves on one leg.

The vest is fully lined. I couldn’t find checkered fabric, so I got fabric paint, a 1″ sponge and painted squares on black cotton.

The bow-tie is a strip of a graphic print fabric, tied in a bow, and sewn directly on to one of his polo shirts.

The hat: I couldn’t find anything close to what the hat is made of. So I got some olive batik cotton, and covered it with black lace. Getting the shape was easier than I expected. The top is a 9″ circle, six identical trapezium shapes and an 18″ doughnut for the brim. I sewed a band of champagne satin, used some hat pins from a scrapbook kit and a white card for the “10/6”. Then, I tucked purchased peacock feathers in the band.