Video:How to Make a Baby Gnome Costume

Transcript:How to Make a Baby Gnome Costume

Hi. I'm Krystyna Rittichier with About.com, and today I'll show you how to make a baby gnome costume. There are few things cuter than a garden gnome smiling at you from the sidewalk, except maybe a baby in a gnome costume. This costume is time consuming, but it is inexpensive and easy to make.

Materials for a Baby Gnome Costume

For your baby gnome costume you will need:

• Scissors Adult t-shirt, robin's egg blue
• Adult jeans Long sleeved onsie, 1 size too big
• Thread Pins Measuring tape
• Iron
• Sewing machine
• White Adhesive felt
• Black felt
• Golden yellow felt
• Red adhesive felt
• Safety pins
• Tape
• Black infant leggings

How to Start the Baby Gnome Costume

Cut the adult t-shirt in half to separate the front half from the back. Cut the legs off the jeans at the top of the inner seams. If you have a larger baby you may want to use baggy men's jeans. Cut the jean legs open at the inner seams, then cut these seams off the fabric. We are using a onsie that is one to one size too big so the fabric will be baggy, but we don't want the sleeves to be too long. Put the onsie on the baby, and roll up the sleeves to an appropriate length. Pin them with safety pins and remove the onsie from the baby.

How to Make the Tunic for the Baby Gnome Costume

To make the tunic, lay the front piece of the t-shirt down. Place the onsie on top of t-shirt, lining up the necks on the garments, then pull the onsie down by ¼ inch. Pin them together all the way around the onsie. Now we'll make the base of the tunic larger than the top. Find the middle of the onsie by folding it in half. Mark this point with a pin. Next, we will outline the shape of the tunic with pins on the blue t-shirt fabric. Mark the bottom hem 2 inches below the bottom of the onsie. To outline the sides, connect the middle point of the onsie to the base of the tunic by parallelling the side hem of the onsie sleeve. You should now have a triangle shape tunic base. Cut out the front of the tunic, leaving 1 inch of excess all around the fabric. Repeat this process with the back side of the t-shirt, using the cut out tunic front as your guide.

How to Make the Base of the Baby Gnome Costume

Now we'll use the jean fabric to give body to the base of the tunic. Lay the jean leg down horizontally. Lay a tunic piece right side down on the jean so that the jean fabric starts one inch above where the tunic widens. Pin the tunic to the jean material, then cut out the jean material to match the tunic exactly. Stitch the jean material to the tunic along the waist of the tunic ½ inch below the jean material line. Remove all the pins. Repeat these steps with the other jean leg.

With the wrong side of the t shirt fabric facing you, pin the neck hem over itself ¼ inch, and pin this in place. Turn the piece over to the right side of the fabric, and fold the ends of sleeves in by 1 inch and pin them. At the base of the tunic, remove 1 inch of the jean material. Fold the base of the tunic up by 1 inch, over the jean material and pin this. Do the same with the other tunic piece. Iron the all the hems except the neck hems. Stitch along the neck hem at the midpoint, and repeat with the other tunic piece. Stitch the sleeve hems and the base hems at the midpoint of the hems on both tunic pieces. Pin the tunic pieces together with the right sides facing in. Stitch the tunic pieces together ½ inch in, avoiding the neck hole, the arm holes, and the base. Turn the tunic right side out and iron it.

How to Make the Rest of the Baby Gnome Costume

Place the white adhesive felt on the front of the tunic. Draw a beard shape on the felt, so that the beard starts at the shoulders, goes around the neck hem, and ends ½ inch up from the place where the tunic widens. Cut out the beard shape and stick it to the fabric. To make the belt, cut out 2 strips of black felt which are 1 inch wide. Stitch the 2 pieces of black felt together to make a long belt. To make the belt buckle, cut out a rectangle of gold felt which is 1 ½ inches tall by 1 1 ½ inches wide, or 2 by 2 inches for babies above 25 pounds. Place the belt in the middle of the buckle, and trace guidelines above and below the belt. Make 2 vertical guide lines 1 inch in on each side of the belt buckle. Cut on the vertical guide lines, but do not cut past the horizontal guide lines. Slip the belt into the buckle, put it on the baby above the belly button, and trim the excess belt fabric leaving 3 inches of excess. Use a safety pin hidden beneath the belt to secure the belt for the finished costume.

To make the hat, shape the red felt into a cone shape with the ends slightly overlapping. Secure the cone shape on the inside with tape, then use safety pins at 1 inch intervals to secure the seam. Fold the excess felt on the bottom into the cone, and use a safety pin to secure this.

Your baby gnome costume is now ready to wear! Thanks for watching! For more information visit us online at About.com.