Why Sewing Your Baby's Costume

Many moms ask me, if you can buy a baby or toddler costume at target, or anywhere… why taking the time to sew one?

Because when you make the costume, you make your unique vision come to life for your unique kid.

That unusual character your little one loves!

Since very little my girl liked characters merchandisers seem to have labeled as “boys only”. She got some pieces anyway but for an special occasion I didn’t want to just plop her in

a boy’s outfit. She’s a girl who loves dresses, specially for her birthday, who also happened to be in love with the Cars movie and its characters. So, for her very special celebration at Disneyland I made her a Lightning McQueen dress, and she was beyond delighted!

Sometimes your kids like main characters that are everywhere, but sometimes they like less popular ones, or a character from a book, or even made up ones you definitely won’t find at Target.

Or maybe you want the baby to fit a family theme, or to be sidekick to older kids. Some sidekicks or secondary characters are not easy to find, much less in baby size.

Not to mention one-size-fits-all don’t fit most babies and toddlers. You don’t want to end up with a costume that looks awkward, drags on the floor, they step on and might end up falling or ripping it.

Even if you don’t need the costume to last forever, you want some quality, but you’d be lucky if big box store costumes last a couple hours before they start to fall apart… not what you envision for that carefully planned event, right?

Instead of cheap synthetic materials that itch or scratch baby’s skin, you want to give your baby soft and flexible fabrics that make them happy for a fun time and those great pictures you are wishing for.

And most of all, you want to make your baby’s costume because it is fun! A Mama playtime to express your creativity and practice sewing skills you can use on any project… with permission for imperfection! after all, who’s going to see that little crooked seam when the whole thing is so adorable?!!!

That’s why I started a tradition of homemade costumes, my way to celebrate our kids and family uniqueness, costumes that really fit us in more than one way, that represent who we are and what we love at different moments in time, as we create beautiful memories together.

PS: Are you following @stitched_by_mama on Instagram yet?