Halloween 2014: Life in a Fishbowl

I asked Owen for a month what he wanted to be for Halloween.
R2D2?
Frodo?
A fisherman....something MineCraft......O-bot the Robot??
I was out of ideas.
Then finally on Saturday he looked at me with a straight face and gave his final answer----a Goldfish.

Okay!  Fun!
Do you want to be a bass fish, or a beta fish like you have in your room?
Nope. I want to be a goldfish.

You mean you want me to make a costume out of orange and yellow felt???
With circles and big eyeballs??
(happy sigh)
DONE!

This costume was really fun and easy to put together.  And I'm so happy he thought of it---I like a creative challenge.  It sorta looks like a crossbreed of a fish and a bird.  But overall I think it works.

So if you've got your own big fish in a little pond,
Here's how to make a Goldfish Costume.....

1. HOODIE
In my mind I thought---I'll either make him a fish face hood out of felt OR  I'll find an orange hoodie and embellish the scales out of that thing.  Of course where are you going to find an orange sweatshirt 4 days before Halloween?  Um....apparently at Joanns!  Woohoo!  And for only $6. What??
Fishy fate.

Now, they only had adult size hoodies which I thought was a problem at first....but then it ended up being a huge help. Heh heh.  Huge.  Puffy?  Round fish?
Totally.

• Cut off the sleeves and hem them under, which actually works well because it makes the arms big and wide, sort of like fins.  And if you're making this as a bird costume, they can be wings!
• Cut off the bottom of the sweatshirt, remove the pocket, then sew the ribbing back on to the sweatshirt hem, just to make it a little shorter (and tighter)

2. SCALES
• Grab felt in a variety of orange/gold shades and trace/cut circles.  I cut out 3 circles at a time and it went pretty fast. 

• Arrange the circles on your sweatshirt to see how it looks---and the more random they are, the better.  I also left spaces here and there since most fish are missing a few scales. 
• Start at the bottom of the sweatshirt and at bottom of the sleeves and glue each scale to your sweatshirt with a hot glue gun. Then move your way up to the top of the sweatshirt and do the same thing on the back. I didn't do any scales on the hood.

3. FISH EYES
• Use a bowl or cup to trace eyeballs and pupils.
• Sew the black circle to the white.
• For added fun, cut a circle of clear vinyl and sew it on top of each eyeball, then sew the eyeballs to your hood.
I love love LOVE how the vinyl looks on the costume!  It's hard to see the full effect in these photos, but it adds that perfect touch.

4. FIN

Now this didn't execute as well as I'd hoped....looks kind of like feathers. But you could improve the process on yours.  I think it's the initial shape that was wrong---I should have angled it down more.  But here's what I did....

• Cut a few layers of felt and sew them down the middle back of the costume

• Fold the layers up and sew them together

• Fringe the edges

5.  ORANGE CLOTHES
Finish off the look with an orange T-shirt underneath and some orange shorts or pants.  Can you believe the mileage these KID Shorts have gotten over the last year??  I'll pretend I saw the goldfish future when I selected that orange fabric....

And finally....

6. FISH FILLING
To get a nice round goldfish, throw a bit of batting inside.
I took about 1 1/2 yards of quilt batting and just folded it up inside the costume, so it's like there's a blanket wrapped around his abdomen.  I didn't even attach it or glue it; it just kind of sits in there.   And if you live in a cold climate, it adds extra layers.

Of course if you live in a hot Texas climate.....you're sweatin' scales.  Good thing we've got those shorts on.

Oh little Owen, you make the cutest fish.
Thanks for the fun idea!....and for bringing this fish to life.
Every time I caught a glimpse of this on my cutting table, I saw a big dead fish.

"Owen are you a dead fish?"
"No. I'm just sleeping.  Fish sleep with their eyes open!"
(and their lips puckered)

Happy Halloween!