Sonic the Hedgehog Halloween Costume

This year Griffin wanted to be Sonic the Hedgehog for Halloween.  I started looking at costumes about a month ago, but they all seemed too expensive.  As I said before, I'm happy to purchase my kids' costumes if the price is right.  But I'm also willing to make them if I can do it somewhat cheaply.

I used a bit of a hybrid approach for Griffin's costume.

I bought a Sonic hat from Amazon for $16.95 since I didn't want to try to make that.

I ordered the hat and a Christmas gift for my nephew so I could take advantage of free Super Saver Shipping.

For the actual costume, I started by looking at pictures of Sonic from Google images as well as pictures of available Sonic costumes like this:

Kids' Sonic Costume

I realized that I really just needed a pattern for any full-body zip-up costume.  I bought this one at Walmart for $0.97:

I found fabric at Walmart in the exact shade of blue that I needed, and it was a polyester.  That means it's stretchy enough for Griffin to move around easily.  I even found a zipper in the exact shade of blue, and the exact length I needed, in the clearance section at Walmart for just $1.

Additional materials I used included 1/4 yard of red fleece, 1/4 yard of red cotton lining fabric, scraps of white fabric, scraps of golden yellow felt, elastic, a bit of double fold bias tape, 1/3 yard tan cotton fabric, and Wonder Under.

I used the pattern to cut out the costume, making a slight change where the tail was supposed to go and omitting the feet, gloves, and head pieces.

I didn't take any photos of the rest of the process of making the costume.  I followed the pattern directions to make the blue costume.

Then I added a tan oval over the belly.  I had already installed the zipper in the blue costume.  The tan fabric was thin, so I used Wonder Under to adhere two layers of tan fabric together.  I also used Wonder Under to adhere the doubled-up tan oval to the costume.  I ironed it directly over the completed blue costume.  Then I carefully cut the tan fabric right along the zipper.  I did accidentally snip the blue fabric at one part, so I just put Fray Check on that spot to keep it from unraveling.

I chose to leave the sleeves unfinished.  They were the exact right length, and the fabric doesn't fray or unravel at all.  You can't even tell that it's not finished.

You may notice that the costumes available for purchase have tan sleeves.  I bought enough tan fabric to make Griffin's sleeves tan as well.  However, as I started working on the costume, I noticed that this pattern has baseball style sleeves, meaning the seam goes diagonal from the armpit to the neck instead of straight up to the shoulder.  It would have looked weird if he had tan fabric going up to his neck, so I just chose to make it all blue.  I guarantee you he doesn't know the difference, and no one else will notice.

The other Sonic costumes also had red shoes.  This pattern makes dinosaur feet, so I just used those pattern pieces (minus the spiky toes) to make Griffin's shoes.  The outside is made of red fleece, and they are lined with some red cotton fabric I had on hand.  The fabric "shoes" (they're actually covers for Griffin's shoes) are attached to the legs of the costume, and I followed the instructions to add elastic where the legs and shoes meet.  I also put elastic under the shoe covers to hold them on Griffin's actual shoes.  

Once I finished the basic costume, I added a few details to the shoes.  I used scraps of white fabric to mimic the straps on the expensive costume's shoes (I sewed these onto the red shoe covers).  I also made "buckles" out of yellow felt and adhered them using fabric glue.

Once I completed the costume, I asked Griffin to model it for a few pictures.  He was slightly cooperative and mostly goofy.

Two notes:  the costume is not as bunchy as it appears in the photo from behind (he was wearing jeans and also moving a lot).  Also, he was very irritated with the part of the hat that's supposed to come down on his forehead.  We just tucked it up under the hat so it wasn't on his face.

So, there you have it.  I know there aren't many details or steps for how to make this costume.  If you have stumbled upon this post looking for ideas to make a similar costume, please feel free to leave your questions in the comments section or contact me directly for more information.

Happy almost Halloween!

Jessica