The Muppets Family Costumes

I always loved the muppets so I decided that for 2014 I would make our family the muppets. I picked the most recognized characters.....Miss Piggy, Kermit the frog, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the great & one of his chickens, and of course Animal.
I am not a professional, I don't even know how to read patterns, I just have a great imagination & things always work out, some a lot better than others..
Due to the fact I hand sew all the costume (I don't use a sewing machine) some parts of the costumes I hot glued. I began buying the materials I would be needing starting in Nov. 2013. I bought fabric when i had 40%-50% coupons for Joann's fabrics & found some items such as Animals collar, Piggys jewelry at a resale shop & her wig at Halloween Express, all gloves from a dollar store, foam balls from a resale shop. I used colored mesh on all opening of faces for each of the characters.

MISS PIGGY...................I found the dress, jewelry at a resale shop & made alterations to fit. I bought the pig mask, fur & gloves on line and make up to enhance eyes. I handmade the pig ears out of pink material & foam & hot glue them to a headband.

KERMIT THE FROG.......I bought all fabric & foam at Joann's & some was from their reminents area, I used 1/2 inch foam to form the head & feet, made eyes from hard foam ball i cut in half with fabric on them. I hot glued mostly everything except on the feet, I sewed elastic& attached snaps to help keep feet steady on the shoes.

FOZZIE BEAR................I bought all fabric & foam & reminants. For this whole costume I had a heavier fleece material & handmade the bowtie for fozzie I used 1/2 inch foam to form the head, made eyes & nose from hard foam balls I cut in half with fabric on them. I took a pair of old slip on shoes & hot glued fabric over them for the feet. I bought his hat at dollartree.

GONZO the great..........I bought Blue furry fabric & foam & reminants. I used 1/2 inch foam to form the head & made eyes from hard foam ball cut in half with fabric on them. For the nose & area surrounding his mouth I cut & hot glued foam & added fabric over it to form these features. I bought the vest on clearance at a store, had shirt, tie & pants. Blue gloves for hands & bought a blue boa to cut & put blue pipe cleaners in it to make feathery hair stand up on head.

CHICKEN for Gonzo.......I bought this pet costume on line & sized it down for the cat to wear.

ANIMAL..........................This was the most expensive & most time consuming one. I bought all the orange fleece fabric, foam, feather material & reminants from Joann's. I used 1/2 inch foam to form the head, legs & feet, made eyes & nose from hard foam balls cut about 3/4s with fabric on them. I used foam with fabric to form lip on mouth & used thin black feathers on rope for eyebrows and to make the feathery furriness on face I bought 2 2/3 red peacock feathers on rope (warning $25 a yard) and 3 thick red boas on rope & a yard of thin red feather on rope. I used the thin red around the mouth & seam attaching top of the head, I them lined the thick red boa in rows about 2 inches apart as fillers first & then used the red peacock feathers between to make it flow like the character. (best to do this when head is flat) I bought clear acrylic jewels for teeth-sandpapered & then spray painted them white, used black mesh to put inside mouth & pink mesh for tongue. All of this was hot glued on & together. I bought gold shiny fabric & black & gold trim to sew animals vest. I got a orange turtleneck for his upper body & brown sweatpants which i cut ragged from a resale shop. I used foam to make feet & attached fabric in them & to them to make legs. I sewed thin elastic to top of legs to keep them on & sewed elastic straps on the bottoms to keep feet attached to shoes with a snap. I am sewed an additional orange fleece fabric for the upper body & arms for this costume to make it much warmer because it was due to be around 38 degrees for Halloween.

There are a couple of reasons I make these costumes........
1. I love Halloween.
2. Our family Trick or Treat for the local Food Pantry, instead of getting candy, we collect food & non perishable items. We have been doing this for over 16 years and since the people we collect from know I hand make the outfits, it's my additional way of saying thank you.
3. It keeps our family doing something together & we enjoy what we do.
4. I think these are the best costumes I have made so far.
The people in our photo's are...........
Miss Piggy....Myself
Kermit...........My Husband
Fozzie...........My Daughter.. 25yrs
Gonzo...........My Daughter...30 yrs
Animal...........My Nephew....10 yrs.
Chicken.........daughters 16yr old cat