Octonaut Costumes–and one amazing dad!

I must admit, I was not 100% on board when my son expressed his desire for an Octonaut birthday party. At first he wanted the Incredibles. It would’ve been WAY cooler to dress as Mr. and Mrs. Incredible instead of Kwazii the Pirate cat and Dashi the dog. But, my goal isn’t to create a birthday celebration for me, it’s to do it for my 4 year old son and what HE wants. So, I hopped on the internet to see if would be feasible. I was still on the fence until…

…a visit to H&M. I tell ya, those prices are perfect! In one fell swoop I purchased a sweat suit and polar bear beanie to create Captain Barnacles:

Orange pants, an orange sweater, and an orange beanie for the start of a Kwazii costume (above).

A pink skirt for the start of a Dashi costume:

And an actual penguin toddler costume for Peso (above).

Now if that wasn’t seren’dipitous, I don’t know what is! I felt I had to give this party theme a go! Here is a picture of the final outcome of costumes. Not too shabby if I don’t say so myself.

I was too busy with party prep and forgot my hat, and little Peso would just flat out not wear hers. Here’s a side by side picture:

One Amazing Dad

So, the title of the post…one amazing dad! When I got the bulk of the Kwazii costume done, I had my husband try it on to make sure it looked authentic. He came walking out of the bedroom and people? I honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I did both, and raved, encouraged, praised, worshipped, etc. this amazing dad that would do something so humiliating fantastic that only his 4 year old son could truly appreciate!! And his wife, because wow, what a dad! I know the bulk of dads would never even consider this. And to be honest? This dad would not have within the first 5 years of our marriage. But, kids will change a man, and soften his heart. I’m so thankful for this trooper of a dad!

Moving on to Costume Specs

You already know where I got the base of the costumes, let me fill you in on a few of the “accents”. I used felt for the collars, boot covers, and hats (glue gun and felt – your best friend people!). Okay, the hats I actually sewed following this online tutorial. It wasn’t the easiest to follow, I improvised a bit, but it gives you a start. And for the boots? I literally just laid the boot down on the felt and traced around it (leaving room for a hem). I cut out two pieces, pinned them together around the boot, then glue gunned the two pieces of felt together at the seam of the pins and turned them right side out. Easy peasy!

Kwazii’s stomach patch is also just a piece of yellow felt, cut to fit and pinned on in the slight hopes that hubby will actually wear this sweater in normal life. And Kwazii’s ears and tail?

For Kwazii’s ears, I actually glue gunned fabric around cereal box cardboard cut to shape, then added the yellow felt. I left the fabric a bit long at the bottom of each ear and ran it under my sewing machine right onto the beanie. I was nervous about whether the ears would “stick up”, but it worked and saved me time from hand sewing. Whew!

For Kwazii’s tail, I found this wire Christmas decoration on sale at Joann’s for $1 (but any sturdy wire would do), wrapped leftover felt around it (to give it some padding), then simply sewed a long casing in the orange fabric to slip over it. We just pinned it to his belt loop in the back.

Oh yes, and the Octonaut symbols on the hats and boots – the piece de resistance (pardon the lack of French accent marks)! I bought printable fabric, ran it through my printer, then again, just glue gunned them on! The final touch!

Do you make homemade costumes? Do you pay attention to the details like me? Here are a few more pictures to enjoy.

In the one above, you can actually see the pink and blue Dashi hair clips. And a bit of the detail on Captain Barnacles belt. I didn’t have red felt to finish the compass part. =)

And one final one of Kwazii and Peso. You can even see the “chomp” out of Kwazii’s ear which I certainly didn’t mistake putting on the wrong ear, and it certainly didn’t bother me at all!!