I honestly cannot recommend anything other than buying your kid a Carnival costume. Why would you even consider spending every single minute of your free time for few weeks trying to make your kid one? Sacrificing sleep should be reserved for partying and not to redo a piece that you aren’t too happy with.

Why would you want to hit the pedal of your sewing machine like it is a Formula 1 car praying your fingers don’t end up in a painful collision with the needle?

Then there is the agony if your three year old will actually accept to wear the costume.  You know that them agreeing to it beforehand doesn’t mean a thing when it comes to judgment day. Lets no forget the agony you feel when you actually bribe them to put on the last piece of the costume. Because that one piece has all of sudden become uninteresting.

That grueling moment when you enter Kindergarten and see that all your fears have come true, that the place is buzzing with little pink princesses in cheap shiny Disney dresses.

That thought lingering at the back of your head that you have spent a little fortune on all the different fabrics and materials you needed to make it. Thankfully you are sensible enough to not start calculating. Seriously, how much more expensive could it really have been?

Yeah, why would you put yourself through all that pain? You would because it is fun, you learn stuff and get a nice sense of accomplishment afterwards.  It is so nice to see your kid happy as well, she was very proud when I finally convinced bribed her to put on the last piece. There were no complaints over not being a princess and she even made statements that she rather wants to be Dora for Halloween than a princess.

McStuffins vs Silja (borrowed from Disney)

I made her a Doc McStuffins costume. McStuffins is a little girl that wants to be a doctor and cures her stuffed animals and toys of all kinds of diseases. Her magical stethoscope brings them to life when there are no grown-ups around.  A cute TV program and I think my little Doc was even cuter!

Doc Silja McStuffins

In case anyone wants to go through all this pain and agony I am putting down some notes about how I got the different pieces together and a little mini tutorial on how to hack a shirt pattern to be a doctor’s lab coat.  In case it you feel it is too much work, you can always buy the “real” thing from Disney.

McStuffins

Lab coat:

1. Get a regular shirt pattern with a collar. I used one from Sy til Barn by Rikke Misciattelli (you can see the type of shirt it is here). I picked the next size (104) above what she uses regularly to make sure it could be worn outside of clothes.
2. Get some white cotton, wash and iron.
3. Extend the front and the back pattern pieces like I did in the drawing.
4. Make sure the sleeves are wide enough so they can be folded upwards. My daughter didn’t want to fold in the end but at least we have the option.  The sleeve should be a bit longer than a regular shirt pattern. This was a simple pattern with no fancy hems or cuffs on the end and I just ended up adding 2 cm in all directions like seen in the image. The approx width of the cut sleeve was 24,5 cm including seams.
5. Cut and sew according to instructions. If you find the instructions for attaching the collar difficult to comprehend I found this picture tutorial very helpful.
6. Add pockets. Draw a square approx 14×11 cm. Draw rounded edges starting from approx 5 cm from the bottom bottom. I drew them freehand on the fold. I folded in approx 2 cm twice at the top. Ironed that and 1/2 cm seams on the sides and botton and sew it on the front.
7. Add buttons. I used a total of 5 buttons evenly spread.

The buttons should technically be white but my little girl didn’t buy into it when I said McStuffins had white buttons.  She announced that Silja McStuffins thinks they should be pink!

McStuffins t-shirt/sweater: Find a long sleeved t-shirt pattern.   Make sure the pattern has binding around the neck, a longer cuff at the sleeve and at the bottom of the sweater. The pattern I used was Fall Basic from Ottobre 4/2013. I had to add the bottom dark purple stripe. I made a strip that was 4 cm shorter than the circumference of t-shirt and of the same height as the cuffs on the sleeve (approx 6 cm with seam). I hemmed it and then sew it on.  The fabric I used was Wisteria purple white stripe cotton from Girl Charlee which seems to be sold out now.  I bought some darker purple jersey from them to get the contrasting color.

Skirt: I made a simple skirt from Ottobre 4/2013 called Swinging Hem. Used some pink jersey I had lying around. It should have been darker pink but this was all I had.

Pants: I made circular stencil out of acetate paper with my Silhouette Cameo machine. Any circular shape will do or I am sure you can just paint round dots by hand. I used cheap light lavender jersey from Stoff og Stil and pink and white fabric paint from the same place (follow instructions on the type you use). I cut out the pattern pieces before I painted them. You can use any normal pattern for tights. I used Tiny Path from Ottobre 6/2013 without adding seams and that I shortened a bit. I tend to skip the seam allowances on the sides when sewing from Ottobre as the patterns seem to be made for sturdier kids than mine.

Hairband: I bought the cheapest hairband  I found at H&M and ripped off the ribbon they had wrapped around it and painted it. I made the mistake of buying fabric paint so this was a bit of a challenge… I had to do numerous rounds and then applied clear nailpolish over to get rid of the stickiness. I made a flower out of a pink flower button and model clay. Then super glue did the trick of attaching for short term use.

Hairband

Stetoscope and Lambi are the “real” thing from Disney.

The doctor is here