Pillsbury Doughboy Costume

My daughter is obsessed with the Pillsbury Doughboy. She has to visit his cardboard cutout in the grocery store every week. She can spot a tiny Doughboy logo on a box in the baking aisle from a mile away. So when my husband suggested that she should be Doughboy for Halloween, it was pretty much a done deal.

I wasn't sure how to make this costume happen. They haven't sold a Doughboy costume in years, and I wasn't able to find a Doughboy pattern. I had to put on my crafting cap and come up with something because I made the mistake of telling my daughter about the costume before making sure it was possible. This is what I came up with...

I went to Jo-Ann to see if I could find a pattern that I could modify or take pieces from in order to make the costume. I ended up buying this Simplicity pattern...

I figured I could make the jumpsuit and belly suit like the pumpkin and then make the head covering like the lamb, just without the ears. I eventually ended up scrapping the one piece jumpsuit idea because let's face it, she's three... she's going to have to pee. I decided to try to buy a white sweatshirt and sweatpants to use instead. I found a white sweatshirt at Walmart (the last one they had), but I could not find white sweatpants anywhere. I searched high and low. So I decided to just use the jumpsuit pattern and cut it off at the waistline to make pants. I also saved time by purchasing a fully adjustable kid's chef hat at Jo-Ann.

The pants, belly suit, head covering, and scarf are all made out of fleece. If I ever see white fleece again, it will be too soon. I had never sewn fleece before. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it was pretty forgiving. Your stitches kind of disappear into it, and you can hardly see them. But I was sewing layers and layers together. At one point I was sewing 6 layers together at once. I went through 3 needles on this project!

Here's a rundown of each piece of the costume...

1.  I cut the jumpsuit pattern off at the waistline in order to make the pants. After I sewed the legs together, I folded the waist down about an inch and sewed around the bottom to create a sleeve so I could insert a piece of elastic into the waistband. The pattern also called for elastic at the ankles, but I left that out and just hemmed them so they would cover her shoes a little bit.

2.  The sweatshirt came from Walmart.

3.  For the belly suit I followed the pattern exactly as it was written. It is made with three layers of fleece. It has a 3/4" elastic band around the bottom to help it poof out, and it has Velcro at the shoulders. This was by far the most time-consuming piece to make. I probably could have gotten by with two layers of fleece. 

4.  For the head covering I followed the pattern exactly as it was written, but I left off the ears. It has Velcro under the chin to hold it on. This was the first time I ever sewed darts on a garment. This was probably the most satisfying piece to make because it looks complicated, but it really was pretty easy and quick to put together.

5.  For the scarf I cut a triangle out of fleece and tied a knot in the front. I didn't even hem it.

6.  The chef hat was purchased. I added the Pillsbury logo myself. I did a Google Images search for "Pillsbury logo", copied and pasted the image into a Word document, resized it, and printed a mirror image of it onto iron-on transfer ink jet paper. Then it was just as simple as cutting it out and ironing it onto the hat.

In an earlier post I told you that I had trouble getting psyched up for this project. Well, it was worth all the work, needles, and late nights... It was a pretty fantastic feeling to see this little face light up when she stepped in front of the full-length mirror in her costume.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hopefully this costume makes it through her Halloween shindig at preschool on Thursday (i.e. Please don't drop food or spill juice on it!!!) so she can wear it on Sunday without looking like a total mess!

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