Ms. Nancy's Nook : Woody Costume How-to

It's a "Toy Story" Birthday Party for grandson Lucas! Of course, he needs a "Woody" costume! Included are directions for the quick and easy-to-sew cow-print vest, sheriff's badge, and button covers as well as tips for buying the cowboy hat, shirt, etc.

My grandson Lucas loves his Woody doll and toys, so I decided to create a Woody costume for Lucas to wear at his birthday party!

The Shirt

I originally planned to buy a yellow or gold shirt and paint the lines on to look like Woody's, vest, but I could not find a solid shirt in stores or online! Finally, I found this plaid flannel shirt at a local outlet store.

The find of the day!

The Vest

To make the pattern for the vest, I used a child's suit vest as my guide and cut the pattern pieces a little wider and longer. I made the armholes a little "roomier", and I also curved the front. Vests are supposed to be loose, and he should be able to wear this one for some time.

I prewashed and dried the Cow-Print folded fleece. I then pinned the pattern on the folded fabric with the vest back on the fold and cut along the edge of the pattern pieces.

With right sides together, I pinned the shoulder seams together and then pinned the side seams together. These seams were the only sewing involved, so this was fast! After sewing and reinforcing, the seams automatically opened and flattened, so no pressing was involved!

The next step was to serge around the armholes and around the edges of the vest. If you don't have a serger, you could zigzag stitch or just leave the edges plain since fleece does not ravel.

Last, I applied Fray Check to the cut threads to make them more secure.

The Badge

I bought a pack of 4 assorted plastic badges at Dollar Tree - the problem was they were silver with clip-on backs. It required 2 coats of gold metallic spray paint and a coat of clear spray to change the sheriff's badge to gold!

Next, I removed the plastic clip-on from the back. This step required getting out my tool box and using pliers to remove the clip-on edges completely.

Then I drew the shape of the badge on an index card. I used this pattern to cut out a piece of black felt. I hand-stitched the pin-back to the felt and glued the felt to the back of the badge using E6000 Glue.

When I pinned the badge to the vest, it was "kind of floppy", so I glued on another pin-back with E6000. Having both pin-backs made the badge very secure on the vest.

Buttons

Next was the buttons. I knew Woody's shirt had 2 large buttons, and I pondered on this several days. Finally I awakened one morning at 4:00 a.m. and it came to me: BUTTON COVERS!!

I checked my button collection, and "lo and behold", I found a card of 2 large white buttons. The button card had a clipped corner, and I remembered they had originally been bought from a large bin in a fabric shop for $0.10!! I also had "blank" metal button covers! If you keep something long enough...

I used E6000 to glue the metal button covers to the white buttons.

Tip: Use adequate ventilation when applying the E6000 Glue!

It's done!!

The buttons covers worked great, and the badge looked (almost) authentic! I really like how it all turned out!

Lucas already had jeans to wear with the shirt and vest, so now, all he needed was a cowboy hat. I found this child's cowboy hat on sale at Sears.com. It was a little pricey, but I wanted a genuine, quality hat that would last. Besides, it was for Lucas's birthday, so it was okay to splurge!

The hat!

Nancy's Notes:

I first bought low-nap fur in cow-print at Hancock Fabric only to find out it was Dry Clean Only! I then ordered the Cow-Print Fleece (total cost $5.99 w/shipping) on Amazon, and it worked perfectly. Hancock Fabric returned my full purchase price with receipt since I had not washed or cut the fabric.
Freezer wrap and heavy wrapping paper are great for patterns.
The red bandana was purchased at Hobby Lobby for $1.50.
The price for the shirt at the local Burke's Outlet was $7.99, original price $22.00. Prices for custom Woody shirts online were up to $65.00!!
If you want an economy cowboy hat, they are available at Dollar Tree and Party City.