halloween costume: ladybug

Bea's first Halloween was the year the boys opted to be a spider and a bat so in keeping with that theme she was a ladybug. We had some sheets of foam left over from a project Adam was working on which made this costume very easy. I cut two semi sircles from the foam to make the shape of the wings.  I layed out some red fabric and folded it in half, inserting a foam wing so the straight side was against the fold. Then I layed out 5 black dots on each wing, pinning the dots to the red fabric where I wanted them. I sewed on the dots first, and then repositioned the foam. I sewed around the edges of the foam, as closely as I could using my sewing machine, and then just trimmed the excess fabric off around the edges. 

I dressed Bea in a black sweatshirt and sweatpants from American Apparel (our go to base for this kind of costume) and then cut a very simple vest out of a small scrap of black fabric. I made a rectangle about the size of her back first. I then cut a second rectangle for the front and cut it in half so it opened down the middle. I used a few little strips of cloth to make shoulder straps and some smaller square side panels to connect the front and back pieces. A couple more strips at the front tied the vest closed. Once the vest was finished I sewed the wings to the back of it.