Happy Halloween!

Before Halloween ends I thought I'd share my little sewing project. A week before the office costume contest, I brainstormed with a few friends on what my costume would be this year—And yes, I only had a week left to come up with an idea and sew it up :). Fortunately, my smart and creative friends came up with a great idea that I actually enjoyed creating. This year I dressed up and won 2nd place as salmon nigiri sushi. So easy to make and took me 2 evenings after work to complete :)

If you're thinking of making this for your costume next year, here's what I did.

purchased:
1. 1/2 yd orange cotton fabric (for the salmon)
2. 1/2 yd black pleather (for the seaweed)
3. POLY-FIL 100% premium Polyester Fiberfill
4. black and orange thread (if you don't have any)
5. 1" thick black velcro

first things to sew:
1. use the whole 1/2 yard orange fabric; fold in half; sew all 3 sides but leave 6-7" opening; turn inside out; use opening to stuff with fiberfill and sew closed.
2. hold pillow on your belly and measure with measuring tape the circumference of your body including the pillow to get the length of the seaweed (pleather); cut pleather 6 3/4" (width) by your circumference measurement (length).

paint:
1. okay, so I got some help with this (thanks G!). He used cream colored acrylic paint for the salmon striations and white acrylic paint for a touch of highlights.

finishing touches:
1. After paint is all dry, center pleather (already measured and cut) on orange pillow and hand sew top and bottom corners of pleather to left and right side of pillow so that they are attached to each other.
2. cut velcro 6 1/2" (1/4" smaller than the seaweed width) and adhere to pleather where it comfortably wraps around your body for you to be able to easily remove or wear costume when needed.
3. wear an all white outfit to represent rice—and that's it!

All done and have fun! Happy Halloween!