I made my son a Mario costume for Halloween. It was both easy to make and comfortable for him, which is great. It consists of a red, long-sleeved shirt and overalls. I sewed the hat and fake buttons, and I was done! He can wear the overalls again and again, which is great. Then he said he didn’t want to be regular Mario, he wanted to be Mario with powers. His idea was to have three or four costumes and change into them- ice powers, fire powers, flying powers. I was flattered that he thought I could just whip up some tear-away costumes for him, but unsure how to break it to him that I wouldn’t do it. Then I had an idea- make him the power-ups and let him pretend.
I made a star, green mushroom and red mushroom out of felt. He put them in the pockets of his overalls and can pull them out to play being Mario. (On a side note, why do these things have eyes? Are they aware? Are they eaten when they are used to give powers? Is Mario really evil, rampaging through places, killing creatures and grabbing treasure?)
Making the star was straight-forward. Just cut out two star shapes and sew them together, putting in stuffing before finishing. Add black felt eyes. To make the mushrooms, start with a strip of white felt. Sew it into a loop. Make a running stitch along the bottom of the loop and draw on it to pull it closed, then sew the bottom shut. To make the top, cut out a circle of colored felt that is twice as large as the stem loop. Sew five white circles on the large circle. Make a running stitch along the edge of the circle and pull on it to make the cap shape (but do not try to draw it all the way shut as you did with the stem. Stuff both the stem and the cap and sew them together. Add black felt eyes.
Here’s the link to the pattern for the hat from Instructables. I used some leftover cloth I had, but it would work better in felt, which would stretch to fit.
