This Halloween our son wanted to be a Ninja. While there’ nothing intrinsically wrong with the costumes in the bags you can get at the store I’m not a fan of the fabrics, nor that they can only be used as a costume.
Our concept for this Ninja outfit was something a little more traditional looking, while still being quite wearable on a day to day basis.
The shirt is a stretch cotton hooded raglan sleeve t-shirt. I did look at buying one to save time but it seems that hoods are pretty rare on t-shirts. I could have made a separate hood, but as it was there were four pieces. Five might have been getting too much. I’m hoping this shirt might be useful for him next winter.
The pattern was a Bevknit t-shirt pattern from my Grandmother’s collection combined with a hood from a New Look pattern I’d picked up at an op shop at some point.
The shirt sewed up pretty quickly on my overlocker and coverstitch machines with minimal adjustment.
The mask was made using a pattern I found on pinterest by The Geeky Librarian. As I didn’t have our son with me to fit correctly, I just guessed and near enough was good enough. However I did make it a bit deep and had to take it in a little.
The mask is made from stretch cotton sewn up on my overlocker and coverstitch machines. This mask is not covid safe being only one layer without filters.
For the pants I chose a Thai Fisherman style pant. While not particularly Japanese looking they are vaguely like the sort of pants peasants might wear in rural areas. I did hope he might wear them again over summer but I’m not sure he felt comfortable in them. I found a pattern online by Saltymom. I printed out the pattern on A3 rather than A4 as suggested and it was pretty much the right size for him and didn’t need side panels as large as she used.
I wasn’t super thrilled with this pattern. It worked and went together easily but it ate through the fabric. There was a lot of scrap that could not be used in this pattern, or for the vest I was also making. I might work out my own pattern at some stage as my partner though he would like a pair. As it was these pants used three metres of fabric for a size 10 boy.
The pants were made from cotton poplin and I sewed them up on a sewing machine with french seams.
The vest I made up from the same cotton poplin as the pants but I drew up the pattern myself using some blocks I bought from Design Cut And Wear on Etsy. If you’re ever wanting to make your own patterns definitely consider investing in a set. So good!
The vest has a back cut on the fold and with a v neck overlapping front. I added ties at the seams as a closure and a wide binding around the neck, sleeves and bottom to finish it off.
We tucked his pants into socks to get the shape he wanted. His dad made the wooden sword for him.
If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask.
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