DIY Halloween Costumes: Finding Nemo

This year I wanted our family to have a "theme" costume. I know it sounds dorky but come on, it's so cute!! After weeks of researching and trying to find the best DIY costumes, Hubs suggested that LW go as Nemo, his favorite character (we just learned).

Through good 'ole Pinterest I found this tutorial for No-Sew Finding Nemo Costume. I bought brand new hoodies from Kohl's for this costume and I know it sounds ridiculous, but they were really nice and definitely will work for us for the rest of the winter, so I wanted to sew the stripes on and remove them after Halloween rather than hot glue on the stripes and ruin the sweaters.

I used the instructions from this tutorial (same as above link) and bought 1/2 yard of both black and white felt to use for the stripes. I also wanted to make a Dory costume for myself, so I bought a sheet of yellow felt to make my fins and tail.

The whole process was a snap. I simply measured by eyeballing how much felt I needed for each section of stripe and cut with a rotary blade.

I stitched everything together with a long basting stitch (4.5) and that was it! For all three costumes it took me under two hours.

Hubs had the most difficult costume to sew because I bought his hoodie in a high-performance fleece, which had WAY too much stretch. The stretch in that material vs. my machine vs. cheap felt was pretty rough. His costume took the longest and still didn't come out beautifully, but the theme is obvious, especially when standing with LW and I.

My Dory took about 5 minutes and LW's Nemo costume took about 45 min. Dory only used one sheet of yellow felt, a scrap of black and a blue sweater:

For Dory I just tacked those little ovals on the elbows with a few basting stitches for "fins" and used the center of the felt between where the ovals were cut as my "tail". I stitched the yellow to a matching scrap of black felt that was slightly larger so it looked like it had piping.

In total with hoodies and felt materials (I already had needles, thread and a sewing machine) this family costume cost under $40. I used coupons for both Kohl's and Hobby Lobby.

Here are the finished Nemo and Marlin. Full family photo coming soon!

If you're stumped on what to be this Halloween, it's not too late! This costume comes together in no time.