Prince Charming Costume for Family Night

So, since our little is now big enough to go to "events" geared toward families, we decided to meet up with some friends at a local Chik-Fil-A for their Prince and Princess Night. If you've never been to one, I highly recommend it. It was very well organized and lots of fun for kiddos. Plus, kids who dressed up got a free ice cream with toppings! Only problem… no prince charming costume.

Sorry to say it--yet again--but enter Pinterest! I started looking for ideas on how to make a DIY Prince costume, since it was April when we decided we were going to go and not a halloween in sight. And, as you've probably guessed from my posts, I'm not about to buy one from Amazon for $25 for a family night event. My little hasn't hit the dress up phase yet.

Here is a link to the inspiration for the basics to my costume. Sadly, it looks like a user photo, so I have no idea how to credit the creator, other than telling you that's the photo I started with. So, I bought a sleeveless tee at Walmart for $2.97. Sorry to say, you will see the shirt change colors in the second photo, as I messed up the first shirt, trying to alter it, when it frankly, didn't need to be altered. It's a 5/6, my little is only a 2T at the moment (it's all they had in plain colors). But that's ok, because it needed to be bigger to fit over his white tee.

I was trying to show that I had trimmed the sides to alter it to size,but it ended up being too tight. Start over!!

I added gold ribbon to the side of one of his pairs of pants that I don't care about. I really wouldn't recommend this. When they are this small, you are basically turning them inside out as you sew so that you don't sew the legs together. I guess I could have hand sewed them, but NO THANKS! Best to be done BEFORE the pants are completed, but I wasn't about to sew him a new pair of pants as well!

Completed trim on pants and altered shirt (it had to be brought up at the bottom, as it was too long at a 5/6 for him, even with a shirt underneath).

I used some black felt I had on hand to make a belt. I attached it to the front (it's only on the front) with my machine using the gold thread I have to give it some added pizazz.

I added a piece of yellow felt for the belt buckle and some red felt for his "award." The stars were purchased at Wal Mart, and are iron on appliqué.

I made a play sword from felt as an accessory.

It attached to his shirt with velcro. It wasn't sturdy enough to play with--just for show (which works for me!!!)

We put him in a white t-shirt underneath (that had printing on it--doesn't matter, since you can't see through the top shirt) and his regular tennis shoes. Voila! Prince costume for $2.97, plus materials on hand and sewing notions (or in my case, $2.97x2, since I had to buy a second for my mess up). Not bad for a dress up outfit that helped us have a fun family night. I hope you enjoyed!

--Shannon