Fernando Alonso

So, Fernando Alonso is kind of a big deal in our house.  

A) He's a racecar driver, B) he drives a Ferrari, and c) uh, we like Ferraris.  

Naturally.

So when E outgrew last year's Tony Kanaan costume, and he told me he wanted to be Fernando Alonso this year for Halloween, what's a mom to do other than make that happen?  Should I mention here that his first grade teacher and I had a whole discussion about his plans to be a Formula 1 race car driver when he grows up?  I blame his father.

Earlier this summer at a Rolex race with Dad.

I will pose for exactly one picture, and that's it, Mom. I mean it.

Every driver needs to acknowledge their sponsors.

 Fine, you can take a picture of the back.  But then I'm going in.

The Details:

Pattern: McCall's 6417

Fabric: Red Kona Cotton for suit; leftover white cotton scraps for sleeve stripes and sponsor patches

Notions: 18" zipper from stash, 3/4" wide elastic, iron-on transfer paper

Notes:

First of all, McCall's has this pattern listed as 'easy'.  How do they choose difficulty levels? The cape included in the pattern was probably easy, but this pattern envelope includes a hat, 4 different variations of a zippered jump-suit, a vest, and boot covers. While I didn't find this hard, I definitely wouldn't give it to a beginner, which I find odd, because wouldn't beginner sewers (sewists?) think a costume could be easy?  The way the directions instruct you to put this together, you're putting the zipper in LAST, after sewing everything else together...not easy.  For my second version, I put the front zipper in flat, which was much easier and looked much nicer.

Second, on the sponsor patches, I just googled Fernando's sponsors, and copied and pasted the logos into Microsoft Paint.  I know that's not particularly savvy, but I needed something easy that would invert the picture horizontally.  The writing needs to be mirrored so it will transfer correctly when its ironed on.  I then then ironed it onto scraps, which were then appliqued onto the flat pattern pieces.

  

Waiting for our hot chocolate after the parade.

Finally, heartbreak city: we wore our costumes already to E's school's Haunt the Halls, and again to our town parade on Saturday morning.  After enjoying hot chocolate, I threw everything in the washing machine.  FORESHADOWING ALERT:

The red on the sponsor patches bled.

.

.

.

(whispered expletives deleted)

  

photo source: mingle.kansascity.com

So, although I considered myself finished, I spent last night picking off the worst of the patches, re-printed them on my remaining transfer paper, and reattached new patches in the same spot.  Let me say, it was much easier done when all the pieces were flat.

But he's worth it.  

And with that, I'm done.