Not sure how he came up with the idea, but Otis wanted to be a dancing pickle for Halloween last fall. We brainstormed for a while, drew up some schematics, and here’s what we came up with.

The main part of the costume is a kind of sandwich board of foam batting. Here’s the basic shape, pinned for fitting:

Each of the two halves was traced onto a doubled up sheet of green fabric which was then cut out, sewn around the edges, and flipped inside out. Two ensure that the foam would stay in place, we sewed a couple vertical lines on each half. Bonus: they ended up looking like the natural ridges that run lengthwise on a pickle!

As a final touch, some green paint to simulate the little warts on the pickle surface. (I just looked it up, they’re called stipples!)

The two halves were then sewn together at the waist and shoulders, with enough room to leave in flexibility for dancin’!