Handmade Costumes: DIY Rain Cloud Tutorial

Hello!! I’m Cherie from you & mie and I looooooooove handmade costumes! So when Andrea was looking for people to share a costume tutorial, I could not resist! Over the last several years I’ve made quite a few costumes including a Totoro costume for my daughter (it was a big hit!) and several others you can see here, including Russell from the movie, Up. But I’m a total procrastinator and also super indecisive, so I haven’t even started figuring out what my daughter, Yuki, will be for Halloween this year. So in the meantime, I thought I’d whip up a simple costume using only materials I already had a home.

The Rain Cloud costume!

My daughter was feeling under the weather (hah!), so we only snapped a few (mostly unhappy) pictures. But the costume is pretty simple and very comfy. So let’s get started. Here’s what you’ll need.
For the pants:
– Pants or leggings in a “sky” color (blue, gray, white)
– Fabric paint
– Contact paper (or freezer paper)
For the cloud:
– White fabric (cotton, fleece, a white sheet, anything will do! I used fleece and gauze because that is what I had at home)
– Ribbon (for the shoulder straps)
– Fiberfill
The part of this project that took the longest was waiting for the fabric paint to dry on the pants, so I would start there. Make rain drop stencils and stick them to your pants. Use fabric paint to fill in your stencils (be sure to read and follow all the directions on the paint that you use). I made 3 shades of blue and used two for each rain drop for a kinda gradient/ombre look.

I painted the pants in 3 stages – first the front of the pants, then when that was pretty dry, I removed the contact paper stencil and flipped it over and painted the back. Then I split the pant legs open and painted a few more drops down the outside of the legs.

After the paint is almost completely dry, I hung them up to finish drying completely over night. And those are da-DONE!

In between the stages of painting and drying, you can work on your cloud.

First, use a shirt to draw out a cloud pattern. You’ll want the sides of the cloud to extend past the edges of the shirt (we’ll connect them later), but the pattern shouldn’t go past the shoulder to restrict arm movement. Add seam allowance.

Cut out 4 layers of the cloud pattern. I used fleece for the inside of the costume and gauze for the outside, so 2 clouds of each fabric.

Cut 2 pieces of ribbon for the straps. Lay the inner fabric right side up, then the ribbons right side up.

Lay the outer layer right side DOWN, being sure to tuck all the ribbon inside the cloud. Pin the layers together.

When you sew the back of the costume, be sure that you flip the direction of the pattern.

Sew around the cloud leaving an opening in the bottom. Snip each point close to the seam.

Turn it right side out and press. Fill with a thin layer of batting or fiberfill.

Hand sew the opening shut. Quilt the cloud however you like to hold the filling in its place.

Stack the clouds right sides out and sew the edges together.

Try it on your model and mark how long you need the straps to be. Trim your ribbon, fold the edge under and sew it to the back of the cloud.

Done!

Pair it with some rain boots if you got ’em!

Or regular sneakers to show off all those hand painted drops!

Yuki actually has a pair of rainbow striped pajama pants that would give this outfit a totally different look! So feel free to get creative.

Thanks for having me, Andrea! I’m loving all the handmade inspiration in this series and feel lucky to have been a part of it!