Looking for a quick costume idea? Try out this easy throwback handheld game console dress.


The base of this dress was made with a french terry knit and a simple shift dress style pattern with hood. This costume would also work great with a lengthened looser t-shirt pattern or sleeveless dress (with or without a hood). The applied shapes were made with a variety of knits that worked for the colouring desired.
We will first add the extra pieces to the front of our garment before sewing any of the garment together.
Starting with some plain paper, draw out your desired shapes onto paper so you can play around with the size and placement on your front garment piece.
Some tips for creating your shapes:
For the black cross-shaped piece, draw out a 3×3 grid and then just cut out the four corners to create an evenly balanced shape. For the red circles, trace out a round object like a cup or the inside of a roll of masking tape.
Use your paper pieces to cut out your shapes.
Apply your shapes to the front piece of your garment. If you have a looser fitting garment, you can use a fusible product like steam-a-seam or Wonder Under to help hold the pieces in place. As this dress was a bit more of a fitted style, we used Wonder Tape, a water soluble double-sided stick-on tape that you can stitch through without gumming up your needle.
Once your pieces are held in place, you will want to stitch them in place. If you have a walking foot on your machine, engage it to help feed the fabric through more easily. Make sure you also have a jersey needle in your machine if you are working with knits. Take your time as you try to stitch as close to the edge of each shape as you can, especially for the curves.
After all your shapes are attached the way you’d like, sew up the rest of the garment as per the pattern instructions.
While we did this one in greys, reminiscent of the original model of this handheld console, it would also be fun to try this project out with a colour base as newer models of the game console came in coloured options!