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Colorful knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame from craft book author & designer Heidi Gustad.

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How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume

October 25, 2011 3 Comments

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

For those of you who love the show Parks and Recreation as much as I do, you’ll have seen the most recent episode, all about gendered scouting groups in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. If you’re interested in watching the episode, you can catch it online here.

The episode is fantastic, and the design of the Pawnee Goddess and Pawnee Rangers costumes rules. I was so in love with them, in fact, that I decided to make my husband and I a set for Halloween! In a couple days, I’ll show you how my husband’s and the doggie costumes I’ve whipped up to go along with our Parks and Rec theme turned out!

Supplies

lavender t-shirt

hunter green bandanna

2 1/2 yards of wide yellow ric rac

1 1/2 yards royal purple fabric

yellow star patches

a variety of other iron-on patches of your choosing

newspaper or tissue paper

straight pins

sewing machine

iron

ironing board or towel

yellow thread

royal purple thread

Directions

Lay your t-shirt on some of your news- or tissue paper. Trace the shape of the shirt except for the sleeves on to the paper, creating a pattern for the back panel of your soon-to-be Pawnee Goddess vest.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Eyeball the curve of the sleeves as best you can, connecting the would-be armpit to the shoulder.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Fold your paper in half and trace the curve drawn on to the other half of the pattern. Cut the pattern out.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Pin the pattern to your purple fabric and cut out the shape, adding 1/2″ of seam allowance to all sides.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Unpin the pattern piece from your fabric, cut it in half, and cut out the two front panels of your vest, again adding 1/2″ of seam allowance.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Pin down your 1/2″ of seam allowance on all but the two sides shown on both front panels of the vest. The two sides that don’t need pinned down (hemmed) will be sewn together to create the vest. Sew what’s been pinned.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Pin and sew the arm holes, head hole, and hem of the vest for the back panel.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Pin all panels together, carefully lining up the shoulder and side seams. Sew the shoulder and side seams. Turn your vest inside out!

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

It was at this point that I realized I needed to change the “neckline” of my vest. Turn your vest wrong side out and pin down the front opening of the vest. It will look like lapels, like this:

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Sew along the folded edge to create the proper neckline on your vest.

Next, pin your ric rac along the edges of the right side of your vest, down the front opening and around the back of the vest. When you reach a corner, fold the ric rac over and pin it down, as shown in the second picture below.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Your finished vest will look like this before you add patches:

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Now, unwrap your iron on patches and have fun placing them as you see fit. The gold stars and Pawnee Goddess badge on Leslie Knope’s vest go on the left breast. (See?)

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Once you’re excited about the placement, heat up your iron based on the patches’ package directions. Place your bandanna over the patches and iron the patches in place.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Turn your vest inside out, and iron the patches from the back to secure.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Since my iron was hot, I also ironed the packaging wrinkles out of my bandanna. To get the right bandanna look for the costume, I folded mine in to a triangle.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Then, I rolled it from the fold side toward the opposite corner.

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

Finally, try the whole getup on! Put on the lavender t-shirt, vest, and the bandanna loosely tied around your neck. Forgive the weird self-portrait, but I had to try for my best Leslie Knope impersonation while in this costume!

How-to: Pawnee Goddess Costume  - Hands Occupied

If you’ll notice, I haven’t made my Pawnee Goddess seal badge yet, but I’ll post a tutorial if I have the chance to get mine made my Halloween!

PS: My full disclosure embarrassing moment of this post: The only lavender t-shirt Jo-Ann Fabrics carried when I visited their Chicago store was totally a maternity shirt. It’s basically just long and stretchy. I’ll be the first to say “LOL” at myself in this situation. Oh well. Happy Halloween!

Filed Under: Halloween, How-to, Sewing Tagged With: costumes, halloween, leslie knope, parks and recreation, pawnee goddess, scouting, scouts

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Comments

  1. Becca

    October 12, 2015 at 4:40 pm

    This is an awesome tutorial thank you for making it! I was just wondering where you got all your iron on patches?

    Reply
    • Heidi

      October 13, 2015 at 4:16 pm

      Just at the craft store, they kinda randomly had a bunch I was able to use!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Halloween Costumes for Girls | Ph.D.s and Pigtails says:
    October 2, 2013 at 10:16 am

    […] could write up my own tutorial, but a really good one already exists. Check out the Hands Occupied Pawnee Goddess Costume and this tutorial on how to make a Pawnee Goddess badge. I will note that while the tutorial does a […]

    Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi (she/her/hers), a craft book author & pattern designer specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. Really anything with yarn! ❤️  My work combines vintage and modern design elements, featuring bold colors and graphic motifs.

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Craft book author & pattern designer ❤️💛💙
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Please email for pattern support. 🧶

Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
How to to knit throwing (a.k.a. English) style . How to to knit throwing (a.k.a. English) style 
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In knitting, there are a few common knitting styles. Most often you’re going to encounter continental style and English (throwing) style on your knitting journey. I recently had an old video teaching continental style get a lot of views. Based on the comments, it was clear the people wanted to also see a throwing tutorial, so here you go! 🧶
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Please note that there is a LOT of variation in knitting styles, and one isn’t necessarily better than another. Most often, I’ve found it comes down to two things: how you were taught and whether or not you’re really into colorwork knitting (which can involve a mix of styles). 
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Longer-term knitters who’ve made it this far: do you prefer one over the other? And why? 
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#handsoccupied #englishknitting #learntoknit #knitting #howtoknit #knittersofinstagram #knitting_inspiration
How to do a one-step provisional knitting cast on How to do a one-step provisional knitting cast on / a.k.a. crochet provisional cast on, scrap yarn cast on
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I read recently that tiktok and Instagram are being used as search engines more and more. 🤔 I thought since I’m going to all the work of making tutorials on YouTube, I should experiment with making a quick version of them for other platforms. There are obvious teaching limitations to vertical video, short-form content like this, but I think I covered the gist of this cast on in a minute. The YouTube version also covers how to unzip this cast on because there was time for it 👍🏻 L1nk is in my profile. 
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I’m very much looking for feedback as I continue to make instructional knitting & craft videos. Sometimes good tutorials are hard to find, and (ideally polite) feedback helps me improve. 
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#handsoccupied #provisionalcaston #knitting #knititngtutorial #knittersofinstagram #crochethook #knittingtutorial
For the first time in a long time, there’s a new For the first time in a long time, there’s a new tutorial from Hands Occupied! 🎉 The video is live on YouTube & the blog. 
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The post covers what provisional cast ons are & how they differ, and the video covers how to work a one-step provisional cast on using scrap yarn and a crochet hook. (This is a great one to save for future reference.)
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I learned several names for this method while researching this video & post. Crochet provisional cast on, one-step cast on, scrap yarn cast on - if you know even more names for this technique, please share! 
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#handsoccupied #provisionalcaston #knitting #scrapyarn #crochethook
Working on a sample for some upcoming videos. It’s an overcast day with intermittent sunshine & I have a scruffy little sidecar. 🐶 Can’t complain! 
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What’s on your needles this week? 
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Yarn: @debbieblissknits Cashmerino Aran 
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#handsoccupied #knitting #knittinglife
Peg boards and craft room organization go together Peg boards and craft room organization go together like peanut butter and jelly. So, as you can see, do latch hook tools and screwdriver organizers! 🪛 
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I think this trick translates to any tool with a thick handle, so leather working tools, punch needles, print making tools, etc. should work! What other tools am I, a needlecrafter, blanking on right now? 
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#craftorganization #handsoccupied #latchhook #latchhooking
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