I love Halloween, because I get to make a costume for my daughter! I think they’re so fun to make and this year, she chose to be a puppy! Never knowing what the weather is going to be in late October, I decided to make a simple felt costume that can be easily worn over a jacket or sweatshirt. Follow along with this tutorial to make your own cute and easy puppy costume. It’s super easy and quick to make!
Materials
- Fuzzy felt by the yard in 2 colors
- Regular craft felt sheets in a few colors (for spots and collar)
- 1/2″ twill tape or ribbon
- Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
- Scissors
- Disappearing ink pen
- Needle and matching thread
- Embroidery floss (I used black)
- Polyfil fluff (optional)
- Headband
- Face mask (because it’s 2020!)
How to Make Your Puppy Costume
Cut a large rectangle for the puppy’s body
First, you’ll want to find a T-shirt, sweatshirt, or jacket that fits your child. You will use this as a template to cut your felt. Fold your fuzzy felt in half, so that the fold is at the shoulder of your chosen top. Then, cut a rectangle around the top leaving some extra room around each side and at the bottom.
Then cut around the neck (at the fold). To make it go over your child’s head, you’ll need to cut a slit down the back of the neckline. Start with a 3″ to 4″ cut and adjust as needed. Leave it for now, as we’ll add a tie later on. For reference, my daughter is generally a 4T and my rectangle ended up at 36 1/2″ by 15″ and a 5 1/2″ slit on the back of the neck.
Glue on the spots (optional)
Using the hot glue gun, I glued on the puppy’s spots. Make these however you would like! First I started with the tummy, using a lighter brown fuzzy felt. On the back side, I glued on some spots using a few colors from the craft felt sheets. Leave some space at the neckline for the collar.
Make the puppy’s collar
To make the puppy’s collar, trace a piece of felt using the neckline as a reference. Make your collar about 1/2″ to 1″ wide. Then draw a dog tag for your collar. It can be a circle, a dog bone, or whatever shape you would like! Use your glue gun and glue your collar and tag at the neckline.
Make the puppy’s tail
For the puppy’s tail, we’ll be using the same fuzzy felt that was used for the body. Using a rectangle, cut it so that it’s rounded and narrower at the end of the tail. I made mine 12″ long, but you can make yours any length you’d like.
Fold the tail in half. Then sew the edges together, using a whip stitch as shown. Stuff your tail with either felt scraps, poly-fil, or cotton balls. Glue on some more spots if you’d like. Now pinch the end of the tail, so that it’s wide as shown. Sew the tail to the back of the body using a whip stitch.
Add ties and check the fit
Cut your twill tape long enough to tie a bow. Mine were about 8″, but you could easily go longer. Sew on the ties on the side and at the back of the neck. Have your child try it on to see how it fits! I found mine to be wide at the shoulders, so I cut them in about 1″ on each side.
Make the ears
We’ll make the ears using a headband and fuzzy felt. I wrapped my headband with a scrap piece of felt because my headband was red. Feel free to skip this if you have a matching headband! With two rectangles of fuzzy felt, cut two ears as shown. Fold each ear in half and glue together with the fuzzy side facing out. Pinch the top of the ear so that it wraps around the headband and glue the ear to the headband. Glue on more spots if you’d like!
Make the face mask
Because it’s 2020, you may need to make a face mask to go with your costume! Luckily, it’s pretty easy to make a matching mask, especially if your child already has a face mask. For the face mask, we’re going to use regular craft felt to keep it breathable. Fold a piece of felt in half, then fold your child’s mask in half matching at the folds. Trace around the mask and cut out your felt. Cut your nose pieces as shown. Use a permanent marker to draw the mouth and whisker spots. You can also glue on a tongue if you want!
Now we’ll make the whiskers. Take your embroidery floss and cut it into 5″ pieces. Cut half as many pieces as the whisker spots you drew. Divide your floss into 3 threads. Take your needle, starting at the front of the face, make a small stitch from the front to the back. Then use your needle to bring the threads back to the front of the mask. Leave a good amount of thread on the front of the face so that you can easily tie a knot. Knot together to secure the whiskers.
With your matching thread, we’ll make a quick basting stitch, to attach the completed nose piece to the mask. Keep the stitches large, so that you can easily cut it off after Halloween.
That’s it!
See how easy it is to make your own puppy costume? This took me an afternoon to make! That’s with my daughter’s online school and daily chores mixed in too. This is a perfect costume to make at the last minute!
Have you made a Halloween costume this year? If so, I would love to hear what you made!
