Last week, I did a sneak peek of the Halloween costumes I sewed up. When they were complete, I dressed Bug and Sweet J and we had ourselves a little photoshoot in the yard.
Per Love Bug’s idea, I created two dog costumes, which are similar to the two dogs we know and tolerate love, who live with MJ’s parents, Maddie and Zoey. Maddie is a light coated golden retriever which is Sir J’s costume. And Zoey is a chocolate brown, curly haired Labradoodle, which is Love Bug. Zoey used to be our dog until we had Bug and then I gave her the boot. Yes, I have a heart of stone in my chest.
I used two tones of fleece to make these very simple costumes. Bug is not a fan of wearing anything that doesn’t feel like real clothing so I stuck with a long shirt/dress shape for the bodice, a stocking hat ‘ears’ and ‘paw’ mittens. The brown pants and leggings are her own clothing. Fleece is also pretty warm which will be helpful when we trick-or-treat later this evening.
I don’t think Sweet J knew what to think. He didn’t seem to understand the hilarity of little babies wearing puppy ears. His bodice is the same shape as Love Bug’s, a loose a-line form, but smaller.
For the hats, mittens and Sweet J’s booties, I used actual hats, mittens and socks as templates and adjusted as I went along. The little paw pads are glued on with fabric glue.
Since Love Bug will wear shoes tonight, I constructed simple shoe covers that sit around her ankles and drap over her shoes. Not super sophisticated but it works.
The ears aren’t quite right for the types of dogs we are pretending they are but after a few attempts that looked donkey-like instead of puppy-like, I went with the big, floppy ones.
Some puppies need a paci.
Love Bug really got into character during our session.
Waiting for Dad to come home.
Some spots and a tail.
The sun started peeking through all pretty like and I had to grab a couple shots of my curly coated pup.
Bug’s mitt.
And did you catch the sun spot down in the corner? Check it out below.
Spooky, huh? I seriously didn’t stage that.
And while I was snapping the sun, Sweet J got interested in the grass.
More grass pulling, I guess.
Thankfully, before he got any ideas about eating grass, MJ got home and we got the puppies inside for dinner.
I actually had a lot of fun making these costumes and I found fleece easy to work with. I’m even looking forward to next year’s creation.
Take care.
-amy c
I came across your blog in my extensive search to find a do it yourself puppy costume for my puppy obsessed 3 year old for Halloween and these are just adorable! I am a new sewer – and by new, I mean I sewed a pillow 20 years ago in high school! Ha! But I do have a sewing machine and know the basics. I think I can pull this off for the most part…my only question is how did you attach the ears to the hat? Thanks!
I’m so glad you found the puppies! My skills were very limited back then and if I could do it, you can too! I attached the ears by laying them on the hat and doing a line of stitching. It wasn’t fancy but it was attached! :) Good luck!