Simple Animal Costumes

Lions and tigers and black-footed ferrets. Oh my!

My children love to dress up, regardless of the time of year (though Halloween provides their mother extra incentive and pressure to sew costumes). Currently, Love Bug and Sweet J are highly interested in animals thanks to their favorite show, Wild Kratts. We now know more about cheetahs, geckos, otters and monarch butterflies, among a whole host of others. The favorites, or at least the ones who made the ‘what costumes would you like? list’ are lions, tigers and black-footed ferrets. I have studied images of these animals more than I’d like to admit but I wanted to make sure I was creating cool yet simple costumes.

The costume style is just like the puppy costumes I made two years ago (my babies were so little!!). It’s a long, tunic-like, almost shift-dress-like form. Very simple and easy. I used fleece for all three costumes for two reasons: 1) fleece is very easy to sew with. No hemming or finishing edges. I can cut shapes and then use those shapes exactly like I want. It’s the best!! And 2) Halloween eve is usually a chilly one for us and fleece gives us the best chance to actually wear the costumes without heavy outerwear and stay warm. Win win!

First up, the lion. The king of beasts. Sweet J loves to roar like the big cat. This costume is made of gold fleece, with a shaggy chest and a skinny tail. The mane is an important part of the get-up. I tied yarn strips on a headband and then tied more yarn strips onto the attached pieces. Then I unraveled each strip to make it bigger. We think it makes the children look hilarious.

Now, the tiger. Orange body with lots of black stripes. If you’re wondering, the chest of the tiger is white – I did a lot of studying – and I think my want for realism will propel me to add more stripes to the belly. The ears are on a headband.

And finally, the black-f00ted ferret. I wish you could all hear Sweet J say black-footed ferret. It’s definitely one of the cutest things ever which is perfect because, in my research, I found black-footed ferrets to be super cute, adorable really. This costume is in tan fleece with a shaggy tone-on-tone chest. The back-side has a length of shaggy brown fleece with a thick tail. The ears on the headband are simply shaped with a little bit of shag. The ferrets also have a black mask-like face.

Now. On with the hours and hours of make believe!