DIY Dino Costume

I was so pleased with how Ayden's semi-homemade dinosaur costume turned out!   And who says things like this have to be saved for Halloween??  Now that it is over, his costume has found it's home on the dress up hooks in his playroom for year round fun.

I thought I would share the blog posts that showed me how to make it. I found the tail tutorial here. If you want to tackle this little project you will need::

1. scissors
2. straight pins
3. rotary cutter (optional but makes it oh-so-easier)
4. acrylic ruler
5. self healing cutting mat
6. solid colored sweat suit (Jumping Bean at Kohls always has them)
7. contrasting felt
8. matching felt.
9. thread (I ended up only needing brown)

Using felt for the spikes made this project SOO much faster and easier than the original tutorial where she used a flimsier fabric and therefore had to double everything up.  The felt is so stiff that it stands up on its own, single ply.

I used fabric chalk to free hand the spikes and cut them out with scissors.
Make sure only the triangles show after you sew it.

That blog linked to a tutorial on how to make the spiked hoodie but it just explained how to make it. Since there weren't any pictures, I snapped a few along the way in hopes to make it a little easier for anyone who likes a visual:

First, cut your triangles.  I cut 2 inch equilateral triangles for the hood and 2.5 inch for the back.

Use a seam ripper to rip the seam in the hood.

Use a rotary cutter to continue the slit all the way down the back of the hoodiie. 

Sandwich your triangles between the slit and secure with a pin.

Use a straight stitch all the way down.

Ta-da!

I free-handed some feet and glued on some triangle toe nails.
I used fabric stiffener to keep them from flopping around.

The whole thing took me a little under 3 hours (spread out over 3 or 4 sittings).

"Trick-or-treat!"

I am tempted to make a few more tails so that Ayden's cousins and friends will have tails too when they come over to play!  Let me know if you give it a try, it is definitely a great project for a beginner sewer like myself!

~Sarah

PS - Don't forget to set your clocks back!  Yay to an earlier sunrise but boo to such an early sunset. We are already missing the long days of summer...

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "My Perfect Imperfections"

Thank you for stopping by Life With the Ladniers!

Please take a second to:

 Subscribe via email, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter so you'll know as soon as a new post is up!

Miss seeing what Ayden is up to everyday?  Follow us on Instagram!

You can find all of the links in the sidebar.