Costumes are my favorite!! I love that they always have a deadline for completion, and they usually require creativity. :) So I jumped at the opportunity to make a friend's son a fox costume for his school play. Here is what I did:
Materials:
2 maroon t-shirts (1 to wear & 1 for material)
1 pair of maroon colored jeans
white & black felt
Tutorial:
1. Start the hat out of one of the t-shirts. I followed this pattern and made the child's size hat. http://sew-whats-new.com/forum/topics/fleece-bunny-hat-free-sewing-pattern
Do not sew the front to the back right away, because you have to put the ears inside first.
2. Cut out 2 ears from t-shirt material and 2 from white felt. Sew right sides together.
3. Fold over the bottom corners of the ears towards the white felt side. This creates the "curved" look. Stitch along the bottom to hold the corners in.
4. Cut out face parts from felt and sew to the front piece of the hat.
5. Now you can pin the ears to the front of one hat piece. Ears should point down and the white insides should face the front/face. Then place the other hat piece face down on top, sandwiching the ears inside and sew around the curved edge.
6. Now for the tail. I opened up the arm pieces from the t-shirt I had cut the hat from. The tail was a little shorter than I thought so if I were to do it again, I might use a third shirt and cut the tail from the body of the shirt. Anyway, I cut 3 skinny "football" shapes from the sleeves. Then I added white felt to the tips. You only have to sew the squiggly part because the other sides will get caught when you sew the three pieces together.
7. Sew the three tail pieces right sides together. First piece 1 to piece 2 only sewing one side together. Then piece 2 to piece 3, one side together. Finally piece 3 to piece 1, the final two open sides...leaving a small hole at the top to turn right side out. Stuff the tail and then sew small hole shut. I attatched the tail to the jeans just with a safety pin.
8. The chest piece is simple. Place a piece of white felt over the un-cut t-shirt. Trace around the neckline and then make little fur points down to a center point and back up. Cut out and sew to the t-shirt.
And there you have it. A cutie in a fox costume! You should hear that little one belt out a tune.... THAT'S what a fox should say!! ;-)
Sorry about the large images... I am editing on my iPad and it is being a little futzy, but I just need to get this posted so I am not waiting to figure it out ;-) Sorry!!
Speaking of costumes.... here is a little something I made to work out in this morning:
"And I'm Judy!" (SNL Tiny Hands?!) Hahaha!!!