DIY Halloween Costumes for Your Pup

Goblins, ghosts and ghouls OH MY! Spooky season is upon us and it’s time to start thinking about costume choices for man’s best friend. If you’re looking for a way to save some cash but make Fido look fa-boo-lous for Halloween, check out our list of 10 DIY costumes for your pup.

1. Costume: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Items Needed: Paint, ribbon, scarf/bandana, modge podge, foil turkey pan, scissors, velcro

Steps:

1. Make the turtle shell from the foil turkey pan. Paint it green and sponge on some brown paint then use some modge podge to keep the paint from cracking.Cut holes on the sides to slide fabric in to tie around your pups waste. You can either sew part of the shell to the shirt or hot glue some of the shell to your pup's shirt to keep it in place.

1. Use an old green shirt or grab one from the store to put on your dog.

2. If your dog will tolerate a mask, use a bandana or fabric to cut out eye slits and tie it around his head. If your dog doesn’t like things on his face, you can always just tie a bandana around his neck instead.

3. Finish off with some matching cuffs around his paws to pull the costume together using velcro to fasten them.

2. Costume: Garden Gnome

Items Needed: faux fur, felt sheets, cone shaped styrofoam, scissors, hot glue, red shirt (to fit your dog)

Steps:

1. Cut out a cone shape large enough for your pets head out of the foam sheet.

2. Using Hot Glue, cover the cone form with a felt sheet.

3. Cut out a white beard out of the faux fur material. Using hot glue, attach stretch string from the hat to the beard on both sides to create one piece.

3. Costume: Rocket Dog

Items Needed: 2 empty 2-liter soda bottles, silver duct tape, tissue paper and silver spray paint

Steps:

1. Spray the 2-liter bottles with the silver spray paint and let dry.

2. Use the silver duct tape to tape the bottles together, using enough that you can put on a print out of the NASA symbol on paper.

3. Use the tissue paper to put inside the bottles and have it hang out to look like flames. Use glue to hold them inside the bottles.

4. Attach the rocket to your pup's leash and off you go!

4. Costume: M&M Dog 

Items Needed: White or Black t-shirt (size depending on the size of your dog), multiple sheets of felt in different colors, 1 sheet of white felt, cotton stuffing, white yarn, fabric glue, adhesive velcro for fabric, white chalk, large needle, scissors, utility knife

Steps:

1. Freehand a large circle on one of the felt sheets, taking up most of the sheet for your circle using your chalk. Cut out this first circle and use as a template for the rest of your colored felt sheets, cutting out all of your circles.

2. Fold a circle in half 4 times and then poke two holes all the way through the layers of the felt about 1 centimeter from the edge using your utility knife or scissors. When you unfold the circle, there should be 16 holes around the circle. Repeat this for all the rest of the circles. 

3. Cut a piece of yarn about a foot and a half long to weave through the holes. Don’t tie any ends and don’t pull the ends all the way through.

4. Once you have weaved the yarn through, finish by going through the first hole. Start to pull the yarn tight to begin cinching the felt together. Stop pulling when the sides start to come up.

5. Place the stuffing inside the felt, making sure to not overstuff and only putting enough into it to give it a spherical shape to the M&M.

6. Once the M&M is sufficiently stuffed, pull the yarn the rest of the way to close up the felt circle and finish by tying off the ends of the yarn and making sure the opening remains closed. Repeat steps 3-6 for all of the M&M circles. 

7. Cut out M’s from the piece of white felt for each M&M you have and then glue them to each felt circle you have. 

8. You can use the velcro to put the M&M’s onto the t-shirt that your dog will be wearing, or you can take the ends of the yarn and poke them through the shirt, tying them on the inside to secure the M&M’s even more to your dog's shirt.

5. Costume: Dinosaur Dog 

Items Needed: green dog hoodie, felt sheets, felt glue or hot glue gun

Steps:

1. You can buy a green dog hoodie on amazon or look in your local pet store for one.

2. Cut out diamond shapes to use as the spikes along your dogs back on the hoodie and use either felt glue or sew the felt onto the hoodie.

3. You can add eyes and teeth to the hood to make it look more like a dinosaur or you can continue the spikes along the hood.

6. Costume: Piñata Pet

Items Needed: Old dog sweater or t-shirt, felt or crepe paper, glue

Steps:

1. Hot glue fringed strips of crepe paper or felt to the dog sweater or t-shirt, and that’s it! You can add a sombrero to your dog’s head if your pup doesn’t mind hats or you can skip the hat altogether.

7. Costume: Unicorn Dog

Items Needed: sheet of white felt, shiny gold fabric, hot glue, rainbow yarn, white thread, small piece of poly fill, needle, scissors and white ribbon

Steps:

1. Start with making the unicorn horn: Take your shiny gold fabric and roll it into a cone, sealing it with hot glue to make it stay. Stuff the inside of the horn with poly-fil to make sure it stays upright; smooth out the base of the horn by cutting it round and smooth. Close the bottom of the horn by cutting a circle from the gold fabric and sewing it to the bottom (or if sewing is not your forte, you could try hot gluing it as well). Cut two pieces of 8x3 inch white felt with rounded ends. Glue the two pieces together for stability and then sew the base of the horn into the middle of the white felt (or, again, use hot glue).

2. The second part of this costume is to make the rainbow hair: Take the rainbow yarn and cut stacks of yarn that are 4 inches long. The idea is to fill the felt pad around the horn with rainbow hair. Using hot glue, apply to a small section of the felt and apply the strips of yarn; remember to keep the same pattern as you go around the felt pad with the rainbow yarn. Continue to fill up the white felt pad with the yarn.

3. The final step is to sew ribbon onto each end of the felt to secure it to your dog. The top ribbon underneath the yarn keeps the horn onto your dog's head and the lower ribbon is strapped around your dog's body to keep the hair in place.

4. If your pup is very comfortable with being dressed up, you could also add a white tutu with some glitter on it to add a little extra sparkle to the costume. 

8. Costume: Chia Pet

Items Needed: plastic aquarium plants, green felt, exacto knife, basic sewing kit, scissors and measuring tape

Steps:

1. Start by measuring your dog from the front of his chest to the end of his body to get the length; for the width measure from the bottom of the stomach to the top of the back and multiply by two to give enough room for movement. Cut the measurements from the felt, lay it over your dog and mark the neck area to make a hole for your dog's head. 

2. To place the aquarium plants on the felt, you can cut holes with your knife and push the prongs of the plants through. You will have to line the bottom of the costume with felt to prevent your pup from getting poked by the prongs. 

3. If sewing is not your forte, you could hot glue the plants to the felt instead. Still line the bottom of the costume with felt to prevent any prongs from itching or poking through to your dog. 

4. You can hand stitch (or hot glue) aquarium leaves around the neck area of the felt to complete the look.

5. Optionally, you can create some Terra-Cotta colored cotton legs to create the look of a potted plant. 

9. Costume: Giant Loofah

Items Needed: doggie shirt or t-shirt to fit your pup, tulle or mesh, white rope, needle, thread and a rubber duck

Steps:

1. Grab your shirt and start bunching up the mesh or tulle (start from the back of the neck) and sew into place on the shirt. 

2. Work your way around the front of the neck, but make sure to keep a nice full look when bunching the mesh or tulle; sew into place.

3. After the neck area is done, start around your dog's waist with bunching the mesh or tulle and fill up the shirt. Once the shirt is filled up, cut off any excess mesh or tulle. 

4. Use the rope to make a loop for the loofah and either sew or hot glue the rope to the shirt. You can add a rubber ducky to make the costume a little more fun!

10. Costume: Starbucks To-Go Cup

Items Needed: dog t-shirt or any t-shirt that will fit your dog, brown cardboard or craft paper, ¼ yard cream colored knit fabric, coffee cup lid and elastic thread

Steps:

1. To make the hat, use the elastic thread and attach it to the coffee cup lid. You can cut holes in the side and tie the elastic thread or hot glue the thread to the cup sides.

2. For the ruffle collar, sew a long line of thread down a long piece of knit fabric and make sure you're using a super long stitch. Once you have sewn the entire length of your fabric, pull the fabric along one piece of thread to create a ruffle.

3. For the coffee sleeve, you can get as creative as you want with the design. You can draw the logo on yourself, print it out and glue it on or if you have a Cricut you can design something and stick it on the cardboard or craft paper. Wrap the brown paper around your pup (after designing it) and tape together, making sure your dog has enough room to move with it on. You will have the shirt underneath the cardboard/craft paper to make it less itchy and bothersome to your pup. 

Remember that all dogs have different comfort levels when it comes to wearing a costume or any piece of clothing on them; while it is fun to incorporate Fido into Halloween, try to respect your canine companion’s wishes when they don’t want to wear the hat or start chewing at the loose threads from their costume. If your pup resists parts of the costume, don’t force anything and try simplifying the accessories! 

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Sources:

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/adorable-diy-dog-costumes-for-halloween-3017364