Dog Dinosaur Costume

Dressing up for Halloween is one of my favourite parts of the season, but making costumes for Whiskey is just about as fun. Over the years, he has been a taco, a bat, Wile E. Coyote and a business dog.
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This year it has been super chilly around here and I wanted to make him a costume that would keep him warm. It reminded me of the days when my mom would make me costumes that I could wear over my snowsuit – a fat witch, a fat cat, a fat ghost – Oh to celebrate Halloween in the Great White North.

Whiskey has a great love of sweaters, so I copied his favourite sweater, added some spikes and made him into a dinosaur!

When you put the hood up, you can see all his little “spikes”.

 This lasts for about 30 seconds before he shakes it off and it just looks like a hoodie.

 Much better – and just as cute.

It all started with a sweater I had always loved, but was ruined at a hair salon. I had it hanging on their coat rack while I was getting my hair cut and somehow they got bleach down the back. Worst part was that they wouldn’t replace it, so it has been sitting in my scrap bag for years, waiting for a fun project to do with it.

I made this sweater for Whiskey the first year that I got him and it’s been well loved since then. I knew that if I made him a costume similar to it, he would be more comfortable wearing it. I laid it flat and used it as a template.

I cut off the sleeves of the sweater and laid Whiskey’s red sweater over top. I carefully cut around it for the body pieces and hood pieces, leaving about 1/4″ on all sides for the hem.

It left me with two hood pieces and two body pieces (which are upside down in this picture).

 I cut the “spikes” out with green felt, making two triangles for each spike.

To give the spikes some structure, I cut a smaller triangle out of stiff cardstock. It means that I can’t put it in the wash, but I wanted to make the spikes stand up.

I sewed two sides of the triangles together and then slipped the cardstock piece inside.

Then I held the cardstock inside the triangle and stitched along the bottom. I repeated this with all the spikes.

To sew the spikes onto the hood, I pinned them in place in between the two hood pieces (with good sides facing in) and stitched along the curved edge.

 When it is flipped right side out, you can see the spikes on the outside of the hood.

I repeated it on the body piece, pinning the spikes in between the two body pieces. Then I stitched along the back edge and sewed the front edge closed as well. Then it was just a matter of stitching the hood to the body, and flipping it right side out.

 I thought it turned out pretty cute for a little dog dinosaur costume.

As always, Whiskey loves it when we pull out a sweater to put on (I think it’s because he gets so cold). When I grabbed it last night for his walk, he was quick to run over and duck his head for me to put it on. It still cracks me up that he does that every time.

After Halloween, I’m thinking about cutting off the spikes and leaving it as a regular sweater for walks. If I can’t use my favorite sweater, at least Whiskey should be able to enjoy it!

Now that the dog’s costume is done…I still need to think of something for myself!