I was asked recently to come up with a fast costume to make for a dog. The owners wanted to dress their dog up like Pierrot the pantomime clown from old French theater.
One of the most important things when making a costume for an animal or child is that it has to allow them full use of their limbs, vision and movement. As adults we can tolerate costumes that restrict us temporarily. Children and pets need to maintain their sight and mobility.
That will really define the design to a large degree. I might put big floppy shoes on an adult but not a child or an animal.
The next consideration is the amount of time available for making the costume. If it becomes so stressful trying to find the time that there is no joy in designing and constructing the costume, go buy one. The holidays, all holidays, are supposed to enhance our experience not take away from it or burden it.
Third is going to be the amount of money and resources you want to devote to the costume. Most of us want something to look great but if we can make it without another trip to the store and another swipe of the debit card, we are much happier.
Do you need a sewing machine to make a costume? Absolutely not. It is a costume and because of that it only needs to make it through one night. You of course don’t want it to come apart but for many costumes, hot glue guns are the way to go. While wearing pants that are only hot glued together might not be the wise choice, making the vest, embellishments, epaulets, emblems, etc. can all be made out of felt and hot glued into place.
Because each dog is a different size, I will give you a very generic idea that you can use as a starting off place for your canine.
You will need to make a large white ruffle to go all the way around the neck. You can trim it with a black bias tape or leave it white.
Cut two strips of Velcro the length of your dog around the belly in front of the hind legs and around the belly behind the front legs. Use a third piece of Velcro that would connect the front and back on the dogs back and run up to attach to the collar. It should look like a harness. Away from your dog, hot glue three black pom poms along the Velcro that will lie on the back.
Make a white pointed hat with a chinstrap. This can be trimmed in the black also or left plain. You can also add three small black pom poms running up the front of the hat with hot glue.
Using mascara, carefully draw a teardrop below one eye on the dog’s cheek. If this is stressful to the dog, leave it off.
