Pattern Hack: Making A Cute Little Raccoon Costume

Halloween at the Sew Can Do house wouldn't be complete without at least one handmade costume.  This mama has been very short on sewing time lately, but it's the first year baby #5 is trick or treating so she needed a mommy-made costume.  This one reflects her personality to a T: Cute Little Raccoon.

My youngest daughter's nickname is Trash Panda (another name for raccoons).  And for good reason.  She is always into something.  Preferably a trash can, package of food or neatly organized container.  Her little arms are crazy strong - she's ripped boxes open to get at what's inside, done pull-ups to climb onto things and is the reason we have locks on practically every cupboard and all the toilets.  We have to keep our bedroom trash can 5 feet off the ground whenever she's awake or the contents will be everywhere in 30 seconds.  Like you would do with an actual animal.  She likes to rummage outside too:

So being a rascally raccoon for her first "active participant" Halloween seemed the obvious choice:

This hooded romper design is ideal for smalls for Halloween.  Cuddly fleece makes to soft & warm and easy to move in.  The zip-up front makes it quick to get on & off:

The hood has the perfect shape so that the animal face shows well, but little ones can still see out underneath it.

And of course it's got the classic raccoon tail at the back:

Just like the real thing, the tail has enough dimension to look the business, but not drag on the ground or get stepped on:

I really didn't have time to draft a complete pattern from scratch, so I found this great current one piece costume to hack, Simplicity 9347, which is a throwback 80's style Care Bear.  It's the ideal base for any animal costume and, quite honestly, it was very cost & time effective to use.  It was on sale for $2.  The cost in sanity and mom-hours to draft one up would've been WAY higher.  Smarter not harder is key when sewing!

 

This pattern is pretty a straightforward sew.  I definitely would recommend it.  The fit is generous so wearing clothes underneath is an option which is really practical for chilly Halloween nights.  My daughter is an average size 20 month old, so based on the measurements the 1/2 size was the right fit (I did have to cut a couple of inches off the pant length before I attached the rib knit cuffs though).  

On to the Pattern Hack!

So the key changes to turn this Care Bear costume into a cute raccoon:

- Add a raccoon face (I created this PDF Pattern)

- Make the ears pointed 

- Add a striped tail

- Turn tummy applique into an oval

You can download my free layered Raccoon Face pattern HERE.  It would probably work as a mask too.  Just print actual size (no scaling) and cut out.

Following the pattern directions to make the romper comes first and then when it's time to sew up the hood piece, this is what I did next....

Cut out my raccoon's mask from the black fleece, including the eye holes:

Then cut the white fleece outline piece:

I also cut a large oblong piece of light grey fleece to be the backer for the face applique to make it stand out more from the hood fabric.  Then layered them on the hood piece before it was sewn up and top stitched each layer in place:

I used the included ear pattern piece for general size, but extended my ear pieces and made them pointed, then attached them according to the pattern directions & stitched up the rest of the hood and sewed it to the neckline.

I hand stitched shank buttons for the eyes and a pom pom for the nose:

I needed to create a tail from scratch so I cut a 5 inch wide by 16 inch long pair of strips from my grey fleece and from the black and cut them to curve inward and to a point at one end:

Then I free form cut the black pairs into some zig-zag shaped sections to make the rings on the tail:

And top-stitched those onto the grey tail pieces, then stitched them together, right sides facing, trimming the seam allowances down. 

I turned the tail right side out, stuffed it with some poly-fil and then slip stitched it to the backside of the costume by hand:

Then the little raccoon costume was good to go!

Seeing her wandering around in costume, trying to get into mischief is just like seeing the real thing in action.  It's a role she was born to play.  

 Happy Halloween!

And if you're looking for more DIY costume ideas:

Our Made At Home Turtle Costume

This year we made 2 out of 4 kid costumes.  Since my littlest guy is too small to trick or treat it didn't really make sense to spend a lot of time on a costume no one would see, and my oldest is now entering "too old to go out" territory, so instead we focused on the middle two. And the best part was they were both able to help make the costumes.  Last week I shared our DIY Refrigerator Costume and today I've got our Made at Home Turtle!  

Living in Michigan, Halloween is usually pretty cold.  Some years this is snow, and almost always chilly wind.  Costumes have to be able to handle a lot of clothing layers underneath, so it usually limits our options.  My 9yr came up with the idea of being a turtle, which was perfect.  

It was pretty inexpensive too since the main materials were just fleece & foam.  Besides a cuddly fleece suit for her turtle body, she's got an amazing turtle shell:

The front & back are nice and lightweight and since they're made from foam, help keep her warm, but still feel fairly soft:

Materials:
- Fleece fabric
- Floor mat foam
- Craft foam
- Acrylic paint
- 1/4 inch wide elastic
- Zipper
- Shoelace (for hood drawstring)
- Nylon webbing
- Velcro
- Hot glue, rubber cement & heat gun
- Simplicity 1731 fleece jumpsuit pattern

To make a nice turtle shell I turned to my husband to use his foam-smithing skills.  He's been expanding his talents in that department since last year when he did a Viking helmet & shield: 

and Darkwing Duck costume parts for our big boys.  

He used basic foam floor mats to make the entire turtle shell!  He looked at actual turtle photos and made a paper pattern with the right details so it would be realistic.  He cut the front part (which is called the plastron btw) and then etched the grooves into the foam and sanded the edges so they'd be rounded.  He painted it with tan acrylic paint, but did black in the grooves: 

For the top part of the shell (which is the carapace), he worked some serious magic.  He cut an oval out of foam for the main part and made a cut line several inches in at the top and bottom so he could glue the cut ends together with rubber cement and use heat gun to help bend it into a curve.  A bit of heat makes the foam pretty shapeable.  He cut a groove pattern of hexagons for detail and cut a long strip with ridges for the outer edge and gave that a slight bend upward and glued it to the oval.  

He painted the whole thing brown and then went over it in green with an air brush to give it a realistic mottled coloring.

He hot glued some webbing for the shoulder and side straps 
and stitched on some velcro to the side straps.

He did a grid pattern with the glue so it would hold pretty tight:

And attached the other ends of the shoulder straps to the front half of the shell so it would be easy to get on and off.

For the turtle suit I used a pattern I'd bought in a dollar sale last year: Simplicity 1731. Usually I'm just so-so on Big 4 patterns, but this one is AWESOME.

It's an easy sew, so good for beginners and fast for more experience sewers.  There are just a few pieces to cut, but it has great features like a hood drawstring, elastic cuffs on the sleeves and legs and a long front zipper.  It does run a bit big, so for normal use sizing down is a good idea.  I was happy with the looseness though, since we needed to be able to get a jacket and jeans underneath it.  Added bonus is the pattern has sizing for a toddler 4 up to XL adult (there's even a dog version included!), so the whole family can use it.  I'm definitely going to make more of these as winter comes our way.  

My 9 yr old helped make our turtle claws to round out the outfit:

We cut some 2 inch triangle from sheets of craft foam for the claws:

I traced my daughter's hands and cut out two pairs of rounded mitten shapes from our fleece scraps:
 

We sewed one side together for each pair and then opened them up.  We measure across the wrist area and then cut out 2 pieces of 1/4 inch wide elastic that were 2 inches shorter and stitched them onto the wrong side of the fabric, about 2 inches from the opening end, stretching them across.  Elastic is optional, but it helps keep the mittens from slipping off.

We put the claws on top of the right side of the fabric and basted them into place on two of the mitten halves:

With right sides together she stitched around the remaining top & side and then we trimmed the raw edges and turned them right side out.

Now we had some turtle claws that would keep her hands warm too:

My daughter loves her costume and has been thrilled to have multiple opportunities to wear it.  She was proud to be able to say she helped make it as well.  It's great she can put it on and take it all off by herself too (which is a rare feat for most costumes!).  Dad definitely deserves a few pieces of candy for all his efforts this year!

Happy Halloween!