Thrifty Halloween: Lion

Heath kept changing his mind on what he wanted to be for Halloween when asked this past month. So I waited around to see what would prevail the week-of (lion, tiger and mermaid were all in the running). Lion started to be a consistent answer and so I searched for some easy do it yourself costumes to create 24 hours before dress up day at his school. I found this great guide on a blog that served as my inspiration: http://www.tryitmom.com/2011/10/super-easy-diy-baby-lion-costume.html 

I made a run to Dollar Tree and came up with the following materials to make this magic happen:

1. Infant fleece beanie (brown with ears was the key)  2. Premade tail with velcro belt loop  3. Ladies brown 'fuzzy fur' gloves  4. Infinity scarf  5. 2 pack of car shammy

Mane:

Following the above referenced blog, I cut my fabric materials up into strips so that I could sew onto the beanie, starting with a row directly in front of the ears which conveniently covered up the pre-printed monkey face. I alternated between the orange shammy (with little cuts 3/4 of the way to make a fringe), the infinity scarf, and then the brown fuzzy fabric which remained after I cut the wrist cuts off. 

As a developing piece of the mane, I had extra scarf and shammy so decided to loop that piece around Heath's face to create more than just the fuzzy top. 

Fuzzy Wrists:

Using the brown gloves, I cut above the elastic so they would stay in tact and just be fingerless. I added a piece of fringed shammy by sewing inside and then reversing. 

Tail:

To spruce up the pre-made tail I bought I used some of the fabric scraps and a stapler to staple at the end.

Body:

Heath wore brown pants and the only brown long sleeved shirt we had which happened to have a monkey embroidered on the belly of it. So a piece of the shammy was used to create a shaded tummy look and this one was just safety pinned for easy removal.

There you have it! The $5.27 Halloween costume for my little lion.