Halloween is one of my favorite childhood memories! I loved choosing my costume, picking out candy at the grocery store, decorating our porch and of course trick-or-treating. Growing up, most of our costumes were homemade, usually from items we already had at home. I love the memories of helping my mom craft costumes for us to wear! Looking back, the memories of making the costumes are even stronger than the actual holiday. With that sentiment in mind, we created these lion hoodies:
Supplies: jacket with a hood (both for you and your little one), yarn, cotton fabric, felt, sewing machine, stuffing, embroidery thread + needle, and scissors. 1. Begin by cutting a strip of fabric the circumference of the hood on your jacket. 2. Then, take the yarn and lay it down onto the fabric, back and forth, creating loops all along the fabric. Stitch it in place as you go. 3. Once the yarn is stitched on, cut each end so that the yarn is no longer in loops. If you want the mane to be fuller at the top, simply repeat this step in the middle of the fabric, leaving the ends of the fabric with still only one layer of yarn. 4-5. Attach the fabric by sewing it all the way around the hood of your jacket.
6. To make the ears, cut out four identical pieces of fabric. 7. On two of these pieces, hand stitch with enbroidery thread felt pieces, creating the inside of the ear. Then, with the other two pieces and the insides facing each other, sew the ears together and turn them inside out. 8. Lastly, fill them with stuffing and hand stitch them onto the hoodie. This project took us only one afternoon, so it's perfect for those last minute costume parties! 
I hope that some of you get to enjoy making homemade costumes for the kiddos in your life! You get to have fun crafting and, best of all, creating a memory they will keep forever. After we snapped these photos, my neice and my mom went out shopping wearing these hoodies. How cute is that? XO. elsie
84 Comments
LOVE this! It reminds me of Simba from the Lion King. 😀
http://catherinedenton.com
Awe 🙂 So adorable!!! I think it’s awesome you went shopping in them afterward. You got some sweet pictures too. ♥Lindsay
Funny and cute idea and love the photo!!
http://www.creativityandchocolte.blogspot.com
Best tutorial you’ve done, and I LOVE many of your tutorials!! I can’t wait to make one of these for my little one for Christmas…we called him ‘Little Lion Man’ when he was a newborn because the Mumford & Sons song by the same name would mesmerize him and calm him when nothing else would.
Any other animal hoodies in mind for this fall?? 🙂 I have a daughter too, who would love some kind of animal hoodie!
sooo cute!
That is such a sweet idea! Love that your mum and your niece went out shopping in them too 🙂
how cute and so easy!
This is so cute! I haven’t decided on my Halloween costume, but I’ll see if my sis can sew me somethin’ like this 😉
Heather
{www.heatheringheights.com}
This is cute!
oh my GOODNESS so sweet! I cant wait to make these for my soon-to-be nephew!!
soo sweet! It’s too bad I only have little brothers who want to be rambo and mr. T. 🙁
OMG!!!!!!! Dying, this is so adorable!! Will be making for my entire family!!!!! Thanks!
This is super cute. I think they turned out really good and look professionally made! I love yours elsie!
Carlee
http://almostendearing.blogspot.com/
LOL I laughed so hard when looking at those cute pictures. This is really (again) so creative and cute idea to make. Uhmm but I think it would be too funny for me to wear… and there is no children around here. Maybe saving this for my children (maybe) in the future 🙂 Cheers
Anh @ http://fabnfun.com
AWW, too freakin cute!
OMG! Is this even real?! Love this!!! Thanks so much for sharing this!!
~Sacha
Oh my goodness, these are so cute! Way to go :). Your mom and niece must have gotten adoring looks when seen out and about in those.
Loulou
She is adorable! these hoodies are awesome- my son is already going to be cookie monster, so i need to talk my husband into rocking a lion hoodie with me!!!
So super cute!
I’m going to make these for all my best friends and I–we’re seniors in high school too, haha 😉 love it!
Love these hoodies! Your niece is ADORABLE! 🙂 Beautiful pictures!
I remember my mom making all of my Halloween costumes when I was younger. It something that makes Halloween special and memorable! These are super precious! Love it!
http://jessicas-wonderland.blogspot.com/
super cute! I quite fancy one just for me
http://ahandfulofhope.blogspot.co.uk/
so precious!! penny cracks me up!
That is just too cute
<3 Mims @ http://thegiantcloud.blogspot.com
Perfect! <3
xo Heather
http://ahopelessnotebook.blogspot.com/
These would be so cute for Halloween!
-Lindsey
http://ettu-tutu.blogspot.com
So adorable! And it looks so easy, like I think I could actually do this. 🙂
ooh… so pretty…:)
http://lovesimplegreen.blogspot.com/
absolutely adorable! Oh my goodness, I need to forward this post to my cousin for her little kiddos!
Perfect and simple. It is good for halloween too, not scare but so sweet, I love it.
This is so cute! What a wonderful idea 🙂
♥ Naomi {Starry Eyes + Coffee Cups}
This is so cute! Great for a mom and kid!
My blog: acolorfulcreation.blogspot.com
These photos are adorbs–almost as cute as the tut itself 🙂 Nice job:)
Adorable!
THis is too ADORABLE!
XOXO
-Daisy Nguyen from PS BANANAS fashion blog:
http://psbananas.com
You’re niece is so cute! She looks so much like you!
That’s so adorable!!!!!
Awwwww – This is so sweet! I love it:)
Love,
Stephanie May*
http://www.maydae.com
I’m just “awww”ing at these photos! Too cute!
Aww! too cute, my son would get a kick out of this! Especially if I let him “help”…. 😉
Thank you for sharing!
Shirley
this is so cute,lovely idea!
Your niece looks EXACTLY like Boo from Monsters Inc! Absolutely precious and these are adorable.
sososo cute!!
xx
http://www.ireneccloset.com
the hoodies are cute but the photos of you and your niece are adorable 🙂
Such a fun and cute idea x
http://www.hopscotchanddaisychains.blogspot.co.uk
this is so cool! so perfect for halloween! 😀
<3, Mimi
Too cute!
X
http://dipitblack.wordpress.com
This is fab! ben would totally reject this (he’s nearly 8 and would think he’s too old for this type of thing) but it’s still a lovely tutorial.Rx
http://sandersonsmithstory.blogspot.co.uk/
This will come in handy for Halloween!
That little girl is so gorgeous 🙂
Might have to give this a go, looks like a lot of fun!
How cute!! Even we don’t celebrate Halloween, I’m gonna make this one!
HowCarlyC.blogspot.com
This is sooooooooo cute!
This is too cute! what a little trooper!
http://rrecommends.blogspot.co.uk/ xx
Perfect for trick or treating!!! It’s always colder than you really want it to be 🙂
That is so cool! I think my little brother would love it 🙂
xxx
http://joyfuldiary.blogspot.de/
Possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. I’m 19 and I want to make one for myself. The last picture kills me. So. Cuuuute!
This is adorable! These types of things make me wish I had a child to dress up.
xo
Diana
http://unusuallylovely.com
So cool!! My nieces are gonna love it!! 🙂
http://doitnaturalnow.blogspot.com.es/
SO ADORABLE!!!
These are so cute! I’m def trying this out 😀
LOVE this!!
Ohmy! So cute!! Is that your daughter?
Kristin
Cute! Parents should do this more often with their kids they will learn something. Homemade is much better than store bought. 🙂
This is adorable!
Xx
http://kendra-genevieve-rose.blogspot.com
OMG who is this little QT! She’s a mini Elsie! Love it. Xo, Inna Baking in Couture
Lovely ..n very creative..thanks for sharing..
Lovelybusybee.blogspot.com
You look sooo sweet ^.^
She looks just like you, it’s crazy!
extremely adorable!!! Nice job!! I really want to do this eventually with my younger son, because his middle name means Lion in Hebrew.
these are the sweetest photos. they actually made me teary <3
Totally cute! There’s nothing better than handmade costumes. As the single mother of three girls, I have had to get creative so this definitely resonates with me:)
http://www.popsparkleandshineclub.com
http://lauralistar.onsugar.com/
Haha, that is the most adorable thing ever! I love her smile. She’s such a cutie pie. 🙂
xo, Adriana.
http://horsesofares.blogspot.com
i hope you put at least one of these photos in a frame, can’t even decide which one i love most!
Lovely, lovely lovely! Did I mention how lovely they look. I think my little boy will be ‘following the yellow brick road’ this Halloween. Thanks for the great idea
http://www.bohaglass.co.uk/blog/
Those are the cutest hoodies ever!
xoxo,
Rachel Nicole @ Summer Breeze
rachyracheshobbycorner.blogspot.com
Ohhh these photos are so cute! Such a fun DIY project!
Kisses
Elena
http://dcinstyle.com/blog/
This is such a cute idea! Absolutely darling.
So freaking adorable!!!!
Oh, thank goodness I found this on Pinterest by accident. I spent all morning shopping for materials to make a lioness costume (leaning more toward pink/purple lion). I got everything I need to do this–yahoo! You just saved me a lot of “figuring it out” time.
Nice! I’ve seen several commercially available versions that are more of a hat than a hoodie – these are a great (and much lower cost) idea!
These are too cute for words!!
I made this for halloween, and added a tail (I sweed it to the hem of the hoodie). Turned out very cute, I am wearing it to work today, and have received lots of compliments. Thanks for the great tutorial!
This is really cute. They had this show on a few days before Halloween for craft costumes and there was this super cute mom and a son and the little boy was a gorilla holding a Barbie and the mom was the empire state building made out of cardboard with a hat for the point, it was really adorable.
Great craft thoughts!