DIY Dog Costume: Create a Stunning Halloween Outfit for Your Furry Friend

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Halloween is right around the corner and I thought it would be the perfect time to write a DIY (do it yourself) on How To Make Your Own Dog Costume for Halloween.  This year we dressed Derby in a lion mane dog costume and it was definitely a hit at our guide dog costume party.

Last year I wasn’t too creative with Stetson and his first Halloween costume. However, Target has some great costumes and Stetson and I both dressed up as bee’s (I guess you could say we were a swarm of bees). This year we decided to do a little more preparation and after researching the internet and posting about dog costumes and our favorite: the alligator dog costume…I got really excited about designing my own dog costume for Derby and our Halloween guide dog meeting.

Derby’s Dog Costume – Simba The Lion

Here are some images of Derby in his dog costume as Simba the Lion:

Derby chomping on his prey (looks like a piece of grass or twig)

Derby the happy dog!

Derby giving us his best lion pose!

Don’t mess with Derby the lion.

Derby smelling the grass.

I’m sure everyone’s now wondering…what a brilliant costume! How did you do it?

I was secretly hoping I would get a yellow Labrador Retriever or a Golden Retriever so I could dress them up as a lion for Halloween. If you saw my post on The 6 Best Dog Costumes On The Internet then you would have seen the Golden Lion who was actually supposed to be Lambert the Sheepish lion. A very random reference, but I just recently saw the short cartoon when watching Disney’s the Fox and the Hound…I’m a kid at heart and still watch cartoons.

Anyhow, I’ve been searching for a lions mane since I got Derby and couldn’t find anything suitable until Halloween costumes started rolling into the local Walmarts and Targets. While walking through Target I saw the perfect Lions mane…it was the hair on the wolfman’s mask. So here are the step-by-step instructions for constructing your very own dog costume.

Items you will need for this project:

• Wolfman Mask from Target
• Elastic band
• Piece of Velcro
• Extra Collar
• Sewing kit (needle and thread)
• Knife or Scissors
• Optional – rubber band

Instructions

1. Go to Target and buy the $9.99 Wolfman mask.
2. Grab a knife or scissors and unstitch the hair from the latex mask.
3. With rudimentary sewing skills attach the collar to the lions mane (this will keep it in place when costume is worn.
4. Next, attach the velcro under the neck. This will keep the lions mane closed around the neck area.
5. Finally attach the elastic higher up from the velcro just under the chin. This helps to keep the hair from sliding back behind the ears.
6. Optional – take an extra piece of hair from the mask and attach it to your dogs tail with the rubber band.

And the final results…we won Most Original Costume at our Guide Dogs of America meeting! YAY!

The Fearless Lion

Farm animals about to be preyed upon by the mighty lion!

Thanks to Joe for the wonderful photographs at our GDA meeting.

Let me know if you have any questions about How To Make Your Own Dog Costume. I, myself am not very creative nor very crafty, but was able to piece this one together.

If you haven’t already seen last years Halloween post then please check it out and get some new dog costume ideas.  Definitely one of our favorites was the headless horseman dog costume.

Did your dog wear a dog costume for Halloween? If so, what did he/she dress up as?

Related Articles:

• Halloween Safety Tips for Your Dog

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