Introduction: Car Fox Costume

I wanted to be a bright, orange fox but needed a twist – so I came up with the Car Fox (from the Car Fax commercials)!  It was so fun to be the Car Fox and have a unique costume that made people snap their fingers and say “haaaah!”

There are 6 parts to the costume – arm cuffs, hood, boot covers, tail, shirt, and pants. 

Materials used: 1.5 yd orange fur fabric, 0.5 yd white fur fabric, 12” square of black fur fabric, less than a qtr of pink fuzzy fabric, thick craft foam sheet, fluff, thick elastic, white tee shirt, black sharpie, iron-on letters, jeans

*Optional - Manic Panic electric lava hair dye (although it turned out red instead of orange - still love it), orange lashes, red lipliner for brows

Step 1: Step 1 - Arm Cuffs

Materials: orange/ white fur

This was the easiest to make, so I made it first.  This was the first time I had ever used my sewing machine (I had previously used the sewing genie and mostly hand-stitched everything) so I wanted to ease myself into it.  After many youtube tutorials, I was good to go ;)

For each cuff, I cut out a rectangle of orange fur (about 7” long) and a much thinner white portion. 

Sidenote: cut the fur from the backside with a utility knife if you can – don’t use scissors or the fur will get everywhere.  It still did get everywhere, but it would’ve been way worse with scissors.   I laid it down on a towel over carpet, so clean up was easy.

I sewed the white portion to the orange (make sure that the fur is going the same direction) and that was that.  Super easy!

Step 2: Step 2 - Hood

Materials: orange/black/pink fur fabrics, craft foam sheet

I measured the hood shape with newspapers (fancy, huh?) to get the length/ fit I wanted.  I kept getting bigger and bigger and ended up using the biggest pattern.  (You can see the pic showing the diff sizes)  I used my newspaper cut-outs as my pattern and cut the fur fabric. 

I used two pieces to make the hood so there is only one seam (less cutting, less sewing, less margin for error).  I sewed it together and cut a little more off the front as needed.  I noticed that the heavier fabric sat differently on my head than the newspaper pattern.

Then I made the ears.  I drew out the ears on regular paper and then decided how much black I wanted to use on the tip.  It was about 40% black and 60% orange.  I cute the pink fabric a little smaller and placed it on top.  I sewed the orange and black fur together, then sewed the top 2/3 of the pink (all inside out).  Since the pink was smaller, it brought the orange/ black around the edges a bit.  Then I flipped it outside in so the fur was on the outside and I stuffed the craft foam inside.  I needed to cut these a lot smaller than I expected, smaller than the pink cutouts.  I hand sewed the bottom of the ears closed.  The foam made it firm and non-floppy.   The ears are ready!

I put the hood on my head and placed the ears on top to find the right position.  Then I hand sewed them in place and went over it a million times to make sure they stayed in place. 

That’s it for the hood!

Step 3: Step 3 - Boot Covers

Materials: orange/white fur fabric

I really had no idea how I was going to make this happen, but somehow I got it to work! 

I took a couple sheets of paper and wrapped them around my Uggs to make a stencil.  It took some finagling, but I finally got it to where I was satisfied.  I made sure to note the direction of the fur (using arrows).  I decided to have all the fur facing downwards towards the toes.  I had two patterns - the larger rectangular part for around the boot opening and the crescent-like part for the top of the foot/toes.  The crescent part was then divided into two for the white toes.  It makes more sense when you look at the picture ;)

So I cut the fabric and sewed it together.  I always sew inside out and then flip it.  The fur was very forgiving of my semi-newbie sew skills.  I sewed the top part first (rectangle), then the two pieces of the second part (crescent), and then I sewed them together.  I actually didn't sew it all the way across - I sewed the middle together and then the sides so it would curve over the boots better. 

*One of the boot covers kept sliding to the right all night so I safety-pinned it to the boot and it was good to go. 

I was very happy with my boot covers and will def use this pattern for more fur boots in the future ;)

Step 4: Step 4 - Tail

Materials: orange/ white fur, fluff, thick elastic

The tail can make or break the costume, in my opinion.  It is such a cute feature that I had to get it right.  I looked up a bunch of tutorials online and saw different methods on how to make it curved and then I went for it.

I drew out the shape that I wanted on a old bag and then cut it into sections where the direction changed.  I drew arrows noting where the fur should face, and wrote the color/ order.  O1, O2, O3 were for orange, and W1, W2 were for white.   

Then I cut out the pcs and placed them on the fur in the direction as noted.  This is where your arrows come into play.   I wrote "L" as well as the "O1" on each piece I traced.  Then I flipped it over and traced them, writing "R" as well as the "O1" on each piece. 

*I decided to leave a little extra space on top of L O1 and R O1 to close up the top of the tail (and sew in the elastic).  I didn't think of this until last minute so you can see that my L side extra is kinda-of cut off. 

I cut all the pieces out and laid them in order.  So far so good!

I did the same thing with the white pieces, and then laid everything out together to see how my shape was coming.  It was looking okay but I was nervous about the fur direction looking too "choppy" and not as natural.

Sew time!  I sewed the individual sides together first - so LO1, LO2, LO3, LW1, and LW2.  Then I did the same with the R side.  (I wasn't paying attention and put a L on the R side, so I had to cut it off...the downside of doing all this overnight)

Once the two sides were ready, I sewed them together.  It really helped to pin everything down!  And fur is thick so my pins took a beating.  I sewed the sides all the way down and through the bottom, although I missed a few spots where the pieces meet.  The fabric was so think there it shattered my needle!  I ended up sewing around those parts - I could've hand sewed the seams for the reinforcement, but I was too tired.  I left the top part open so I could get to stuffin'!

I actually used Christmas "snow" as my stuffing.  I got a huge bag for very cheap and it was nice and light.  I sat on the couch and pulled it apart to make it more fluffy then I stuffed it into the tail.  I wanted a nice, plump tail so I stuffed a lot of fluff in there.  

Once it was stuffed to my liking, I hand sewed the top closed.  I had some extra flaps of fabric and I used those to secure the elastic.   First, I sewed the elastic into a loop (2 pcs) with the sewing machine.  This was hard to do, but I did the best I could  I wanted it nice and secure so I went back and forth A LOT with the sewing machine.  Then I put the loops under the extra flaps of fabric on the top of the tail and hand sewed them on.  This took a lot of thread because I went over it a million times.  It would be terrible if my tail fell off, so I wanted it to be nice and strong. 

All in all, it turned out very nicely!  I love the shape and the fur direction turned out great.  I was very pleased with my little tail (even though my husband said it was huge - I was like "you should see some of the other ones!"). 

You wear the tail by looping the elastic over a belt.  I didn't even put my belt in my pant beltloops because I wanted to re-position the tail all day.  I would slide it to the side every time I got in the car or even while sitting in my chair at work.  BTW - I wore my costume all day to work. 

Bonus: The tail swung side to side as I walked, like I was wagging it, so I had fun with that all day :) 

Step 5: Step 5  Shirt

Materials: white tee shirt, sharpie, iron on letters

This was probably the easiest part of the costume.  First, I colored in the collar and sleeve rims with black sharipe.  That gave it the "ringer" look.  Then I found iron on letters, cut them out, and ironed them onto the shirt. 

Super easy!

Step 6: Step 6  Pants

Materials: jeans, orange fur

I found some old pre-baby jeans that barely fit.  Literally, I could not even zip them up all the way let alone button them... but I had a belt to cover that ;)

I cut horizontal lines into the jeans in three areas to make the holes.  Then I washed them and they came out all frayed.  I actually cut more strips (made some thinner and cut some out altogether) then washed them again.  I like the look it made.

Then I took scraps on my orange fur and hand sewed them to the jeans, on the inside.  This part was a lot harder than I expected.  Even though I pinned down the fabric, it kept shifting around and the frays broke off too.  But it all added to the look, I guess.  I basically sewed all around the edges of the fur fabric (using black thread).

Once it was all in there, I pulled out some fur so it stuck out more.  Lots of people said this was their fave part of the costume.

*The pants, already too small, became a little tighter with the sewn in fur.  I guess it made those parts stiffer and less stretchy.  So when I bent down to put my baby in his carseat, I totally busted one of the seams!  I first fake-destroyed the jeans, then I really destroyed them lol.  It still looked fine so I didn't mend it at all, but it was pretty funny. 

Step 7: Optional Accessories

The last step is optional accessories:

Manic Panic Electric Lava hair dye:  My hair was a light blonde before.  This color was supposed to come out orange but instead it was hot hot red!  I love it, though, and would highly recommend.  I washed my hair with shampoo only, let it air dry completely, then put the entire jar on my hair.  I put it in a shower cap and let it sit for 3 hours (while I finished sewing the rest of the costume!)  It looked orange in my hair and all over the shower, and continues to drop orange every time it gets wet. 

Belt: This isn't really optional as you need it to hold up the tail.  I chose a cute bow belt to make it a little more girly.

Orange eyelashes:  I got these from the 99cent store and was happy to go without mascara for a day.  They were heavy and really annoying so I probably would've been better off with mascara lol.  At least the look was cool.

Red lip liner (on brows):  This made a big difference and looked great with the hair color.

Pink lips:  I always wear pink lips, and I wanted to match the inner ear color ;)


Hope you liked it!  "Show me the car fax!"

Halloween Easy Costumes Contest

Participated in the
Halloween Easy Costumes Contest