I was a bit lazy this year and did not make my own costume. Instead, I wore my Dorothy Gale costume from the eighth grade. So, all that was required was a matching outfit for Tino. I decided on the Scarecrow, since Toto was way too obvious.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials.

All of the materials used (with the exception of the jute rope and yellow yarn) were already in my stash.

For Headpiece:
*Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn in yellow
*Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn in ecru
*Off-white cotton flannel (tea dyed a darker shade)
*Craft felt in brown for hat
*3 ply jute rope

For Tunic and pants:
*Dark Green cotton flannel (remnants from the underlining of this capelet)
*Burgundy cotton sateen (remnants from this outfit.
*1/4" elastic
*3 ply jute rope
*Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn in yellow
*Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn in ecru
For headdress:
*Off-white cotton flannel (tea dyed a darker shade)
*Craft felt in brown

Step 2: A Quick Dye Bath.

The cotton flannel that I had on hand was too light for the hat/headpiece so I let it soak in some water and black tea bags. Tea dying is a wonderful quick, easy, and non-toxic way to darken natural fibers!

Step 3: Get Sewing!

Using Simplicity 2740 as a base for the headpiece and Simplicity 393 9 as a base for the tunic and pants, I constructed my own doggie scarecrow outfit.

Step 4: Make a Muslin.

It may seem counter-intuitive to add a step in order to save time, but in the long run, a muslin is a real time saver. Any fitting mistakes show up before you spend all that time and energy, not to mention fabric, on the final product.

For this project, I only had remnant fabric to work with and not enough time or energy to get to the fabric store if things did not work out.

I tried the muslin on Tino (and gave him a couple of treats for positive reinforcement, and it works, he ended up staying in costume for about 3 hours without complaining!) and marked his "waistline." I cut the muslin at that point, and added a 1/4" seam allowance to both pieces when cutting out the cotton flannel and sateen.

Step 5: Alterations

Using a couple of still images from the film as a reference, I decided to gather the leg openings with elastic. I made a casing for the elastic with a some seam binding I had on hand.

I also added a rectangular flap at the "waistline" for a tunic effect. Jute rope was whip stitched to the seamline, and also tacked to the neck opening as a tie closure.