Panda Costume for Dogs From Scrap Cloth!

Hello!

During Halloween, I wanted to make a costume for my dog to wear while my brother went trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, I didn't have time, so now that school has died down after finals, I had time to make my dog a cozy costume before winter ends.

This costume took me about 1.5 hours to make, and I love the end result! I had a lot of fun making it, and I hope you will as well :)

Supplies

large white cloth (i'm using an old bedsheet)
blue or black fabric (I used an old t-shirt)
- I will refer to this as blue throughout the tutorial. You can replace this with any color- if you want a pink panda, great!
fleece (any color)
blue/black and white thread
scissors
sewing machine
needle
2 buttons
measuring tape
furry friend
(optional) pre-existing dog costume/jacket with hood
- to use as template

Step 1: Measure Your Dog

This is definitely the most important step! All dogs aren't the same size (duh) so the measurements I give you for my maltese mix isn't going to fit your chocolate lab. Whip out your tape measure (hopefully it's flexible) and measure the following. If you have an existing costume, we'll be copying the size, so measure (2) and (4). If not, measure everything listed below. Please check out the diagram attached for help! You'll want to write all of these down somewhere.

neck to tail
neck to head
neck diameter
stomach diameter (right behind front legs)

Step 2: Mark and Cut Fabric

If you have a costume- great, lay it on the fleece and white fabric, trace with a 1/2 inch border, and cut it out!

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If not, you'll need to rely heavily on your measurements. Use the labeled picture to approximate the size. It's ok if it's not perfect! You'll need to cut this out on your white and fleece fabrics.

neck to tail
neck to head
neck diameter
stomach diameter (right behind front legs)
is the neck to tail divided by 2.

Try to follow the shape as best as possible. Draw it out on the "bad" side of the fabric. This is lighter, maybe the pattern isn't as nice or there's a stain. Add a 1/2" border around it, then cut it out.

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The blue fabric: this is similar to the white fabric on the diagrammed picture. I just placed our cut white fabric across the blue fabric, and cut an approximate. It should fit nicely on the white and fleece.

Step 3: Cut and Sew Ears

These are pretty flexible, so don't worry about messing them up too much.

Get your excess blue fabric.
If your dog is larger, draw out 4 circles with a 2.5" radius. If your dog is smaller, you can do 1.5" or somewhere around there- it's approximate.
Extend the circles so they taper a bit, giving you a vase shape. (pics might help for this)
Cut them out.
Stack two on top of each other, so they line up.
Sew with a 1/8" border all around, except for the flat part. It doesn't matter what color the thread is, but you might as well make it black or blue since that's what we will use next.
Turn it inside out.
Stuff with small scraps of fleece from earlier. Make sure to only stuff the rounded part.

Step 4: Sewing the Blue and White Fabric

We're going to make the "panda" design that you'll see on your dog's back, and cut holes for the ears and hat taper.

Place the blue fabric on top of the white fabric. You want to have the "nice" sides facing you. If both sides of the fabric look exactly the same, don't worry! Try to match them up as best as possible.
Put blue or black thread in the sewing machine, if you haven't already.
Sew with a 1/8" border where the blue and white edges touch. It doesn't need to look perfect. For me, the blue t-shirt fabric stretched, so I has to redo it to make sure there wasn't a lot of bunches.
The white and blue fabric should be sewn together.
If there's crimped or shaggy fabric edges, trim slightly.

Step 5: Modify the Hood

This will give us the taper in the hood and allow us to sew the ears on.

At the top of the hood, where it's a rounded point, cut 1.5" up if you have a smaller dog, 2.5" if you have a larger one. The more you cut, the more "bent" the hood will be.
Between this cut and the edge of the hood, cut a parallel line the width of your ears. Do this on both sides. Please refer to the picture for this- it's a bit hard to explain.

Step 6: Sewing Ears to White Fabric

Get the white fabric with the blue sewn onto it. Turn it so the blue is showing on top. Take your ears and slide them into the slits.
Turn it over.
The top of the hood is pointing away from you, and the ear fabric should be "above" the slits.
Replace the blue thread in your machine with white.
Sew lines back and forth the area where the excess blue and the white fabric meet.
You can trim off the excess blue, but you won't see it anyways so I didn't bother.
Flip over and clean up any loose threads.

Step 7: Sew Hood

Please also refer to the pictures. I learn better visually, so hopefully it helps you as well.

Fold the white fabric in half "hot-dog" style, so that the ears touch each other and the nice side is touching. The slit on the hood should match up with the fold.
Draw a line that is at a 30 degree angle from the end of the cut to the edge of the fabric. For me, this was about a thumbs width at the thickest part. It might be larger for you.
Sew along this line.
Repeat steps 1-3 with the fleece.

Step 8: Sewing It All Together

We're so close to finishing!

Lay the fleece and white/blue fabric together. The nice sides should be on the inside, touching.
Sew a 1/8" to 1/4" border, starting at an arm. Stop when you have around 3" left.
Turn inside out. You should see your entire design with the white and blue showing, as well as the nice part of the fleece.
I hand sewed the rest with blue thread, because I thought I could conceal it better. You can just sew the rest with the machine if you wish.

Step 9: Buttons and Buttonholes

If you've never done it before, I recommend watching this video: https://youtu.be/e0WWYGUc1NY. This is my first time doing buttons, so it was pretty helpful.

If you don't want to watch the video, I'll try to explain as best as possible :)

Measure your button. add 1/8" to each side of the button and draw a line of that length (e.g. my button is 1/2" long, i add 1/8" to each side- total length is now 3/4")
Use a zigzag stitch. This is #4 on my sewing machine- refer to the picture to get as close as possible. I put the width at 1.5 and the length at 0.2. If you've never done this, I would recommend practicing on a scrap of fabric.
Stitch a box around the line.
Use a seam ripper or small, sharp scissors to cut on the line.

The button: if you know a better way to attach it, please do- this is just how I did it.

Get a needle and thread it. You can match up the color of the thread with the button, but I didn't care enough to do it. Tie a knot so the button is attached to the thread.
Place the button on the fabric and go through the holes, making x's. Once you feel it is secure, tie the thread and cut it.

Step 10: Try It On!

Now you can put it on your dog and see if it fits (hopefully, it does..)

I hope you enjoyed making this with me! I would love your feedback on the project itself and what I could have improved on!!

Some other things you could add:

Large button hole where the harness is on the back. This way, they can wear it during a walk. I'm going to do this later on when I have time.
Adding a tail. This is basically the same as the ears.
Adding a face to the hood.