RAWR

Risa - this one's for you!

A No-Sew Dinosaur

Materials (here's what I used for a 3T dinosaur):

Sweatsuit in an appropriate dinosaur costume

1 sheet white felt (9" x 12" is the standard size for all felt)

1/2 sheet black felt

1 sheet eyebrow/hand/foot claw colored felt

4 sheets spike-color felt

1/2 yard coordinating fabric (felt, fleece, something hefty but not heavy)

Fabric glue

Craft glue

Safety pins

fabric stiffener (optional)

belt (optional)

Cut spikes from spike-colored felt leaving a 1/2" edge on the bottom of the spike. I folded the felt in half long-ways (like a hot dog bun) to cut two strips of spikes from each sheet.
Slice the 1/2 border up just less than 1/2 inch at the apex of each spike (see pic above to make that make sense.) This creates tabs you can use for gluing.
Folding the tabs back and forth, start gluing the spikes down the length of the hoodie, starting at the very top of the hood. Alternating the tabs helps the spikes to stand up. Fabric stiffener may be used to keep spikes standing up, too.
Continue gluing spike strips down the length of the hoodie.
Let dry. I used some extra lumber and veggie cans to help keep weight on the tabs while they dried.
Using your favorite circle or oval-shaped household object, trace the shape onto white fabric. Cut out for the eyes. Using a small circle shape, cut out the black circles. Cut the eyebrows. I went freeform on those bad boys. To make sure they were matching I folded the felt in half and cut both at the same time.
Glue onto the side of the hoodie. Let dry.
For the tail, cut a a piece of color-coordinating fabric slightly longer than the wearer's legs and bum (small of the back to the ground.) Shape into a rounded triangle.
Follow the same pattern of spikes down the tail, starting about an inch down from the top (as not properly illustrated in the pic above.) Alternate sides with the tabs again to keep the spikes standing out.
Let dry.
Optional accesories: Teeth for the hoodie. Cut triangles with gluing area.
Cut claws for the hands and feet. To do this, I used felt the width of the legs (for the feet) and the arm bands (for the hands)
To put together, glue or pin the tail straight into the pants or a belt. Pin or glue the feet and/or hand claws on.

That's it. Easy peasy.

Trick or Treat!

Moose Tracks:

I chose to make this a no-sew dinosaur. If my kid were a dinosaur for Halloween I'd probably revise the steps to include sewing the spikes on.

There's two different glue listed in the materials section. That's because my fabric glue randomly chooses to hate felt. So I often reinforce my gluing with craft glue.

The hoodie can be worn well after Halloween. Because of this, I choose to pin on the claws and teeth. Toddler Moose can rock the dino hoodie at preschool now without the "extra" stuff in the way.

The tail hangs rather limply in the pictures above. It will for you too. This would be where you could "shape" the tail using spray fabric stiffener and following the directions on the bottle. If this were to be Toddler Moose's Halloween costume I'd likely use stiffener to give it some pop.

To get even more creative, I'd probably give the dino a cute belly, too. I'd use a large oval of felt on the belly of the hoodie. And I'd cut out smaller circles of a coordinating color to glue onto the oval. For the "costume" above I'd probably go with a green belly the same color as the spikes and then use darker green spots. And if it were cute, I might even put a few dark green spots elsewhere on the hoodie. But don't go overboard!

The fabric I used for the tail is felt. It was a random find in the remnants bin at the fabric store. For the purposes of this tutorial, it worked perfectly. In real life I'd likely use felt or fleece. Canvas or something like it would be too stiff. The cottons and other light fabrics would be too light. Play it by ear. You can always make it better with fabric stiffener. That stuff's awesome.

You can do it, Risa! I'll be needing pics of Toddler Wild all dino'd out.