March in like a Lion

First I should tell you all why I haven't posted on this blog in so long. I haven't had much time to sew or do crafts. I am pregnant again and I have had a lot of morning sickness over the last month or two. I am going to try to add something on this blog every week. I hope my family gives me free time to do this.

I am going to share a lion costume I made up for my children I am happy I took pictures as I created it because I am happy with how it turned out. My children are not thrilled with it but maybe in a few days it will look more like fun.

Materials
3 sheets of tan felt (I used a large piece of felt about the same size) for hood and ears.

2 sheets of darker felt for the mane and center of ear.

Velcro dots.

I am sorry to say that I wasn't exact in my measuring so you might need a bit more of felt than I wrote. To be honest I didn't think it would turn out. I made it up as I went along.


I had some felt in a box of fabric. One is tan and the other is shades of brown. They are not my first pick for lion colors but because I already had them I decided to use them.

This is the tan hood folded in half. It is about an inch wider and longer than a small felt sheet. It turned out VERY large (fits me and I still have extra room). I think 2 felt sheets would work just as well. I rounded the one end so the back of the head wouldn't have a huge point.

I stitched up around the rounded edge ONLY the back to form a hood.This is the hood turned right side out. It is open at the bottom and front.

For ears I thought circles would work best. I reached for the first circle shape I could find. I used the large end (top) of the cup for the outside of the ear and the small end (bottom of cup) to make the inside of the ear. I left a tab at the bottom of the cream felt to attach the ear. Cut 2 outsides and 2 insides.
This shows my pencil marks and how I cut it. I left a bit of a tab at the bottom.

This shows the small circles on the inside.


To attach the ear I folded the ear in half lining up the flat bottoms. I then folded the flat part under about 1 cm. This makes the ear stand up.

I stitched it on just a inch or so to attach it to the hood. If you look in the picture above my finger is holding the spot I stitched.


One ear done!

This is how I lined the second one up so it was even on both sides.

This is the hood open with ears standing up.


The mane is just a strip of felt about 3 inches wide. I did use 2 strips but it would have worked with just one.

I cut fringe to make the mane and attached it to the hood. I left 1inch from the end ONLY because I thought I was going to need elastic to pull it around the face but I didn't need elastic in the end so this inch isn't needed!

Another picture of it.

I then turned the edge of the fringe under (stitching to the inside the hood) and it popped into a lion! I was very happy! Many of my ideas don't turn out.

This is a side view.
I added Velcro dots to close the hood.


This is my son NOT happy about having to put on the silly lion costume!

This is a picture showing how half of the hood is about the size of a felt sheet.

If this is hard to understand feel free to email me at schoolnsuch@aol.com

I hope to make a few more and I will try to remember to draw a pattern out for you to print out. I can't promise when I will get that done I am always short on time.