Homemade Halloween: DIY Piglet costume

Last year I was determined from early on that the toddler would go as Piglet for Halloween. The officially licensed retail Piglet costumes sell for over $30, and there was no way I spending that much money (yes, I'm cheap) for what amounted to a photo op since she was still too young to trick or treat.

Plus, it's more fun to make these things on your own, right? I mean, right? OK, it's definitely more time-consuming, but I put together what I thought was a pretty darn cute costume for about $8. I needed three things: pink footie pajamas, a striped sleeveless sweater, and Piglet ears on a headband.

I decided to go with Disney's version of the sweater (that is, pink with horizontal stripes) and not the classic E.H. Shepard version (which usually is blue or sage green), just so the costume would be more recognizable.

The pj's and sweater were fairly easy although I did have to make a few thrift store runs throughout October to find pieces I could work with. [Note: thrifting a costume is not a last-minute project in my experience; it takes planning and persistence. I think of it as a treasure hunt!]

Not a great photo, I know. I removed the sleeves from the sweater and used a pink fabric pen to color in the white stripes.

The ears required more work. I started with a $1 pair of bunny ears from the thrift store.

This is a shot of the back; the front of the ears had shiny white polyester "inner ears" for lack of a better term. The ears got their shape from a loop of thin wire. I experimented with trying to pinch the wire into more of a pig shape but finally decided more deconstruction was needed:

1. I used the toddler's Piglet plush toy as my guide and traced one of the ears onto paper to make a template.
2. With a seam ripper I removed the white fabric from the pink "outer ears," exposing the support wires. Using my template as a rough guide, I trimmed the pink fabric leaving about 1/2" all around.
3. With wire clippers, I snipped the support wires where they connected to the headband closer to the center, straightened the wires out, and then snipped the excess so there would be some support going almost to the tip of each ear.
4. I cut 2 ear shapes out of light pink crafting felt backed with fusible web, and cut 2 more ear shapes from hot pink crafting felt about 1/4" smaller also backed by fusible web.
5. I positioned the light pink felt ear shapes with the fusible web facing down on the wrong side of each outer ear, sandwiching the support wires, and fused in place.
6. Then I positioned the hot pink ear shapes in place, and pinched the excess outer ear fabric over the light pink felt and under the edges of the hot pink felt. Once the contours were right and the raw edges were hidden I fused the hot pink felt in place.

Ta-dah!

Piglet ears, front and back.

Trust me when I tell you, the toddler was the cutest darn Piglet you've ever seen. But then again, I am biased.