How to Make a Calvin and Hobbes Costume. Hobbes Edition!

Yesterday I shared my simple Calvin costume.  It was seriously so easy to make.

But today, we're talking all about Hobbes-- not quite so easy.

These looks come from our costumes we wore last year for Halloween, check out the full post here. .

I wouldn't say this costume was terribly complicated.  But I would say it was very time intensive.

And to be honest when I'm working on big project, the creative juices are going and it's really hard for me to stop and take some photos.  During, I never want to stop.  Afterwards, when I'm removed from the project, I always think, "Oh, I wish I had taken more pictures so I could share my process."

But here's an idea of what I did.

I purchased four things: 

orange fleece

cream fleece

black fabric paint

white fur

Had:

velcro

sewing notions

stuffing

To make the head of my Hobbes, I used this sweatshirt pattern from Peek-a-boo patterns to use the hood for the head, then extended the body of the sweatshirt to make it like a body suit. I made sure to drop the waist real low to make that long tummy that Hobbes has.  I wanted it to hit right below the knees, ha!

I cut down the front piece so I could attach the white fur (just sewn on top of the orange fleece, in place) and used Velcro to keep it closed when being worn. 

Then I cut out pieces to attach, including the ears, tail pieces, and the little foot covers which would go over the shoes. 

I sewed everything together with just simple straight stitches, since fleece doesn't fray.  I cut holes in the fabrics and attached the ears and tail.  The tail was very lightly stuffed with cotton.

Once I was done sewing, everything looked like this!

I was so thrilled it was coming together like I had dreamed.

Next I needed to paint all those black lines on.  I looked a pictures of Hobbes often to make sure I was being true to his look.

Then I got painting.  I was surprised how quickly the fleece sucked up the paint.  I ended up buying three or four bottles and the stripes usually needed two layers each!  Painting on the stripes was a big job and took me two or three days to paint and let dry.

Hobbes turned out great!  And my daughter was SUPER thrilled to be Hobbes for Halloween.