The Fox That Wore Green Sneakers

I'm excited about this little costume.  I actually have other things I should have been sewing but once I got the idea in my head, I put the other projects on hold.  The project planning is my favorite part of the whole process.

Lately my little guy has been really interested in dressing up, wearing his old Halloween costumes.  I made this Max the Wolf  {Where The Wild Things Are} when he was 18 months.

So it's too small and made out of fleece, so hot for summer play (it snowed all day yesterday, so summer isn't here, but thinking ahead).

He loves the wolf the best mainly because the tail.  So we've been talking about other animals that have tails to make and narrowed it down to fox and skunk, but went with the fox.  I still think a beaver with the big flat latticed tail would be cute too, but the rest of the beaver is kind of blah.  Anyway....

So our little red fox.  I looked at pictures of actual foxes to get ideas, and decided to go with a red fox.

I just used clearance broadcloth fabric I had.  So it should be a lot cooler than fleece for the summer months.

Most of the photos of actual animals showed foxes having black legs and the tips of their ears.  So I got excited thinking I would try to mimic the actual coloring.  I used Rit black dye on the ears, forearms and lower legs of the costume.  After three rounds of the fabric soaking over 30 min each time, I gave up and decided my fabric just didn't have enough natural fiber in it to hold the color to get the ends really black.  But they're darker at least..

He loves the fox and once again, his favorite part is the tail.  He was excited as we were making it, and I let him stuff his tail with the Polyfil.

Foxes do have big ears, but when it was all done, the ears ended up being a little too big I think,

Being a fox didn't hold him back from getting dirty...

or riding his bike, although he did take care to make sure the tail was "up" so it wouldn't drag in the tires.  He was off to check out the neighbor's Hot Wheels motorized fire truck they busted out today.   

This costume was kind of for no reason (I've got big plans for Halloween already brewing), but it was fun to make, mainly because he was so excited and following the process along with me.  It will be sad when he grows up and his mom making him things is lame.  But for now it's kind of magical I think.

If you have a little fox who needs a tail of their own, I just use a pair of footed pajamas for a pattern and a hood from a jacket (you can tell the hood is a little big).