|
Children's Animal CostumesDress your cutie as Winnie the Pooh! Or, a Care Bear! Or a bunny, bear, dog or kitty cat!
For this Halloween or other upcoming family-friendly activity calling for costumes, what could be more adorable than a children's animal costume?By the time most kids hit the "tween" age, they'll sometimes think that they're "too old" to dress up in a bunny suit. (In fact, whether you decide to sew or buy your child's animal costume, it's MUCH easier to find baby, toddler and pre-schooler sizes for animal costumes than it is to find them for older kids and/or adults.) No problem! Little kids look so adorable in animal costumes, that we can get them several! On this page, we'll talk about what types of animal costumes are available to purchase at your local costume store or on-line, as well as the sewing patterns available for this exciting project. We'll also mention "Halloween pumpkin" costumes (Jack O Lantern costumes,) since they're also warm & snuggly like an animal costume...and are quite popular. Types of Halloween animal costumes
There are a number of different types of children's animal costumes available, and we'll talk about each kind:1.) Heavy full-body suit: This is what comes into my mind, personally, when I think of a kid's animal costume. These full-body costumes cover the child from neck to foot with some type of furry or fuzzy material...and usually, they have an attached hood, as well. They may have tails or ears...depending on the particular animal they represent...and usually have a long zipper for getting in and out of the suit. 2.) Flannel full-body suit: These "pajama" style animal costumes serve double-purpose. On Halloween night, they make fine costumes...as long as the weather isn't freezing cold. (Southern California's many micro-climates mean that there isn't just ONE temperature on Halloween night, but many...depending on the exact area you're located!) Sometimes you'll find these costumes sold in the regular clothing departments of stores like Target or Walmart...and you might not find them at all in a costume store. 
3.) Partial-body suit: These animal costumes aren't quite as cute as a full-body suit, but are much more comfortable being worn in the regions of Southern California (and other states) where it's still warm on Halloween night. These partial-body costumes...which slip on over the child's other clothing, and leave the arms and legs free to move about without restrictions...make ideal additions to a child's toy box or dress-up chest during the rest of the year.4.) Baby-only costumes (without legs): There are some "baby bunting" style costumes made in which the infants feet stay enclosed in a sack-like pouch (rather than being put into individual legs of the garment.) The "plus" side to these baby costumes is that they're very warm. Another plus is that styles can be made which look much better without legs---the popular infant's "peas in a pod" costume or the baby's "banana" costume are two styles you may have already seen if you've been costume-hunting. If you're buying your child's animal costume this Halloween, you'll notice all of these types of costumes as you shop. But, if you'll be sewing a kiddie animal suit, most patterns do feature the traditional full-body style of costume. Halloween animal costumes for kids--Where to BuyDuring the Halloween season, it's easy to purchase an animal costume for kids---they're "everywhere." Walmart and Target are two discounters which feature children's animal costumes every October, and many other stores (party supply shops, grocery stores, drug stores) are likely to have at least a small selection.Naturally, year-round costume stores will be most likely to have the best selection of children's animal costumes...plus, you'll be able to buy them any time you want for the dress-up box, masquerade parties, school plays & pageants, etc. On this website, there are a number of pages devoted to helping you find a costume store in Southern California (most offer costumes only seasonally, however.) These pages are: 1.) Party America ***To see a listing of costume stores in other locations besides Southern California, see the following pages of sister website www.HaveFunInTheSouthwest.com--- Arizona costume stores: Arizona costume & party stores Costume search box:If you know that you DON'T want to sew the animal costume, but you're having trouble finding the particular animal costume you want locally, you may use the following search box to check what's available online at BuyCostumes.com---one of the internet's largest costume companies, with thousands of costumes in their warehouse: Animal costumes available at BuyCostumes.com include: bear, bunny rabbit, Care Bears, chicken, Cookie Monster, bumble bee, dinosaur, dragon, duck, elephant, Elmo, giraffe, gorilla, kitty cat, lady bug, lamb, lemur, lion, meerkat, monkey, otter, panda bear, penguin, Pooh bear, shark, skunk, tiger, zebra, etc. The availability of sizes depend on which particular animal you're seeking. Some are available in only baby and/or child sizes, while others are available in men's and women's sizes, as well. Some animal costumes are even available for pets; how would your pooch like to dress as a bumble bee? Some animal costumes are available only in non-professional quality, meant to be used for Halloween, costume parties & play time; others are also available in professional quality & are meant for use as school mascot costumes. Sewing a child's animal costumeOverview of sewing patterns availableThe BAD news: There have never been fewer costume patterns available for LICENSED character animals! You won't be finding Sesame Street character patterns this year. If your child wants to "be" Elmo, Cookie Monster or Oscar the Grouch, you'll just have to get creative with an available animal. The same thing can be said for Winnie the Pooh storybook animals. No need to look around for Eeyore, Piglet or even Pooh Bear himself...because the patterns just aren't in the books. Vintage patterns are available for both Winnie the Pooh and Sesame Street characters, if you're lucky enough to be searching at a time when someone is selling one of them. Nor are there any Care Bear patterns in this year's costume sections. You'll need to either purchase a Care Bear costume, or else adapt an existing kid's animal costume pattern to look like the particular Care Bear that you have in mind. Children's Animal Costume IndexSelect your favorite animal...find what pattern number you'll need!
BEAR COSTUMES FOR KIDS: 1.) McCalls M8953; all sizes from Child 3 to adult; includes hood with ears; tail; mittens and shoe covers.2.) Butterick pattern #B3238--- Children's sizes 2 trhru 8. Detachable hood with bear ears; one-piece jumpsuit. Separate mittens and shoe covers. 3.) Burda children's bear costume #4946--- One-piece jumpsuit with little bear tail. Attatched hood with bear-style ears. Clown suit in same pattern package. 4.) Burda Bear Costume Pattern #2789--- One-piece jumpsuit with attached hood. 5.) Simplicity bear costume #2855--- Here's a good pattern whose sizes can accommodate older kids as well as toddlers; the range of sizes runs from Children's 2 thru 16. The pattern calls for making a one-piece jumpsuit, separate hood, mittens to cover the hands and strap-on boot covers for the feet. BIRD COSTUMES FOR KIDS: 1.) Simplicity child's bird costume pattern #3663--- Your young child (sizes fit approximately ages 3 thru 8) can dress as a lively-colored toucan, macaw, flamingo or parrot this Halloween or Carnival/Carnaval! Two styles of bird costumes come in this one package: one is a full jumpsuit, and the other is a "top" which is worn over the child's own pair of pants. The jumpsuit style includes tail feathers. A separate hood includes the bird's beak and facial features. No slippers are included, nor are mittens. However, the costume does drape to cover the hands. BUMBLE BEE COSTUMES: 1.) Simplicity baby pattern #3558--- Sizes for babies only; bunting-style Halloween costume features black and yellow striped bumble bee suit with separate hat & feelers. Several other costumes come in this package, including a Halloween pumpkin and a Santa suit. BUNNY RABBIT COSTUMES: 1.) McCalls M8953; all sizes from Child 3 to adult; includes hood with ears; tail; mittens and shoe covers CAT COSTUMES: 1.) McCalls M8953; all sizes from Child 3 to adult; includes hood with ears; tail; mittens and shoe covers CHICKEN COSTUMES: 1.) Burda costume pattern #2425--- one-piece jumpsuit with tail. Attatched hood has beak and comb. COW COSTUMES: There is no specific cow costume pattern being sold by the major companies right now. Use a "general" jumpsuit pattern, selecting "cow pattern" fabric, if available.
DRAGON & DINOSAUR COSTUMES: 1.) McCall's pattern #M2335; children's sizes from Sml to Xlg (child's approximate age 2 through age 8.) Pattern comes with spines down the entire back, so this costume has a front enclosure covered by a decorative flap. Shoe covers are built into the suit and are not detachable. Spine-covered hood and dinosaur/dragon mittens are included as separate pieces. DUCK COSTUMES: 1.) Simplicity pattern #3596; Baby & toddler-only (through children's size 4) Full body suit with tie closure. Separate hood with beak; separate duck slippers. ELEPHANT COSTUMES: 1.) McCall's pattern #M8938; Tom Arma designer animal costume for babies & toddlers thru size 4; includes full-body suit with feet enclosed; hood with ears and elephant's trunk & tusks. FISH COSTUMES: 1.) Burda costume pattern #2436--- Makes either a shark or a clownfish (a la Disney's Nemo fish.) One piece jumpsuit with attached hood includes pattern for fins, eyes and sharp teeth (for shark.) FROG COSTUMES: 1.) Simplicity pattern # 3594; sizes for babies through Child's 4. Body suit; detached hood with crown (apparantly, he's a "frog prince!") Separate frog slippers. GIRAFFE COSTUMES: 1.) Burda sewing pattern #2790--- A striking giraffe pattern which includes instructions for a giraffe neck and head (which is carried like a back pack.) Shirt, pants and detached hood. GORILLA COSTUMES: 1.) Simplicity Gorilla Costume, pattern 2855; This one-piece jumpsuit with detachable hood fits kids age 2 - 16, depending on the size pattern you buy. Boot covers and mittens complete the costume. Furry fabric is suggested for the most "gorilla-like" looking costume. 
LION COSTUMES: 1.)McCalls M8953; all sizes from Child 3 to adult; includes hood with ears & mane; tail; mittens and shoe covers2.) McCall's pattern #M8938; Tom Arma designer animal costume for babies & toddlers thru size 4; includes full-body suit with feet enclosed; hood with ears and mane; and tail. 3.) Simplicity pattern # 3594; sizes for babies through Child's 4. Body suit comes with tail; detached hood with full mane (around the whole head, not just framing the face.) Separate lion slippers. 4.) Butterick pattern #B3238--- Children's sizes 2 trhru 8. Detachable hood with mane; jumpsuit with lion's tail and fringe at bottom of legs. Separate mittens and shoe covers. 5.) Simplicity costume pattern #2855--- This lion costume pattern fits kids between the approximate ages of 2 and 16. The one-piece suit is adorned with fringe at the neckline (tied on separately) to simulate the lion's mane. Other pieces are the separate hood, mittens and shoe covers. MONKEY COSTUMES: 1.) McCall's pattern #M8938; Tom Arma designer animal costume for babies & toddlers thru size 4; includes full-body suit with feet enclosed; hood with ears; and tail. MOUSE COSTUMES: 1.) Simplicity pattern #3598--- Baby & Toddler pattern (to size 4 kids.) Full body suit with long mouse tail; detachable hood with huge mouse ears and long whiskers; separate animal slippers. PANDA COSTUMES: 1.) McCall's pattern #M8938; Tom Arma designer animal costume for babies & toddlers thru size 4; includes full-body suit with feet enclosed; hood with ears; and tail. PENGUIN COSTUMES: 1.) Simplicity family penguin pattern #3639---This year your group can go to parties dressed as a family of penguins! With sizes from child's extra-small to adult's extra large, this roomy jumpsuit-style outfit is sure to fit nearly everyone. The suit's body comes with a penguin's tail. The separate hood includes a beak; and separate slippers complete the "look" & keep your shoes from showing! PUMPKIN COSTUMES: 1.) Simplicity baby pattern #3558--- Sizes for babies only; bunting-style Halloween costume features smiling Jack O Lantern face on the front of the suit. A separate pumpkin hat features leaves & stem. SPIDER COSTUMES: 1.) Simplicity costume # 3593; this unusually-sized costume pattern says it fits "adult/child s-m-l." You'll make a blousy spider "top" to wear over your own clothing underneath. Instructions call for you to use black fabric and add white facial markings. Tiger costume: see cat ZEBRA COSTUMES: Burda sewing pattern #2790--- Outfit includes pants, shirt and detached hood. Instructions for adding fringe to resemble mane. Links to major pattern companies---After you've found which companies you'd like most to check for the type of pattern you want, you can use the following links to reach their official websites easily:1.) Simplicity: www.Simplicity.com 2.) McCall's: www.McCallPattern.com 3.) Butterick: www.Butterick.com 4.) Burda: www.BurdaMode.com Burda European patterns may often be bought on Ebay. Pictures of cute baby and toddler costumesWould seeing photos of some cute babies and toddlers in their Halloween costumes help you get some ideas? In the Google widget to your left, you can see photos which "real people" have sent in to the Flickr photo sharing website. Many of the costumes shown will be some of the very same costumes which you've thought about while reading this page. Hopefully, by now you've got some ideas brewing! As more people keep uploading kids Halloween costume pictures to Flickr, this widget will update itself and change. Who knows---by the time you next visit this page, you may see an entirely different slide show!
Find cute kids costumes on EBayEbay sells costumes throughout the year...not just at Halloween time. So, you can grab hard-to-find costumes when they become available and save them for your next costume party! Here's a widget showing children's costumes and costume pattens (some of which are out of print at stores!) which are currently up for auction: MORE COSTUME IDEAS! ---> Use the button to your left to discover still MORE Halloween costume ideas on this website! Backwards Links: Family-Vacation-Getaways.com HOME :: Latest News :: Privacy Policy :: Back to top of "Childrens Animal Costumes" Select a different Halloween section page: Halloween Section: Family Halloween Fun, overview :: Costumes: Jack Sparrow, pt 1 :: Captain Jack, pt 2 :: Kids Animal Costumes :: Boys Superheroes :: Clowns :: Disney Princesses :: Pet Costumes :: Pirates/kids :: Witch and Vampire costumes :: Stores: Disney Stores :: Halloween BuildABears :: Party America :: Party City/Los Angeles :: Party City/other So Cal :: Spirit Halloween :: Year-round costume stores :: Activities--Disney: Disneyland Halloween Events :: Woodys Roundup pics :: Haunted Mansion pics :: Haunted Mansion, pt 2 :: Disney Pumpkins :: Disney Candy Corn :: Mickeys Halloween Parade :: Dance w/Disney Characters :: Halloween Disney Characters :: Knotts-- Knott's Halloween Events:: Scary Farm Pics:: Halloween Haunt Pics, pt 2:: Six Flags-- 6 Flags Fright pics :: Magic Mtn pics, pt 2 ::
|
