DIY Cat Costume From Old Clothes

My favorite animal is the cat, but I have never been able to find a cat costume I liked, so I created one mostly from scrap material. We had a bunch of old clothes that either my sister and I didn't fit or didn't want. I wanted my cat costume to be black, but we didn't have many black clothes, so I worked with what we had. I hope you find this instructable helpful and can find ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle worn out everyday items.

Step 1: Gathering Your Materials

These are the materials I used, so some of them, such as the purple stretch pants, don't really do much except fit my needs.

Materials:

• A dress with a black top
• Black and silver skirts
• Small black pants
• Sparkly stretch pants
• Old purple stretch pants
• Headband
• Black and pink/silver/gold fabric
• Fabric scissors
• Needle and thread or sewing machine
• Fabric Glue
• Copper Wire
• Stuffing
• Cardboard

Step 2: Start the Dress

First, carefully cut the fabric you don't want to be part of the dress away; in my case the black sparkly top and the pink skirt. If you cut away the part with the tag, just take a sharpie and mark the back of the top. You don't have to worry too much about leaving behind some of the fabric because the next step is to sew the skirts over the underskirt or to the top. You could even just start with a black tank top and sew skirts to it.

Step 3: Sewing Your Dress

Sew the skirts onto the top in any order, overlapping them so the waistband doesn't show. Add any extra details to the top or skirts to fit your needs. You may want to put a pair of leggings underneath; I used a pair that I never wore. I hadn't worn them was because the waistband was made out of material with sparkles on it, making it itchy. I solved that problem by taking a strip of fabric from the purple stretchy pants and sewing it onto the inside of the waistband.

Step 4: Creating a Tail

For the tail I used a leg of the too-small black stretchy pants, but fuzzy black fabric would work better. I just turned one pant leg inside out and sewed along the outline I drew, leaving it open on one side to stuff it. Depending on the size of the fabric you use, draw your outline as necessary. I used the whole pant leg, but the outline should be about 22 inches long. Once you sew the shape, stuff it and add a copper wire in the middle if you want to bend your tail. I found a braided, doubled copper wire that was laying around as scrap, just the right length for my tail. You can use a safety pin to attach the tail to the dress, or just sew it.

Step 5: Cat Ears Headband

Finally, the finishing touch to the outfit, the cat ears headband. Just take an old headband and cut out four equally sized triangles from black fabric or two from doubled up fabric. I cut out two triangles from the pant scraps I used for the tail. Sew your ears, leaving the bottom open to allow you to insert a cardboard triangle slightly smaller than your ear. Next, cut out two smaller triangles from pink, sliver, or gold fabric for the inside of the ears; I used the pink fabric I cut off from the original dress. Glue one in the middle of each ear using fabric glue. Finally, cover your headband with black fabric and sew or glue on your ears. Your costume is complete! Remember that you can make any kind of dress; different sizes, different colors, and different purposes using this instructable. Have fun!!