I designed a pair of Loki horns for my dog earlier this year (you can see the tutorial and template here).

So for Halloween, I decided to GO ALL THE WAY with the "Loki for President" cosplay-- except since it's for my dog it's "Loki for "PAW"SIDENT!🤣

To my surprise, it was difficult to find a suit for a dog with false arms in the front (which is the most adorable type of dog costume) so instead of modifying an existing costume, I had to make the whole thing from scratch. Here's how I did it!

To see what I'm making next, follow my design process on Instagram and my build videos and tutorials on YouTube. I'm always posting what's new to my blog too: www.TechnoChic.net See you there!

Supplies

Dog Costume Supplies:

Fleece Dog Coat (to use as the base of the costume) My dog is 10 lbs and we got a medium.
Extra fleece to make the faux arms
PolyFill for the arms
Tie Clip and Horns are made from EVA Foam and Gold Acrylic Paint
I found the suit and tie fabric at Joann's and everything else was scraps.

Hats & Button Supplies:

Red White and Blue Trucker Hats
DIY Buttons *No button maker required!
Iron-On Vinyl Pack (the red and blue matched the hat color nicely!)

I've included links- some from Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission on purchases made through the links above, and that helps me make more tutorials like this. Thank you!

Step 1: Research & Sketch

To begin, I gathered images from the "Loki for President" character on Pinterest. Luckily, someone had pinned a few "behind the scenes" images of the production so I could see the full costume in one frame. I imported the two best images into Procreate along with a photo of my dog taken directly from the front so that I could work out the proportions. Obviously, my dog is well, dog shaped, and even his front isn't as as slender as Tom Hiddleston, so I needed to make decisions about the placement and size of the fake shoulders illusion, and sketching helped tremendously.

Step 2: Draw It Out

Now that I had my proportions, I drew the suit and vest to scale and held it up to my pup. I made a few corrections to the length of the vest and jacket here before moving forward.

Step 3: Make Fake Arms

I used a piece of armature wire and bent it into a shape so that it would go inside the arms and around the front of the neck.
Then, I made little arms from black felt and stuffed them with poly fill.
I used some leftover packing foam and duct tape to make the shoulders.
Then, I sewed the wire to the front of the fleece coat with black thread to keep it secure and in place.

Step 4: Sew the Dog Suit Jacket

I made the tiny sleeves a bit larger than the arms I created to give them some slack.
I made two side panels and a really large back so that I could hem it to size later.

Step 5: Make the Dog Suit Pants

I used the fleece coat as a guide to creating the hole sizes and the pattern for the pants.
I tried on one leg to test the size before sewing on the other leg.
I hemmed them to the correct length.

Step 6: Hem the Jacket

With the pants on, I hemmed the back of the jacket to overlap the pants slightly, giving the illusion that that is where the body stops.
The coat covers the rest of his back and is meant to be ignored, just like a puppeteer would wear black gloves to separate their hands from a puppet's features.

Step 7: Add the Suit Collar

To get the proportions to look right, I made the top of the collar much longer than the original sketch.
This is where the costume started to become more of an imitation than an actual garment!
I made the collar and lapel pieces from cardstock and glued the fabric around. Wrapping the pieces around the edge gave the illusion of a single piece of fabric but removed the need for cleaver tailoring.

Step 8: Add the White Collared Shirt

I made the collared shirt from an old tablecloth
I cut a rectangle to fit over the front of the costume and over the neck opening
I cut two triangles to look like the folded collar and covered them with fabric then sewed them on.
I sewed the whole assembly inside the suit jacket.

Step 9: Create Loki's Green Vest

To make the vest, I cut pieces out of green paper that would start at the front and wrap around the neck slightly.
I covered the paper in green fabric, but unlike the lapel and collar, I allowed the fabric to buckle and bloat so that the vest would look more textured and unkept.
I sewed the two halves together where the faux buttons were to go.

Step 10: Try It On!

That dog is looking dapper. Onward!

Step 11: Distress the Vest

I glued sequins to use as the base for the buttons
I used my seam ripper to texture the fabric
I added some paint to make it look dirty

Step 12: Add Faux Hands to the Arms

To make the hands, I cut circles from some scraps of faux fur and sewed them inside the suit.
I trimmed the fur to make it more "paw-like".

Step 13: Create Loki's Tie Print

The tie fabric was a basketweave pattern, so I needed to make something that looked like it. I decided to simplify it to more of a "brick" pattern and painted that onto the same fabric as the vest.
After the paint dried, I covered the pattern in sharpie - this gave it a nice effect as the paint prevented more or less of the sharpie ink to bleed through and created a nice texture.

Step 14: Create Loki's Tie

To create the tie, I cut shapes from cardstock and glued the tie fabric around them.
I glued the fabric-covered paper around a piece of craft foam and wrapped the edges around it to make it 3D.
I created a tube of fabric to wrap inside the collar and hot glued all the pieces together.

Step 15: Make Loki's Gold Tie Bar

I made the tie bar from a piece of craft foam.
I used a pen to impress the line details and then painted it gold.

Step 16: Add Rips and Tears to Loki's Suit

Loki's presidential suit had rips in the right shoulder, left wrist, and left leg.
I mimicked this by cutting small holes and adding some scraps of fabric that I painted with brown and black paint.
I frayed the suit fabric a bit as well to make it look tattered.

Step 17: Distress Everything!

I used my seam ripper and paint to distress the rest of the suit.

A few other details to note:

In these photos, you can see the tiny buttons that I made. I added a drop of Mod Podge's Dimensional Magic to each sequin and let it dry for about 10 min until the outer edges of the drop were cured. Then, I used the rounded edge of a paintbrush to impress the center of the drops to make them more button-shaped, and finished them with some paint.

One more detail: in the last photo, you can see how I created the velcro closure on the pants.

Step 18: Make the Loki for "PAW"SIDENT SWAG!

To complete the look, he needed a "Loki for President" button! But he's not Loki for President, he's Loki for "Paw"sident, so I updated the design.
I swapped the words and upgraded the graphic from stars to paws for adorable reasons. Give him a round of a-paws!

Step 19: Make the Loki for "PAW"SIDENT Button

To create the button, I upcycled a button that I picked up at a Maker Faire years ago - It was a perfect size.
I printed the button design and cut it out.
I added clear packing tape over the print and wrapped it around the button, cutting many slits around the circle to make the tape wrap around the edges. This gave it the shine that buttons are known for.

Step 20: Costume Pieces Complete!

Costume complete! Now, this Loki Variant needs some horns!

Step 21: Time to Add the Loki Horns

I used the original pair of horns that I made earlier this year. You can find the template and tutorial to make them here.

Step 22: Canvassers Swag: Hats

I used my Cricut Maker to cut the hat design from heat transfer vinyl and ironed it to the hats.

Step 23: Canvassers Swag: More Buttons & Clip Boards

I printed the designs larger and glued them to the back of the clipboards so that we could ask for "signatures"
I made a tiny button for my Loki alligator, which we found on Etsy here
I made human-sized buttons by printing and cutting out the design and then placing them inside the button kits.

Step 24: Run for "PAW"SIDENT

When I started making this dog costume, several friends told me to enter the Fort Grene Pups Costume Contest and unfortunately, we didn't sign up in time to get a competition spot. But how appropriate! We needed to run a write-in campaign for Loki! Haha. Perfect. We still went to the event and had an amazing time seeing all the adorable dog costumes!

Step 25: Rule the Free World

He's a winner in our hearts. 🥰

Thanks for reading!