Rooooaaar!

I made the executive decision yesterday that Henry was going to be a lion for Halloween. I don't care if it's overdone and I don't care if it's cliche; I figured this will probably be the last year that I get to make the decision on what he gets to be. From here on out, I'm sure he'll have an opinion (and that's fine, he should) but for this year, he's all mine and this is what mama wanted so this is what mama is gonna get.

I made it all in one day. (I may have been overly excited to finish it and see how it turned out.) Either way, it turned out GREAT and I can't wait to show it off when we go trick-or-treating this year. I figure I'll match the hat, tail and foot collars with a beige shirt and pants. No need to go toooo overboard. (I mean really, I think that hat is enough. No?)

Lion's Costume

It's really not that hard to make either, I made a simple crochet hat with ears, earflaps and braids. 

There are plenty of free patterns for such - just Google it!

From there you add the fuzz that make your hat fantastic. 

Starting at the bottom of the earflaps, I attached my yarn, holding two different colors together. I single crocheted over each previous stitch on the earflaps until the entire earflap was covered. For the main part of the hat, I attached my yarn, still holding the two colors together. Then 'chain 4,sc' all the way across and up several rows until you have a mane as thick as you'd like. Chaining throughout the top part of the hat really added an extra fuzz that I loved.

I attached my ears after I crocheted the mane because I wanted them placed in the middle of two rows of fuzz. Also, when I braided the sides, I added a few strands of the fuzzy yarn to make it fuzzy too.

The tail was super easy.

Chain 3, slip stitch to join.

"dc in each sc around, slip stitch to join each round"

" " repeat this until you have the length that you'd like of the tail

When you've reached the length that you'd like, chain off of your last stitch until you reach the length that you need to go around the waist of whoever will be wearing your costume. When you reach the last chain, leave your end in a loop, pull a little extra yarn so that the loop is a little bigger and then tie a knot (or two, or three) so that it won't come undone or unraveled. Then sew a button onto the top of the tail, this way you can just slip the chain around and button it in the back - easy on and easy off.

To make it fuzzy, do the same as you did to the hat. Attach your yarn, holding both colors together and chain 4, sc all the way around and up as far as you'd like. 

For the cuffs (I just made ankle cuffs, but you could make wrist cuffs too and it would be super cute.) I just chained as long as I needed for it to fit around my son's ankle's, then slip stitched to join the chains, then I dc in each chain and slip stitched to join. You don't need these to be very thick. I then just added the fuzz the same way I did the others, only I only chained 3 this time.

There you go! Homemade lion costume! I really did this in about 18 hours, crocheting on and off. It's not that hard and the end result is just gorgeous! Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try my best to answer them!