Adelie Penguin Costume

Penguins are cute, exotic and make us laugh with their funny expressions. What a perfect idea for a Halloween costume! The featured costume is an Adelie penguin, chosen from a library book for the simple lines and basic black and white colors. Look in the fabric  remnant bin for black and white fleece, a sturdy fabric crafters love because the cut edges do not need to be finished. The fleece for this Halloween costume cost less than $3.00 and creating the costume took about 2 hours.

Start with a black hooded sweatshirt. This will keep you warm and cozy for chilly trick or treating and you can wear it as a jacket after the events or re-use it next year as the base for another Halloween costume.

Cut out the white breast of the penguin. The bottom of the fabric falls below the hem of the sweatshirt to knee height of the child.

Use a basic whip-stitch and hand-sew the fabric to the sweatshirt on the sides of the scoop neck. Do not sew the scoop neck to allow unzipping the sweatshirt enough to pull over the head.  Sewing with a whipstitch instead of a machine makes it easy to remove the elements from the sweatshirt later.

Cut out the tail. Measure the black fleece lenght so it will fall almost to the floor. The top will attach to the back of the sweatshirt. Cut a few points to represent tail feathers.

Hand-sew the tail piece to the back of the sweatshirt. Attach it on the inside for a smooth finished look.

Cut out eyes for your penguin costume. Sew the black dot onto the larger white dot and attach to the sides of the hooded sweatshirt. 

Consult a book for the bill shape. The Adelie penguin has a very simple bill. Use a sewing machine to stitch the edges, leaving the top open. Turn it inside out and stuff with fleece scraps.

Hand-sew the bill to the front top of the hooded sweatshirt. 

Attach a bit of gold colored ribbon or yarn to detail the bill. Your penguin costume is ready to go. Trick or Treat!

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All images and content original works of kittycooks. Copyright 2011