My 16 year old son, Erich, asked me to make him this costume based off of the Invader Zim cartoon. The character is called GIR and one of his disguises is this DOG costume.
To make this costume I started with a pair of solid black sweats. I bought some lime green fleece material and using the sweatshirt as my pattern I sewed the green fabric directly to the seams of the sweatshirt around the arms/shoulders, the shoulder to neck, and around the collar. I left the green fabric loose on the sides and longer than the sweatshirt.
I used the same green fabric to construct GIR’s head. The head was a little tricky to create. I used a 1 pc length of the fabric, a sheet of plastic mesh for some stability and I wrapped the fabric around the mesh and sewed on the 3 open sides to hold mesh in place. I then made a pocket inside the fabric where the top of the head was and stuffed it with batting that is approx 2.5 inches thick to lift the head/hood off my son’s head some and give it some shape.
I then wrapped the mesh panel around the sides and tacked it at the top corners to hold it in place and create the face part of GIR. Then I wrapped the back half of the fabric around the sides towards the front and using an iron on fusible no stitch strip I connected the panels and ironed them closed, thereby making a cylindrical shaped hood/head.
I used a 5 in’ Styrofoam ball, cut in half and rounded off on the flat edges with a knife, to make the eyes. I used black fleece to make the circles behind the Styrofoam eyes and to make the pupils. I have cut-outs for my son to see thru on the inside part of each black part of the eyes, but they do not show up well, which was the intent…to see but not be obvious :O)I used a hot glue gun to attach the pieces to costume.
I used the same black fleece to iron on the “sew” lines on the face, back of head, and the back of shirt pieces. I used a piece of the mesh covered in red fleece to construct the tongue, and I used a hot glue gun to glue into place.
I used plastic mesh covered with batting and black vinyl to construct the tail and ears, using a hot glue gun to glue the layers together and to seal the seams. For the ears I slid them down between the layers of fabric (where I had curved it to shape the cylinder) and I hot glued them into place so they would stand up straight. For the tail I hot glued it to the shirt and tacked the corners with thread to help hold it in place.
To make the “zipper” down the front I used a strip of silver vinyl like trim and I hot glued it down the middle and used a black marker to draw the zipper teeth on. I cut a small piece of the same material and made a “zipper pull” out of it.
My son wore a pair of black fleece gloves to complete the costume.
Overall, this costume took me 3 nights and about 15 hours to complete. I made it from scratch (no patterns, just a visual from a picture of GIR) and only cost me $30-$35 including the sweats.
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I was wondering do you sell girl hoodies and if so do you post to Ireland. The hoodie looks cool and looks well made. thank you for your time
That’s super cool I’m gonna make one for my friend’s birthday party. I’m gonna dress up as gir because your supposed to dress up as your favorite t.v. star
that looks fantastic!!! Well done!!!
Good job! I would put squeakers on the bottom of my shoes so it would make that sound when I walked.
I would like to buy your costume for 40 dollars please.
that’s so cute, i like it! And it took us to make 3 days and 15 hours. My mama said she is going to try to make the GIR costume and i realy like it its so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GIR is so cute, i like the costume its cute to.
this is a really good costume!!
Thanks for all the positive comments! My son is a big guy at 6’10” and it is impossible to find ready made costumes for him (besides them being boring also LOL) I will see if he is willing to part with GIR if anyone is interested in buying the costume. It would include the headpiece and sweatshirt (2XL) only though, no sweatpants.
I’ve been looking for a girl costume for my daughter, she’s seven months old, i think ill have to make it from scratch like u did
Hi,
My 12yr old daughter wants to be gir for Halloween. the costume you made is amazing! Any chance I could pay you to make a gir costume for my daughter if I provided her measurements? Please let me know. Thank you very much for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Katey
Sorry to have to retract my offer to sell GIR…..I spoke to my son and he said “What…no way!!” LOL
Katey- As much as I would love to make your daughter a costume, unfortunately I just don’t have the time right now :( Between a fully loaded work schedule and 3 costumes already in progress my hands are pretty full. I’m sorry
you would be willing to make another one. my 10 year old daughter wants to be him for Halloween. I would pay you for your time and materials and shipping cost.
Hey man my name is mark, im from San Diego i wanted to know if you sell those?
Devon,
Thanks for getting back to me. As it stands I’m going to try and follow the directions/instructions you posted on the site & see if I can make her one. I haven’t sewn anything in quite a long time so keeping my fingers crossed :) Thanks again for your time & HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Katey
hello my name is Anthony, an i was wondering if you made these costumes still? cause i might be interested in buyin one? juz name your price! please message me back at
thank you!
Thats really cool i wanna dress up like girl for Halloween now!!!!!
After looking everywhere to buy this costume, I ended up following your instructions and making it. I have no talents in this area, but your instructions were SO helpful. My daughter even ended up winning her school costume contest.
The only changes I made was – no sweats – we live in hot Florida – and the green tunic was worn over a black t-shirt.
I am now the queen of hot glue gunning, and I used a little duct tape instead of sewing things. It only took me about 2 nights to make.
Thanks so much! Wish I could post a picture to show you.
That is so awesome that your hard work made it possible for your daughter to win the Costume contest!!
I am glad that my instructions were clear enough to help you make your own GIR costume…..reading them back I sometimes wondered LOL.
i just love the costume i might make one for myself(gonna have to make it smaller and use shiny duct tape for zipper parts…. this will be for next Halloween already Templar night
I’m 12 and I love love love gir my mom is making a costume for me but ur costume is cool too and whoever said about putting squeekers in their shoes INGENIOUS as zim would say
Love,
Kelsey
Hi im looking for a girl costume for Halloween and i really like yours….. is there any chance you could make one and send to me?
Cool im gonna be gir for halloween so im ganna make this thanks for instructions!
Your Gir costume looks awesome! What about a Zim costume? ZIM ROCKS!!! FOREVER!!!
Hi um I know this is in such short notice and its almost Halloween but i was wondering if you could make me one, you can name the price. Thanks so much i will give you the measurements and if you can’t well thanks for the idea
Yours truly,
Victor V
totally awesome, mine isn’t turning out that cool, and the hood is hard to make but THANKS! its really helpful!!! :)
SELL THE HOODIES!!
My name is Adam and I was wondering if u could make me one I’m 10 years old.
im going to make that gir costume and i will be awesome!!!