Coolest Do it Yourself Raccoon Halloween Costume

This year we decided to dress our boys up as raccoons for Halloween. So, first task in creating the do it yourself Raccoon Halloween costume was to search the internet and collect photos of raccoons to design a costume from. Everyone knows a raccoon has a striped tail and a mask, but I just wanted a little more detailed idea of the face.

I used black and grey fleece for the bodies. I did not have a pattern, so I simply took a pair of pants and a shirt my boys already had, and used those to create a pattern for the body. The tail was just strips of black and grey fleece sewn together, cut into a triangle, folded in half the long way and sewn together and stuffed. I stitched the ‘body’ end of the tail together leaving opening on both ends to slide a belt through so the tail could simply be belted on, and then removed easily if needed. I dipped a simple cleaning rag in white fabric paint and dabbed it on the chest area to add a bit of texture and make it look more like fur.

The face is made out of fun foam. I used the method of ‘trial and error’ to come up with a pattern that would work! I practiced on cardboard shirt boxes until I came up with a pattern for the top part of the mask which covered the face down to the nose. I made it slightly wider than needed, and cut a slit in the top to overlap to give it a more rounded shape. The nose was a half circle a little wider than the top of the face, with a tab on the rounded end slit to allow it to be attached to the top when rolled into a cone.

I used black foam for the top, and white foam for the nose. The nose is hand sewn on, and then glued. The top slit between the ears is stapled, then glued. For the tip of the nose, I cut a circle of black fleece, and pushed it through the opening in the cone, and then pushed a small bit of stuffing in it. I added a bit of glue to hold it in place. I hand painted the face using white and grey fabric paint, and a black permanent marker.

To hold the mask on, I used black 1inch wide elastic. I stapled one end near the inside of one eye, then measured it around my son’s head for fit before stapling the other end. I use small pieces of iron on black denim patches over the staples on the inside to keep them from rubbing on skin, and colored the staples on the outside with black marker. I purchased some black stretch gloves to go along with the do it yourself Raccoon Halloween costumes.

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