Original Car Fox Costume from the CARFAX Commercials

I wanted to be a bright, orange fox but needed a twist – so I came up with the Car Fox (from the Car Fax commercials)!  It was so fun to be the Car Fox and have a unique costume that made people snap their fingers and say “haaaah!”

There are 6 parts to the costume – arm cuffs, hood with ears, boot covers, tail, shirt, and pants.

Materials used: 1.5 yd orange fur fabric, 0.5 yd white fur fabric, 12” square of black fur fabric, less than a qtr of pink fuzzy fabric, thick craft foam sheet, fluff, thick elastic, white tee shirt, black sharpie, iron-on letters, jeans.

*Optional – Manic Panic electric lava hair dye (although it turned out red instead of orange – still love it), orange lashes, red lipliner for brows.

The arm cuffs were easy so I started with them first.  This was actually my first time using my sewing machine (I only got 10 months ago for Christmas, lol) so I wanted to ease myself into it.

After that, I worked on the hood.  I measured the hood shape with newspapers (fancy, huh?) to get the length/ fit I wanted.  I used two pieces to make the hood so there is only one seam (less cutting, less sewing, less margin for error).  I sewed it together and cut a little more off the front as needed.  Then I made the ears.  I made a two-tone (orange with black tips) ear with a pink inside.  Any excuse to use pink, right?

I cut up craft foam and put it inside the ear to make it hold its shape.  I sewed the ears onto the hood.

Next up was the boot covers.  I took a couple sheets of notebook paper and wrapped them around my Uggs to make a stencil.  I made sure to note the direction of the fur and then traced, cut, and sewed it all together.  I did orange “feet” with white “toes”.

I was nervous about the tail because it could make or break the costume!  I drew out the shape that I wanted on an old bag and then cut it into sections where the direction changed.  I drew arrows noting where the fur should face, and wrote the color/ order.  I traced the stencils on the fabric, flipped them over and traced again.  I did the same thing with the white pieces, and then laid everything out together to see how my shape was coming.  Sew time!  I sewed the individual sides together first then sewed them both together.  It really helped to pin everything down!

I actually used Christmas “snow” as my stuffing.  I wanted a nice, plump tail so I stuffed a lot of fluff in there.  I sewed the elastic into a loop (2 pcs) with the sewing machine.  Then I put the loops under the extra flaps of fabric on the top of the tail and hand sewed them on.

You wear the tail by looping the elastic over a belt.  I didn’t even put my belt in my pant belt loops because I wanted to re-position the tail all day.  I would slide it to the side every time I got in the car or even while sitting in my chair at work.  BTW – I wore my costume all day to work

Bonus: The tail swung side to side as I walked, like I was wagging it, so I had fun with that all day.

The shirt was probably the easiest part of the costume.  First, I colored in the collar and sleeve rims with black sharpie.  Then I found iron on letters, cut them out, and ironed them onto the shirt.  As my son would say, “Easy peazy macaroni and cheesy!”

Last but not least is the pants.  I found some old pre-baby jeans that barely fit. Literally, I could not even zip them up all the way let alone button them… but I had a belt to cover that.

I cut horizontal lines into the jeans in three areas to make the holes.  Then I washed them and they came out all frayed.  Then I took scraps of my orange fur and hand sewed them to the jeans, on the inside.  I basically sewed all around the edges of the fur fabric (using black thread).  Once it was all in there, I pulled out some fur so it stuck out more.

*The pants, already too small, became a little tighter with the sewn in fur.  I guess it made those parts stiffer and less stretchy.  So when I bent down to put my baby in his car seat, I totally busted one of the seams!  I first fake-destroyed the jeans, then I really destroyed them, lol.  It still looked fine so I didn’t mend it at all, but it was pretty funny.

Hope you liked it!  “Show me the car fax!”

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