Our daughter was recently cast as a lion for a church musical production. Together she and I shopped, planned, and made her lion costume. It was super simple and ended up very cute too.
Supplies
- T-shirt
- Brown leggings or pants
- Brown or tan felt in multiple shades
- Pink felt
- Headband
- Hot glue
- Scissors
Lion Mane Headpiece
I found a super simple tutorial to make a lion mane headpiece while searching Pinterest one afternoon. After reading the instructions, we went shopping for supplies.
The felt sheets we purchased from a local craft store. For the headband, we went to the Dollar Tree. I had planned on finding a plain one, but this fabric one was close in color to our project so I selected it instead. With a couple of quick snips at the bottom, the outer striped fabric peeled right off leaving a solid colored silky fabric to build our mane off of.
Next I followed the instructions here to create the mane using felt and a hot glue gun. I colored the edges of the ears with a permanent brown marker to help them stand out a little.
Completing the Lion Costume
While at the craft store selecting fabric, we also picked out a plain t-shirt to use for the costume. My daughter gravitated toward the softer Bella Canvas shirts versus the others. I get it – they are my preferred too. Since the smallest size a nice mustard yellow color came in was Adult Small, that’s the one we purchased.
I created a tail using more felt and attached it to the shirt with safety pin. (Tip: I added a little piece of stabilizer under the shirt to help secure the safety pin better and prevent any tears in the fabric.) A pair of brown leggings finished off her outfit.
At church, a fellow member added a little face paint to those who needed/wanted some. That mean a cute nose and some whiskers for our little lion.
Looking for more simple DIY costume ideas? Find all of our creations here. From book characters to family themes, we have something for everyone.
