For Halloween this year, my kids asked to be dinosaurs. I really wanted to make their costumes this year because I didn’t have time to do it last year. It really bothered me that I wasn’t able to make them last year. I was determined to make them a DIY dinosaur costume this year.

I searched for tutorials online and found several different ideas. After a lot of searching, I chose to follow this tutorial for the jacket and this tutorial for the tail.

I didn’t follow the tail tutorial exactly as written. Rather than sew the spikes into the seam of the tail, I sewed mine down the middle of one of the two pieces. I also didn’t sew each of the spikes. instead, I used a diamond pattern and sewed right down the middle and then glued the spike points together with hot glue. It took some of the effort out of it by not requiring all that spike-sewing.

As for the jacket, I saw a lot of tutorials that cut the jacket down the middle and then sewed the spikes into the jacket. For me, that seemed very complex. Instead, I decided to just sew the attached diamonds down the middle of the jacket. Then I just had to glue the two triangles together to form the spikes.

Believe it or not, these two costumes only took me about 2-3 hours to make. They were very easy to make and my kids love them. Plus, I’m excited that they can wear the jackets and pants long after Halloween is over.

If you’d like to make your own DIY dinosaur costume, these are the steps I took and the items I purchased to make them.

How to Make a DIY Dinosaur Costume

For the DIY Dinosaur Hoodie

Materials:

Hoodie – (my daughter’s, my son’s)
1/2 Yard of Felt
Hot Glue & Glue Gun
Sewing Machine
Thread
Fabric Scissors

Directions:

Use a diamond pattern to create the spikes on the back. I folded the felt in half, placed the folded diamond on the edge of the material and traced around it. I made sure the tips of the triangle touched and traced all the way down the material until I had a long strip. Next, cut out the material and pin to the sweatshirt. The middle of the diamonds should be pinned down the middle of the hood and the middle of the back of the hoodie. Once it is pinned in place, sew the diamonds down the middle until they are firmly attached to the hoodie. To finish, glue the points of the spikes together to create the triangle shapes all the way down the hoodie.

For the DIY Dinosaur Tail

Materials:

1/2 Yard of Felt (matching the base color of the costume)
Leftover Colored Felt from the Hoodie to Make the Spikes
(everything else from above)
Stuffing/Batting for the Tail
Self-adhesive Velcro Strips

Directions:

Just like for the hoodie, trace the triangles with the folded felt to make the diamonds for the spikes. Once you have the diamonds cut out, follow these directions to create the dinosaur tail shape. Once you have the two pieces of the tail, before attaching them, sew the diamonds down the center of one of the pieces of felt. Next, sew the two tail pieces together inside out, so the spikes are on the inside of the tail. Turn right-side-out and then stuff with batting. After stuffing the tail, trace the circle around the felt to create the circle shape. Pin the circle to the tail and hand-sew the circle in place. Next, measure your child’s waist and create little strips you can sew to the circle to make the belt. I hand-stitched the strips onto the circle and then used self-adhesive velcro onto the strips.

To finish the look, you’ll also need jogging pants (my daughter’s, my son’s). I was able to find matching fleece pants that my kids will be able to wear long after Halloween is over. This costume is such a good multitasker. I plan to pin the tail to the jacket when they go trick-or-treating, so it doesn’t fall off as easily. When we took these pictures, their tails were dragging on the ground a bit – which I thought was adorable – but also not that practical for them to run from house to house.

I know my kids aren’t going to let me make their costumes forever. Soon they will be ‘too cool’ for their mom, so I’m just eating up these DIY costume while I can. (In case you didn’t see the other costumes I’ve made for them, here are lion + Dorothy costumes and a squirrel costume and aviator hat I made the last couple years).

If you have any questions about the directions, drop me a note! This was such an easy DIY dinosaur costume and I’d be happy to walk you through the process of creating these easy and cute costumes for your kiddos.