How to be Nick Wilde the Fox from Zootopia

Owen is a pretty funny kid.
In groups and social scenes, he's somewhat quiet and shy.
But ask him to dance or model for photos?....and he totally hams it up.

In fact he wasn't an ounce embarrassed to be walking the streets dressed like a fox, with mom and camera close behind. 

Like Nick Wilde, I think he enjoyed the attention of owning the moment.
Haah.
What a guy.

Oh, this fox head was so much fun to make.  And could be used for so many different animals ---- bear, pig, bunny, elephant.

The best moment of the season is when Owen walked in the room and saw the finished fox head and bellowed out, "EPIC!"  Haha. 
Making Halloween dreams come true for everyone.

Now, in all honesty when Owen said he wanted to be Nick the fox from Zootopia, I first looked on Amazon so I could click and purchase a costume.  I'm kind of in that "we can only make one kid's halloween costume a year" mode.
But I was totally unimpressed with what I saw.  The costumes were all those onesie type things, where the shirt and pants are attached and the whole thing velcros in the back?
No gracias.

So we put together our own look, with the fox head being the star.

SHIRT:

You'd be surprised how hard it is to find a green shirt!  So....RIT Dye to the rescue. 

• I found a white cotton shirt at Old Navy and dyed it in a bowl in my sink, using this liquid Apple Green dye.  His shirt in the movie is actually a green print with palm leaves, but this was close enough. Make sure your shirt is 100% cotton or it might not dye properly (see next bullet point)

• Use my tutorial here for info on dying fabric and elastic.

NECKTIE:
 It's also hard to find simple blue/pink striped fabric. So....

• I cut out a tie using my Everyday Necktie Pattern, in navy blue fabric.  
• I sewed skinny satin ribbon to the fabric to create the stripes, spacing them about an inch apart.  I just used the width of my ruler to help guide me.  I sewed the ribbon the whole length of the outer tie fabric (it didn't take as long as you would think).   And I actually love how it turned out.  The satin makes the cotton fabric feel a bit "fancy".  I might have to try this technique for reals on other ties.

FOX HEAD AND TAIL:

As I mentioned above, the real star of this costume is the head----kind of like adding a yarn wig to your ensemble.
I'll have to do a full tutorial for this later.  But here are some photos to get you started:

• I used the same concept as the Bat Costumes, Kitty Cat Costume, and the hood in the Beach Robe Pattern.
• I used white faux fur for the outer head and orange cotton fabric for the lining.
• I drafted my own patterns and sewed everything first.  Then I spray-painted everything with orange paint.
• For the tail, I added stuffing and bunch of floral wire stems so the tail could bend and stick out.

• Once the orange paint dried, I used black spray paint to add some accents.
• Then I sewed the ears to the head (similar to the Cat and Bat costumes)
• I added two ties at the bottom of the hood so it would stay on his head (but this is optional.  It would have stayed on without the straps also).  I used pieces of bias tape with velcro attached.

And there you go!
Hat and tail ready to go.

(And, another goofball who likes to get into character.
The moves were all her own.  I merely asked her to try it on for size. )

• The tail is attached to the back waistband of the pants with a couple safety pins.

I pinned the tail from underneath...meaning: when you're pinning, hold the tail UP toward the shirt, then when you flip it over it helps it to stick out more.  

Then throw on your brown pants and make your sly way to the party. 

Happy Halloween from Willardtopia!
Have a festive weekend!