Tutorial for a simple DIY King costume for kids you can make a home. Makes a great king Halloween costume for a boy, and also works as a DIY knight costume.
I made four Halloween costumes yesterday! It’s amazing what can happen when Dad is around to hang out with the littles and take the kids on school runs! His new job doesn’t start until Friday, and we are all making the most of our days off with him!
Johnny and I had a LOT of discussions about what he wanted his Halloween costume to look like, and we finally settled on this king costume. I’m thrilled to say that he loves it! He wore it all afternoon yesterday, and had it on first thing this morning!
DIY King Costume Tutorial
I am all about simplicity and comfort when it comes to dress-up costumes for kids – and I want my Halloween costumes to double as play costumes all year round. You don’t want scratchy materials distracting them from their pretend play! Fleece is super comfy, and – bonus – nice and warm for Halloween trick or treating. Even in California, it gets a little chilly by October 31st!
This tutorial doesn’t have as many photos as it should, but hopefully it will help if you are curious – it’s really very easy to make!
MATERIALS:
- Fleece
- Felt (for the dragon and crown – go here for the felt crown tutorial)
- Scissors
- Thread
- T-shirt (for sizing)
- Sewing machine (you CAN make this entirely by hand, but it will take a while!)
Use a t-shirt as your sizing template. I cute Johnny’s top large, because I want him to be able to wear it over anything, plus it looks a little more armor-ish that way. Be sure to allow for seam allowances!
Cut your cape to start off as wide as the top at the shoulders, and then widen out slowly. Johnny wanted a LONG cape, so that’s what we went with.
Cut out your dragon or whatever embellishment you want out of felt. I free-handed mine (and was shocked when it turned out this well!) by looking at a few images of dragons from Google image search. The design of this particular top is such that you could put one design on one side and another on the other, making two outfits in one – the cape reverses so that it will cover up the other design. I haven’t done that yet, but might.
Sewing steps:
- Stitch dragon (or other embellishment) onto front of shirt.
- Stitch the side seams, right sides together.
- Hem the arm holes and bottom of the shirt.
- Stitch the neckline hem
- With shirt wrong side out, insert cape – so it is between the two shirt layers. Stitch shoulder seams, including top sides of cape.
- Turn right side out and enjoy!
We have a galaxy-traveling king who has somehow acquired a light saber!
What are your kids dressing up as for Halloween? Are you making costumes?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
You are one talented mom!! :) lOve iT!
The dragon is so cool!
Thanks! I was really happy with how it turned out!
Amazing work with the dragon! Johnny looks ready for anything!
Thank you! I was so pleased with how the dragon turned out. And I love that Johnny loves his costume!
Cute, MaryAnne! My son’s costume is handmade… but not by me lol. His grandma sewed him a “Pete the Cat” costume (from the book).
What fun! We LOVE Pete the Cat!
That’s such a simple yet awesome costume! Must make this for my son when he gets older. I think it’s wonderful that you’re making the costumes by hand – makes them extra special!
Thank you, TK!
I really wish you’d write an ebook on how to use craft felt to make ANYTHING! What an awesome costume! He looks quite kingly!
Maybe I will, someday. I love felt!
Love it!!! My older one will be the pirate princess. I will post about it later.
That sounds like a fun costume!
What a terrific costume and I love that it will get extra use for pretend play. Four costumes in one day! You amaze me and I can’t wait to see the other three!
Thanks, Jody! The girls are all butterflies – I’ll post pics tomorrow :)
Awesome job on the dragon! Definitely looks like he loves it.
He put it on first thing this morning. I love when kids love the things I make!
Oh it turned out super cute. Fleece can be so forgiving for sewing. I love the dragon.
That is definitely something I love about fleece! Although, it’s really hard to pull stitches out if you put something together wrong.
Whoo! MaryAnne, that turned out really well! And nice job on the freehand dragon! I love fleece for costumes- warm, cheap and stretchy. This year, though, my girls all refused fleece. They all wanted knit. Boo.
I can’t blame them wanting knit when you make such gorgeous dresses! I was thrilled that my kids were happy with fleece this year, though – warm, and easy to work with!