One year, my son wanted to be an elephant for Purim. He’s not the kind of kid that can wear a store-bought costume all day. So, I dressed him in his usual grey hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants and added some extras of my own. I cut elephant ears out of grey felt and pinned them to his hood (he actually kept the hood on!), and made a tail out of the same grey felt material to pin onto the waistline of his sweatpants. We found a trunk mask at a local party store, and we had ourselves a very cute costume!
Here are some more ideas for you to play around with:
- Start with some basics you may already have in your child’s wardrobe.
- Find solid colored cotton shirt/onesie and matching pants.
- Use colored felt to add on to the clothes.
- Try double-sided tape to attach the felt pieces or stitch them into place with a simple slip stitch (when Purim is over, snip the ends of the thread and remove from clothing).
- Attach felt pieces with fabric glue for a more permanent hold.
Felt Animal Costume Ideas:
- Ladybug ~ Red clothes with black felt circles
- Tiger ~ Orange clothes with black felt stripes
- Cheetah ~ Orange or Yellow clothes with black or brown felt spots
- Zebra ~ White clothes with black felt stripes
- Bear ~ follow the elephant idea (above) with brown clothes and brown felt
- Cat ~ black, grey, white or brown clothes paired with mask from the Mask Craft page
Micol Bayer, a mother of three, is an artist and teacher who designs educational experiences that integrate art and Jewish texts. Micol enjoys doing crafts with her kids and teaches art in a Jewish day school and runs the art program at a summer camp. Visit www.micoldesigns.com to learn more about Micol’s art.
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