When it came time to make little Jack a doggie costume for Halloween several years back, I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it. That same year I had made an infant a bunny costume from scratch and it had almost killed me.
So I got creative: I would just skip the hard part and buy a little brown sweat suit and sew spots and ears on it. It was a dream to make and took me less than an hour to put it together. The moment I finished I thought “anyone could do this,” and a few years later I would finally launch my Etsy shop selling kits to turn sweat suits into creature costumes.
The beauty of making a costume with a sweat suit is that it’s comfortable, warm and your kid can wear it year-round. These days I don’t have as many kits in inventory but I am selling patterns. Both are easy ways to make it happen and some of the patterns require no prior sewing skills!
Step one though is finding a sweat suit to transform. Here is my go-to list and some new additions this year:
- It’s on the more expensive side, but American Apparel always has tons of colors and sizes for kids and adults.
- I also found a shop new to me, Primary, that has a great selection of plain hoodies, and the quality is really nice and definitely worth it for a suit your kiddo will want to wear a lot. (My daughter spent most of pre-school in a shark hoodie.)
- H&M has a “Basics Shop” in their kids section that has inexpensive colored hoodies. (They also have adult choices too!)
- Amazon has lots of choices (this year I got a Leveret suit and the quality is amazing; my kiddo will wear all year!)
- Hanes has a good selection for older toddlers and young kids.
- Target has a pretty good selection online and in stores.
Let me know if you find other great options!