Best Animal Halloween Costumes for Toddlers

Toddlers are cute, there's no doubt about it. They are especially cute when they are all dressed up for Halloween. Toddler Halloween costumes are cute by their very nature. But I have to say that toddlers dressed up as animals for Trick or Treat are especially adorable.

This lens features some really cute animal costumes for toddlers. Of course, you can go out and buy a costume from your local Halloween store (or you can order one straight from this page). But if you want to be more adventurous, or if you're looking to save money, or make some good memories, etc, you could make a costume. For each kind of animal costume, I have included some ideas on how you could make a simple home made Halloween costume for your toddler. Some of the ideas don't even involve sewing. With some imagination, felt and a sweatshirt, you can have a great toddler Halloween costume in no time at all.

Image by Andrew Malone

Little toddler doggies are adorable. If you don't want to buy a commercially made costume, you can easily make your own. To make a dalmatian costume, take white sweats and glue black spots that have been cut out of felt. Make a tail out of black felt and stuff it with cotton batting. Then sew it to the back of the sweat pants. Get a white ski cap and attach black felt spots. Finish the cap with ears that have been cut out of felt. Too cute!

Let's face it, little kids dressed up like kitty cats are just plain adorable. If you want to dress your toddler as a cat this Halloween, it is really easy to make a homemade cat costume. Start with a sweatshirt and sweat pants in whatever color you want your toddler kitty to be. Make a tail by sewing a long tube in a matching fabric and stuffing it with batting. Then attach the tail to the seat of the pants with a safety pin or Velcro. Personally, I would not attach it permanently because my son would probably just tear it off anyway. Add felt triangles to a headband or the hood of the sweatshirt for ears. Then use an eyebrow pencil to draw a nose and whiskers to your toddler's face.

If you want, you can adapt this costume to be a tiger by using orange sweats and adding black felt stripes. Or, you can make your little guy a lion by adding a mane to the sweatshirt hood. You can have a lot of fun with it.

Home made bird costumes are a little harder to make. I have found several ways to do it. Either way, you'll need a sweat shirt and sweat pants. To make the feathers, you could get feathers from the craft store and attach them with spray adhesive. If you do this, make sure you spray one section at a time so it doesn't dry before you get the feathers on. Also, make sure it is completely dry before you let your child wear the costume. If you don't want to do that, you could get feather boas from the craft store and sew them onto the sweats.

To make the wings, you could just put the feathers straight on the sweatshirt sleeves. But that might not give the effect you are looking for. If you want actual wings, you could cut them out of cardboard and cover it with felt and feathers, or just cut the wing pieces out of felt and skip the cardboard. Attach the wings to the sleeves by sewing them or by using elastic to attach them to your toddler's arms.

For the bird's beak and eyes, use a baseball cap. Paint the bill of the cap orange using fabric paint and you have a bird's beak. Then you can put big pompoms just above it for the bird's eyes. It could be really cute.

Little girls LOVE to be butterflies for Halloween. For some strange reason, boys are not as fond of butterfly costumes as little girls are. Go Figure.

To make a homemade butterfly costume, start with a pair of leotards and tights, the ones girls wear to dance class. Then you can either buy a pair of butterfly wings, either online or at the Halloween store, or you can make a pair of wings. You can do this with cardboard and paints. Cut the cardboard into wing shapes and paint to look like butterfly wings. Secure to your little butterfly with elastic straps, like backpack straps.

A giraffe is a bit more unique of a toddler Halloween costume, but a real cute one. Making a homemade giraffe costume is easier than you think. Get a hooded sweatshirt and a pair of sweat pants. Then you could make giraffe spots out of felt and attach them, or you could use masking tape to form the outlines of the spots. Either way looks good, although you may not want to use masking tape if your toddler is still teething and putting everything in his mouth like my son is still doing at 14 months old.

Next make floppy ears out of felt ovals and some little horns. Attach them to the sweatshirt's hood, or to a headband if you have a regular sweatshirt.

Little bears going Trick-or-Treating are SO cute! Making a homemade bear costume is easy too. Again, get some sweats and some felt. Cut a felt oval to put on your little bear's tummy. Then make some ears out of felt circles to attach to the sweatshirt hood. And there you have a Baby Bear costume that is just right!