Easy Toothless Costume

My husband and I spent waaaaay too long on our own costumes as Hiccup and Astrid from How To Train Your Dragon 2. We needed to crank out a toothless costume for my little boy in a few hours before the big trick or treat. This was fairly easy and turned out better than I thought it would.

This is my first instructable. My husband thinks I make cool stuff and has been pushing me to do one for some time. I finally gave in to his pressure. I hope you like it. Also, feel free to vote for me in the Halloween Costume Contest.

Before you begin this costume, make sure that you can find what you need before you begin. I went to 5 or 6 stores in search of a plain black hoodie. I was surprised that I couldn't find anything! Eventually I found this Lightening McQueen hoodie that my son already had and covered up the decal with some felt. It worked great. Besides a hoodie and black pants, here is a list of the rest of the supplies that you will need:

1.25 yards of plain black felt

2 squares of black scales felt (sold by the sheet)

1 square of pale green felt

1 square of white felt

1 square of red felt

2 wire hangers (or 8 feet of wire)

2 - 4" x 5" pieces of 1/2 inch EVA foam (or anything sturdy to hold the wires in place)

Spray Adhesive

sewing machine (this could be optional depending on how long you want your costume to last).

stuffing (from an old pillow, fabric scraps, whatever).

waistband elastic in black (one package. I think I ended up using 4 feet or so)

The first thing you need to do when making this hoodie is find some pictures of Toothless. When I made the eyes, I just printed out a large picture of Toothless, cut out the eyes, and used that for my pattern. The eyes consist of 3 pieces. The green (iris), the black (pupil), and the white (highlight). Once I got the shape right on paper, I laid the paper on the felt and cut it out. The felt can then be sprayed with adhesive and laid on the hood. If you are looking for longevity, you should also sew the pieces on. If it only needs to last a few hours, the spray adhesive will do the job.

The tummy is a large oval that I cut out and glued over the top of the existing decal (sorry Lightning McQueen).

There are some spikes that needed to be made for the hood as well. I don't have a picture of this, but I basically just sketched it until I thought it looked right and cut out the paper as a pattern. The spikes are different from the eyes because I wanted the spikes to be 3 dimensional. This means that each spike needs two pieces, a front and a back so I cut them out and placed the "right" sides together and then flipped them out so the seam is on the inside. At this point I stuffed them with the insides of an old pillow so they would stick out. When I had them how I wanted them, I marked where I thought they should go. When marking them, make sure you put the hood on first so you can see where the hood will be on the head. Don't just try to eyeball it. Mark that with a some chalk and sew them on. This can be done with a machine or by hand. I had great intentions of adding more spikes but I didn't because I ran out of time, but a few more would be awesome.

I think this is the part of the costume that I was the most impressed with. I disassembled two hangers and bent them to the shape that I wanted them. If you are making small wings you don't need to join them in the middle with foam. If you just buy a long length of wire, you don't need to do the foam either. I spent less than $5 on this costume, so, I had to find a way to secure the two loose wires in the middle. I happened to have some scraps of 1/2" EVA foam lying around so I laid the bones of the wings on the foam, applied Barge Cement (best adhesive EVER!), and then laid another piece of foam on top. This is really secure and there is no way those wires are going to poke out. Before you start gluing the fabric on, cut slits in the foam so it will be easier to add your elastic armbands later on see next 2 steps)

Once I got the shape of the wings right, I laid them out on the big piece of black felt. With a piece of chalk I drew the lines that I needed to cut, making sure that I added the v-shape at the end of each of the wire "bones". Cut two of these wing shapes, one for the front and one for the back, taking care to cut enough so that you can cover every bit of foam and wire. You can go as big or as small as you want with this method. If you do go big, you might need one more horizontal bone connecting to the foam and the vertical piece, but this wasn't totally necessary because these aren't that big.

Now that you have your fabric and your wire structure ready, you are ready to glue. Lay the wire on top of one of the fabric pieces and spray that evenly with adhesive. Next, carefully lay the other piece on top. This should not be a problem if the two pieces are exactly the same size. If your wire is unruly like mine, go ahead and use duct tape to keep it in place so you can place the front and back sides of the wings together. It should be looking pretty awesome at this point!

I have a lot of pictures of me doing the same thing here. Sew all the way around the wings and then sew down the vertical pieces of wire. This can be tricky and you will break a lot of sewing needles if you aren't careful. When moving the wings around it is helpful to have your machine on a desk or table so that can support the rest of the wings. It is also helpful to have your fingers on the wires as you move the fabric through so you don't accidentally hit them.

This step isn't completely necessary but the seams make it look really cool...and it will be much sturdier.

If you already cut your slits in your foam, good for you! I didn't realize that until I had already sewn it in so I had to cut it out to get to it, but it all worked ok in the end. I used a generous amount of elastic and I tied it on because I wanted the sizing to be flexible (someone better wear these wings again, dang it!)

We had to glue the fabric back on, but if you have precut your slits, you just need to feed them through. If that doesn't work, you'll have to glue back together like me. At this point, tie the elastic on and the wings should be done!!!

Toothless's tail is so cool. It was such a fun and easy part of the costume to put together. First, I measured how long it was from the bottom of the wings to the floor while my boy was wearing the wings. This is the length. The tail is rather narrow, so make sure you don't make it wider than the width of your wings. You will notice in the picture that I was working with a folded edge. This just makes it easier to have one seam and one cut. I used a yardstick to make a line from the thickest point to the thinnest point. Basically it is a big wedge. Then I sewed the long sides together, leaving the bottom open. After I sewed it, I turned it inside out so the seam in on the inside. The tail is ready for flags. My husband drew the flag and I cut the pieces out with felt. I did two and glued them together because I wanted them to be a little stiffer. The white skull on the red flag is just sprayed with adhesive and glued on. Next, I sewed the two tail pieces on to the tail. Finally, I stuffed the tail with the stuffing from inside an old pillow and sewed it closed. I used the handle of a wooden spoon to get the stuffing all the way down the skinny part.

Toothless is finished! I used safety pins to attach the tail to the wings because I would like to have the freedom to use the wings again for a different costume. I also safety pinned the hoodie onto his head by taking in the extra fabric at his chin. This helped the hood stay in place and not fall off.

Here is a picture of our group costume! How do you like it? That toothless is one cute kid! My husband did a tutorial on his Hiccup costume here. Astrid is not going to get a tutorial but feel free to ask questions!