How to Make the Cowardly Lion's Mane

Match your cowardly lion's mane colors to the real thing.

A cowardly lion costume deserves a full and lush mane, as befits a hero. Starting with a hooded sweatshirt, use fleece strips to create a mane that any lion would be proud of. By changing the colors of fleece you use, you can transform your cowardly lion into a young cub or an older, wiser lion.

Things You'll Need

• Brown or gray sweatshirt
• Scissors
• Pins
• Needle and thread
• Fleece or felt in brown, orange and yellow
• Yarn (optional)
• Hot glue gun

Instructions

1. Place the sweatshirt on a table, with the hood flat on the table and the opening facing you. Cut the hood from the sweatshirt about 1 inch below the neck seam, all the way around the neck so that it is completely detached. Ensure that you don't cut the drawstring.

2. Turn under 1/2 inch of fabric around the bottom of the sweatshirt hood and pin it in place. Hand-stitch around this in a matching thread, using a running stitch or a hemming stitch.

3. Cut one color of fleece into a strip that is 24 inches long and 6 inches wide. Make 1-inch-wide, 5-inch-long cuts into this from one of the long edges. This is the mane piece that goes around the face. Cut the rest of the fleece into strips 1 inch wide and between 4 and 6 inches long, depending on the length that you want the mane to be. Keep the colors separate. if you're also using yarn, cut this into 6-inch-long strips.

4. Glue the long strip of fleece around the face opening of the sweatshirt hood using a hot glue gun. Place a line of glue 3/4 inch from the long, uncut edge of the strip and position it so that the strip faces to the back of the hood. Other mane strips will cover it up.

5. Glue the individual fleece strips to the sweatshirt hood. Mix all the colors for a mottled look, or arrange them in lines of each color for a more cohesive mane. Make sure that the parts of the strip that are glued down are hidden by other strips by placing the strips close together. Continue to add fleece strips until the hood is completely covered. Add any yarn strips along with these.

6. Place the hood on someone and look at the mane. Trim the fleece strips so that the mane is shaped around the person's head. You may want to shorten the strips around the face to make it neat and smooth.

Tips & Warnings

• Use wool yarn instead of fleece for the mane. Unravel some of the yarn to form a bushy mane.

• Use more colors of fleece, including gray and white, for a more mottled mane appearance.

• Instead of fleece or felt, use remnants of fabrics or old sweatshirts in the appropriate colors. The fabric you choose should be fairly thick.

References

• Kaboose; Kid's Lion Costume; Mia Cronan;
• Coolest Homemade Costumes.com: Coolest Homemade Lion Costume Ideas