Halloween is coming up and your ocean-loving kid tells you that she wants to dress up as a seahorse to go trick-or-treating. You have no idea where to buy a seahorse costume, but you don't want to disappoint your little girl. What do you do? Here are a few helpful hints that will guide you in making a lovely seahorse costume right at home.
Making the Head
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The seahorse has a horse-like head, black eyes and long snout. Start by covering a helmet or an old baseball cap with felt, which can be purchased at a crafts store. You will need something long to represent the seahorse's snout. This could be anything from a shampoo bottle to a paper towel tube. Cover this object in matching felt and attach it to the helmet or cap. You could also paint the child's face and attach a similarly painted party hat over the child's mouth.
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Making the Outfit
Match your outfit as closely as possible to the color of the felt used in the headpiece. For girls, use a swimsuit--she is a sea creature after all. Or sew together a one-piece suit from the felt material used in the headpiece.
Making the Tail
The tail will be the most difficult part of the costume to approach, as it will need to be both lightweight and realistic. Wire coat hangers are cheap, and you probably already have plenty of them. They are fairly easy to bend and shape using pliers. Form a curved tail by unbending the hangers, curving them into a shape like a base clef and then hooking or taping them together. Cover this wire frame with felt and tape it to a belt so that it can be worn. If you are concerned about using wire hangers, then make a tail out of felt and plush fiberfill. One last word of advice in making the tail: Though a seahorse's tail usually curves forward, this design would present a problem to someone walking with the costume on. So, make sure the tail curves backwards, away from the child's legs.