Homemade Zebra Costumes
If you need a zebra costumewhatever reason, whether it is for a school play or for a Halloween costume, for a child or for an adult, making a zebra costume at home is easy and doesn't even require you to sew unless you want to.
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Making the Zebra Body
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There are two main things to create for the zebra body: the white foundation and the black stripes. For the white foundation, consider using a hooded sweatshirt for the top and either white tights or white sweat pants for the bottom. White or black sneakers work fine for the feet. Create stripes with either black fabric paint (avoid the puff paint for this) or strips of black fabric. Felt is inexpensive and doesn't fray, making it very suitable for this purpose. Attach the fabric with an adhesive. If you really want to, you can sew it on.
Making the Tail
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The tail can be made with black and white yarn. Start with the white yarn and cut about two dozen lengths of yarn 2 to 4 feet in length, depending on the size of the person who will be wearing the costume. Tie the lengths together at the middle and at the bottom. Tie individual strands of black yarn around the white yarn tail at 1-to-2-inch intervals. To make the black tassel at the end of the tail, cut two lengths of black yarn about 7 inches long and tie them together in the middle. Tie the tassel onto the end of the white-yarn tail.
Making the Head
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For the face, use face paint. Paint the nose and mouth area black for the muzzle, apply a black diamond patch between the eyes then apply black and white stripes over the rest of the face. Make small ears out of white felt, draw stripes on the backs with a permanent marker and color the tips black as well. Pin them to the hood.
Make the mane with black and white yarn. Make tassels in the same way as the black tassel on the end of the tail, this time using a dozen 7-inch lengths of yarn per tassel. Alternate black and white tassels, starting at the top of the hood and and going down slightly past the bottom of the shoulder blades. These can be pinned on as well.
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