TMNT Splinter Dog Costume
As a bonus to my series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle group costume posts, here’s how I made my dog, Lilo, a Splinter robe shirt.
I didn’t take a ton of pictures along the way simply because I was making it up as I went along so I didn’t know if it would actually work or not.
You’ll need:
- scissors
- sewing machine, or a needle and thread
- brown or burgundy fabric
- brown or burgundy faux leather fabric
- a measuring tape
- a cooperative dog
My first step was to measure out my dog. Make sure when you do this that they are sitting or standing. My dog measures different when she’s on her back for belly rubs because she’s more stretched out. Here’s where all you’ll need to measure:
- around the chest
- around the neck
- collar to belly (shorter than back so they don’t pee on it)
- collar to back
- width of front legs
- distance between front legs
- front legs to collar
So now your first step is to cut out a chunk of your fabric. Mine was left over from making the knee and elbow pads. Make sure that this piece is longer than your around the chest length, because you want it to wrap around. Lilo was about 17″ around, but her robe is about 22″ at the longest point. I then measured three inches shorter than the 10″ of her collar to back so that she would definitely not pee on it. I used a little bit of an angle, then sewed the hem at the top and bottom.
My next step was the arm holes. I actually didn’t use measurements for this part. I just held it up to Lilo and used a Sharpie to make dots where her arms needed holes. I then made 2″ diagonal cuts where each arm needed to go, which would create a square when pulling back the newly created flaps. Then I sewed a hem around that.
Next I sewed at an angle along the top to create a new hem. This is what will give the top that robe like appearance. I also discovered that when I put it on Lilo the collar area was much too large, so I created two little pleats in it so that it was sit closer to her neck.
Finally, I used a strip of faux leather fabric, also leftover from the knee and elbow pads, to make the belt. I sewed it along the shorter part of the belly, but nowhere else, so that it could be tied and so that the shirt could wrap around without any hang ups.
Here’s the final product on Lilo.
This whole project took only about an hour, maybe an hour and a half but only because I had to keep trying to catch Lilo to see if I was on the right track. She spent the rest of the evening avoiding me in fear of me swaddling her in something else. I decided against attaching some sort of stick for Splinter’s cane because Lilo would probably destroy the whole costume trying to get the stick off.
Again, I’m sorry for not taking more pictures along the way. On the bright side, I made this up as I went along so I’m sure you can do it with my mediocre instructions and your own ingenuity.
Adventures in Life 