DIY Leopard and Gorilla Couple Costume

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For many years, if you asked my husband the material things he most desired, he would list video game systems, an air conditioner in his truck, an MP3 music player ... and a gorilla suit. Why? Because doing things in a gorilla costume—driving, playing an instrument, holding a kitty like Koko—is hilarious. But quality gorilla costumes are not cheap, until they are. Last Halloween, I found a $100 gorilla costume for $20 on Craigslist. Aaron's costume was set. I scoped out thrift stores for coordinating inspiration. Once I came upon leopard leggings, it was decided. For Halloween, it was DIY leopard with gorilla for our couple costume!

Cheap DIY Leopard Halloween Costume

For my cheap DIY leopard costume, I bought leopard print leggings at Atlas Thrift Store in Carmichael for $1 and a fuzzy, leopard print pillow sham at Goodwill in North Highlands for $0.99. I also spent $2 at CVS for Wet n' Wild eyeliners in black and gold. (Cheap and cruelty-free makeup FTW.) Grand total: $4 for a last-minute, cheap DIY leopard Halloween costume!


Making the Last Minute Leopard Costume


The night before Halloween (because why not stay up all night crafting) I got to work making my last minute leopard costume.

I cut leopard spots from the pillow sham and hot glued them onto a black shirt I already had. (Ain't got not time for sewing!)

For my DIY leopard tail, I used pipe cleaners to create the tail shape. I twisted many pipe cleaners together and then (if I remember correctly) covered the pipe cleaners with cheap duct tape to add thickness without compromising the curl of the DIY leopard tail. I hot glued the pillow sham fabric over the tail shape and used safety pins to affix the leopard tail to my leopard shirt.

To create the DIY leopard ears, I cut the sham into ear shapes and cut pipe cleaners to bend inside like a rainbow. I left the pipe cleaners longer than the ears so they could wrap around a headband. Then I glued the ears over the pipe cleaners and affixed the DIY leopard ears onto the headband.


DIY Leopard Makeup

I kept my DIY leopard makeup simple. With gold pencil eyeliner, I drew spots on my face and outlined them in liquid black eyeliner. I used the liquid eyeliner to color my nose and draw dot whiskers. I used a darker-than-normal mineral powder to add a bit of orange tint to my face. 


DIY Pet Animal Costumes

I wasn't planning on making DIY pet animal costumes, but the leftover fringe tassels on the sham screamed "lion" to me, so at the even later last minute, I decided to fasten the tassels into a mane for a lion cat costume for Oliver. I added sticky adhesive Velcro on the ends.

I couldn't make a costume for Oliver and not for Gizmo, so the next day (yes, on Halloween) I hastily made ears for a monkey dog costume out of the brown fur fabric leftover from Aaron's DIY Super Mario 3 costume.

Neither the mane nor the ears were my best work (maybe my worst), but it wasn't really about the quality of the craft but the hilarity of the pictures.





Happy Halloween! For DIY Halloween costume and DIY Halloween decor inspiration, click here!

How to Make Floating Light Up Zero the Dog from Nightmare Before Christmas

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