Pink Poodle Costume, Inspired by Pottery Barn Kids

My baby girl absolutely loves puppies, so the idea to dress her as a puppy for Halloween this year was a no brainer. However, I quickly realized that there are very few options out there for “girly” puppies, which for Belle is also a prerequisite.  I found this adorable costume by Pottery Barn Kids, but I just couldn’t justify the price – especially since I already had most of the outfit at home: a pink tee, tights, tulle tutu pettiskirt and ballet slippers.

Source: Pottery Barn Kids

So with this adorable inspiration in mind, I concepted a DIY version of this pink poodle Halloween costume.

I went to my local JoAnn’s, which happened to be having amazing sales due to a move in location, so I bought 1/4 yard of curly white fur fabric for around $2.

I simply cut large rectangle strips, tall enough to fold over once (for bulk), and wide enough to fit around her wrists and ankles.

I made a simple template for the ears.

Poodle ears template made on the reverse side of curly fur fabric.

I cut them out and also backed them with white craft felt I had on hand, using adhesive spray, for a little structure. I then took a large square of the fabric and tucked all the corners until they met in the middle, forming a little ball. I filled that ball with a few of my fur fabric scraps for a little bulk. I affixed the ears to the sides of a headband we had on hand by tying grosgrain ribbon around it and fastening it into a bow.  Using a needle and thread, I tacked the ball closed, and then threaded it to the headband. I then fastened a pink grosgrain hair bow to the front. Now, you could totally do this without sewing. You could just staple the fabric to form the ball, and hot glue it to the top of the headband. The only reason I sewed it was because I knew this headband would get lots of dress up play use, before and after Halloween.

Next, I found a novelty dress up tail at JoAnn’s (for $0.66!). I fashioned a fur ball in the same way as the top of the headband, and tacked it to the end of the tail with a needle and thread. Again, I was tempted just to tie a grosgrain ribbon around this tightly to affix it to the tail, because I can be that lazy, but I stitched it knowing that it would get use after Halloween and would hold up better this way.

Here is Belle all dressed up and loving life.

Shop this look: Pink top or leotard, tights, tutu pettiskirt, ballet slippers

I told her to shake her booty to get a tail shot.

Thanks for reading my pink poodle costume tutorial! I hope you like this copycat chic costume.

I think it would be super easy to make this a lamb, or even a  kitty costume, just by replacing the poodle headband with some cute cat ears or lamb ears and adjusting the face paint.  What do you think of my pink poodle Halloween costume?