elephant

Apparently preschool has spirit week, at least the school Mae attends does. Regardless he only goes to school once a week and so his day for spirit week happened to be costume day. He has talked about nothing else for the last couple weeks and what's he want to be? An elephant of course!
Armed with a few thrifted grey tee shirts I set to work to create an elephant hoodie. Although rather ridiculous I absolutely fell in love with it. My husband insisted it needed a tail to be a legit costume and he was right- the tail made the shirt.

I used the same pattern that I used to create this tee and finished it with a hood instead of ribbing. I added a thin layer of interfacing to the ears to add some structure but not enough to make them stiff and uncomfortable. I used three pieces of knit to braid a tail and then cut the end to resemble the hair on the end of an elephant tail. Although the tail was important to the costume look of the shirt for everyday where it seems a bit over the top so I added a snap. This way the tail can easily come or go depending on occasion. Unfortunately the big ears aren't removable but really a solid grey hoodie wouldn't quite fit into Mae's wardrobe- it'd be much too plain!

He ran into school this morning over the top excited to show his teacher his elephant hoodie. I'm kind of glad he insisted on being an elephant- one of my favorite creations to date.

don't forget the elephant print jordan's