Custom Cerberus Dog Halloween Costume

As a person with a dog too cute to let dress up as a dog for Halloween (again) this year, I've taken it up to create a custom costume for her! Above, you can see my adorable dog, Willow, rocking her new costume as if she's Cerberus himself!

Important note: PROTOTYPE! Many times during this instructable, you will see me making paper prototypes of pieces of the costumes so I know:

1. relative sizes
2. what and how many pieces I need to cut and make
3. any alterations I need to make in case I missed anything while planning

All of these are pretty essential in making any custom fitted costume or prop, even just to help visualize the end result.

Along with this, doing every step of this costume takes a while! Lots of planning, prototyping, testing, and much else went into this project, so feel free to only do certain parts!

1. Felt (green, red, brown, white)
2. Fabric (metal-esque, leather-esque, fuzzy, decorative red, black)
3. Anything to make stuffed animal eyes (could be made out of felt, thread, pipe cleaners, decorative balls, pre-made plastic eyes, etc)
4. Gloss finish for the eyes if you're making them out of plastic
5. Black and brown paint (for eyes)
6. Stuffed animal stuffing
7. Hot glue (alternative: sew)
8. Scissors
9. Buttons
10. Measuring tape (a dog to measure would be helpful as well)
11. Scrap paper and tape
12. Wire (thick and/or thin)

Above are some images of what the completed armor (and look) looks like!

While armor is not required for a dog Cerberus costume, it certainly elevates the look! And the first step to making some epic gear is to measure your dog. Getting basic ideas for dimensions and sizing of your project is key to understanding how it can look.

Here's a list of everything that I measured on my dog for the armor:

1. waist circumference
2. body length
3. chest circumference
4. neck circumference

I have a medium-to-large sized dog, which means everything I need to make needs to be bigger than most dog costumes you'd see on the internet, but it also leaves room for plenty of potential for detail! But if detail doesn't call your name, no fear! A costume such as this can easily be simplified by blocking shapes out much more than I do--it is not necessary to make your pieces hyper-realistic (clearly I don't) so don't worry if you aren't precise or detailed. As long as your shapes are generally distinguishable, people will get the idea of your costume.

Along with this: plan! Make sure you know what you want your armor to look like-it doesn't need to look like mine! Even a simple concept sketch can help aid along a project, so its not a problem to not have all the details plotted out ahead.

Some pieces I made sure to include in my armor design were:

1. Shoulder pads
2. Layers/folds in my fabric (to seem like layers of metal)
3. A clip point in the front so that the armor won't fall off
4. A sword & sword sheath that will wrap around her waist
5. Fabric to cover parts of her rump (extra protection!)

If you want more detail however, I'd suggest finding some inspiration photos of human armor or dog armor to get a better idea of what yours could look like.

After taking general measurements, I start blocking out my fabric pieces with paper--though this can easily be done with any other thin material. Blocking is me simply making a prototype of what the end piece will look like. Above you can see two pictures of me testing out the sizing of my soon-to-be armor on my dog. One picture is the original blocking, and the other is after I added some detail and made some adjustments. Even though I took measurements of various parts of my dog, I still had to resize some pieces, so I'd certainly recommend this step even though it isn't wholly necessary. If anything, it helps you see how the final piece may turn out and decide if you want to add or remove any detail.

While my semi-final blocking up above certainly isn't pretty, it gets the point across. In this image, you can see a side-by-side before and after from the less defined side to the more detailed side (right and left) of my blocking. I made these changes after testing the plotting on my dog and making specific sizing and shape alterations to make it seem more like armor.

Some additional changes that I made to this blocking after that photo were:

1. Front straps
2. Other plates of armor on the back (for dimension and realism)

Some tips I have for making this armor are:

1. For the dog's rump, cinch the fabric in the back for it to be better fitted
2. Make it breathable and easy to put on and take off in case your dog gets uncomfortable
3. Make dimension--stuff some parts and keep others unstuffed for a more dynamic final piece

I traced what I planned to be my first layer of the armor on my fabric, which you can see above.

For my choice of fabric, I chose a gray that slightly reflected light (similar to how velvet would) in an armor-ish way to appear somewhat like metal. Above is also a picture of me testing the first layer out on my dog (just to make sure (again) that I didn't mess anything up!)

That triangle on the bottom of my tracing is where I'm planning to cinch the fabric to better fit her rump, which helps make it look less blocky and more dimensional.

Remember, the photo above is not the finished look! That's only the first layer! If you'd like to make it easier for yourself, you can cut it all in one big piece and not have a layered design.

For the next two main pieces, I cut out an artistic oval-shaped shape (with the fabric folded over so I could cut two at once and have them mirrored and the same shape) for the shoulder pads, and two back plates with a gentle inverted-arrow design (slightly smaller width-wise than the long back plate). For the back plates, I slightly folded over and glued the edges (not including the straight back end which will be under other pieces due to the layering of the design) to give it better dimension and not look so flat.

In the photos above, I had not yet cinched the back, so it looks more fitted once I do.

To create a more armor-like look for the armor, I cinched pieces to create a layered, more realistic look. To do so, I sectioned off pieces of the pads into folds that curved slightly for a more dynamic look, and glued on both sides (on top of the fabric and on the bottom) of the folds that I made to help keep them in place. In order to give the shoulder pads a more 3-d appearance, I glued some wire and made a small pillow-like pad to glue under the top of the shoulder pad. This effectively gives the shoulder pads more shape and make them look more like armor and less like fabric.

For straps, I made a front strap to keep the armor in place on her--made by cutting two equal-sized pieces of fabric, gluing a button onto one (you can sew it if you have the materials), and cutting a slit into the other side for the button to go into. I glued both of these straps underneath the shoulder blades for a seamless look.

After this, for the six top straps, I took a red stripe-patterned fabric, cut it into three strips, then cut each of those in half for six equal-length strips of fabric. Having done this, I glued buttons on one side of each, glued the button sides of the strips onto the tops of the shoulder blades, then cut two triangles of the fabric that I chose for the metal of the armor to glue over the loose ends of the fabric.

And now: you're done with the armor! Next step is to make Cerberus' snake tail.

Cerberus has a snake as a tail, so your dog should too! I designed my snake tail to fit over and around my dog's tail (loosely, keep in mind!), and to curl up and forward, akin to how a snake might. (if your dog doesn't like anything on their tail, do not make the snake tail!! it's no fun for you or your dog if you force them through that.) If you have a dog on the smaller side, this step will be quick and easy! But, if you have a larger dog (like me), then you may have to make a massive snake (as you can see in my picture above), which does take considerably longer so, remember:

This step is as necessary as the armor (i.e., it's not!) Feel free to skip this step and just do the two dog heads, as they're the most recognizable characteristic of Cerberus, not the snake. But, if you want to elevate your costume and go the full length, make the snake!

Here's some general tips for making the snake look polished, if you're making it majorly with felt and hot glue like I did:

1. Cover up your hot glue! All over my snake, you can see brown patterns (lines, artistic splotches, etc), which are all to cover up my hot glue mess! Cutting and gluing more felt on top of your mess is an easy way to make it look cleaner and more put together. (if gluing more felt on top ruins your vibe, cut some glue off--felt often looks relatively natural even after cutting layers off the top)
2. Use wire for stability; the only way I could get a curved shape for the snake (and tongue) were to glue some pieces of wire (hanger wire for the body, thin wire for the tongue) inside of the snake. Wire and plenty of stuffing working together allows for a sturdy, stable snake.
3. Glue folds for more sturdiness; in the beginning for some parts of my snake, the curve was looking a little weak and unstable. One handy solution to this was to fold over and crease some areas of the body (going with (not against) the curve) and glue those creases in place. Doing this helps keep the curve of the snake more intact and helps stability

After making the sketches and coming up with the materials that I'd need to make the snake tail, I made a quick blocking of what I wanted the snake to look like.

Some important features that I used in this blocking were:

1. Upper lip: snakes have a heavier upper "lip" than bottom lip, so I made sure to include that in my design
2. Fangs: a snake with its mouth open needs to have fangs!! If anything, it gives it more character c:
3. Inside of mouth: I made a diamond-shaped cutout to fold in half and glue inside of the mouth so it wasn't just a gaping hole
4. Tongue: while the tongue is not in the snake's mouth in the photo, I add a curving tongue

The colors for the snake are:

1. Green (felt): body & head
2. Red (felt): mouth and tongue
3. White (felt): fangs
4. Brown (felt): stripes to cover up gluing
5. Black (pipe cleaner): eyes

There are a few simple steps to assembling the snake head:

Base: Cut out two identical green pieces of felt for the top and bottom of the head (in green pattern shown above), and glue only up to where you'd like the mouth to open. Make sure to leave open flaps on the top and bottom in the back of the head for attaching it to the body! Following this, cut out a diamond shape from red felt to fold and glue inside of the mouth. With the excess of the mirrored green snake head design, make the upper lip of the snake and glue it to the top of the mouth.

Tongue: cut out two identical strips of red felt with two outward-moving points to look like a snake's tongue. Glue a wire on top of one of the pieces, then glue the two tongue pieces together with the wire between them. This will give the tongue the ability to be shaped and curved. Glue the tongue as far inside the mouth as you think looks natural.

Teeth and eyes: cut two small triangle shaped teeth out of white felt. Glue these about an inch apart inside of the snake's upper lip. For the eyes, I cut two small pieces of black pipe cleaner and curled them into circles, then hot glued them on top of the snake's head.

Having followed all of these steps: you've finished the snake head!

To make the snake's body, cut two sizable strips of green felt and glue them into cylinders. After this, glue pieces of thick wire (I used a hanger) inside each cylinder to allow for easy shaping and bending.

WARNING: Be EXTREMELY careful while handling hot glue, especially inside of something that you cannot easily see into! I was irresponsible while trying to keep the wires glued in place inside of my felt and ended up giving myself a serious burn. Do not do what I did! Be careful when working with extremely hot substances like hot glue!

Next, while being very careful and mindful of the temperature of the glue, glue the two cylinders together to form a long green log. Having done this, you can now stuff the snake body with stuffed animal stuffing and shape it by bending the wires. I gave my snake a decent curve so that it can be visible even when looking head-on at my dog. Only stuff the top of the snake body, as the bottom needs to have room for your dog's tail.

The stuffing helps keep the snake body stable and stiff enough not to fall over, though if you have a large dog and need more support, I recommend using a layer of thick foam material glued into a donut shape (having a hole for your dog's tail to fit into) for the base of the snake body. This should give it more stability.

As some finishing details, I added strips of brown felt over my glue mess to help clean it up! I made quite the mess during my hot glue fiasco, so this certainly helped make it seem more polished.

This step might be the easiest of all of making the snake tail: gluing the head to the body! All I did to do so was glue the bottom flap of my snake head to the outside of my snake's body. Following this, I glued the top flap of the head inside of the body. This helped give the snake more shape and character and gave it a more seamless look.

To finish up the snake tail, I added some more details with the brown felt (mostly covering up my mistakes, but also adding some artistic character).

In addition, to help the curve stay sturdier, I glued some folds into the body by pinching two parts together and gluing them to each other. If your curve is weak, this is an easy way to make it stronger.

And that's it! Your evil Cerberus snake tail is finished! Make sure to not let your dog get too close--you don't want them conspiring together against you!

And of course you need to make this step: the Cerberus heads! While they're not particularly difficult to make; they may take a bit! So, get yourself prepared! The basic materials you'll need are:

1. Fluffy fabric that matches your dog's fur color
2. Anything to make the eyes (I used decorative plastic balls that I cut in half and painted)
3. Wire
4. Black fabric (for the nose)

To begin making your Cerberus heads, plot out your design! The most helpful way for me that I've found to do this is (as I'm sure you know by now) by making a 3D design out of paper! Its way easier and less stressful to troubleshoot on a prototype instead of on the final piece. While it may look a bit messy, it gives me a fantastic idea of what the final piece will look like. Using the pieces of my blocking, I cut out the pieces for one of my dog heads, as you can see in the picture above. Keep in mind that those are only the pieces needed for one head! You'll have to do double the pieces shown to make two.

Some tips that I have for making the heads are:

1. Make your dog head dimensional! Dog's faces aren't just flat or round, they have plenty of dimension all the way around. While you may not be able to make the perfect rendition of your dog, you can at least emulate the general look by adding thinner and thicker widths of the fabric in applicable areas.
2. Measure features of your dog rather than eyeballing it to get better size matches
3. Use as little glue on the edges as possible; gluing too much can lead to spots on the edges that are unable to be rounded out by the stuffing (because the two pieces of fabric are just glued straight to each other), leading to a fairly blocky look. To avoid this, try gluing on the sides of the fabric if possible, glue fabric directly on top of another piece instead of to the bottom of it, or after gluing, let the glue dry parted slightly so that the two pieces don't get glued too much together.

Otherwise, have fun! Your dog heads don't need to be perfect, they should just look cute like your dog! (or evil, if that's what you're going for)

Each of these steps are pretty quick, so here's a run-down!

Eyes: for the eyes, I cut a decorative plastic ball in half, sanded it, and painted it black. The ball was about the size of my dog's eyes, which is why I chose them. After painting them black, I added a subtle brown ring around the edges of each of the eyes (that fades into black), and spray painted them with a glossy finish.

For the ears, you need to cut out two of the ear shapes shown in the last step, and get a wire that you can use to make the ears shapeable. Glue the wire inside of the two ear pieces, then glue the two ear pieces together with the wire in between. Now, you can shape the ears to give them a more dynamic look, or you can even use the wire to help them stand up if your dog doesn't have droopy ears like mine.

Doing the nose, you need two identical black pieces of fabric shaped in a shape similar to the nose in the photo above, being a sort of squished-teardrop shape. I made my noses out of two layers of fabric, one as a base, and the other shaped in a sort of spade shape, giving the appearance of nostrils and dimensionality. To make the spade shape, cut out two lines on the bottom of the nose piece; these lines should each be angled into the center of the nose, on opposite sides. After doing these cuts, cut small circles at the ends of each line. These circles should make an almost hook-like shape with the lines--cut them facing outwards in comparison to the center of the nose, not inwards.

Reminder, in total you must make: 4 dog eyes, 4 dog ears, and two dog noses, because you must make two heads total!

Now you have all the pieces to construct the final dog heads!

To assemble the heads, glue all the pieces of fabric together (each side of the head to the top head/top nose piece. attach the bottom nose piece where the top nose piece ends at the top of the nose, and glue it to the two side head pieces. at the spot where the bottom nose piece causes the two side pieces to meet, glue the two side pieces together.)

Fill the head with fluff, and you should have a dog-shaped face!

Next, you must glue on the ears on the sides of the head, glue the eyes on the front of the head, and attach the nose.

As an extra detail (in honor of my dog with long, shaggy-ish fur), I gave the heads two pieces of hair coming down near the eyes, just for extra realism.

With the head fully assembled, you now need to get a way to attach them to your dog!

To attach the heads to my dog, I made a collar that I glued the heads to. The collar is detachable (made with a button), for easy removal. I tested the collar on my dog and pinned the heads where I thought they looked natural, then glued them in place. Now that you've done that, your heads are finished!

Of every piece of this costume, this is the least necessary to make! You may think: How could a dog use a sword? And your question would be extremely reasonable, because they simply can't like we would. If anything, my dog would bite down on the handle and spin around to defeat all her foes, but that detail isn't important. What is, is that I thought adding a sword would be a fun touch to the outfit, even if there's some uncertainty on the practicality.

Regardless of all that, the sword is extremely easy to make, and so only gets a single step!

For the sword itself, you must make a thin cylinder out of metal-looking fabric that tapers at one end, and stuff it with stuffing. Cut out two circles of a wood-looking fabric and glue them securely together as the guard. Next, use the same fabric to make a cylinder thicker than the blade, stuff it with fabric, and glue a circle to the bottom of it to make the handle. Now, you need to glue these all together! Glue the blade to the center of one side of the guard, and the handle to the other. The sword is done!

Next, we'll make the sheath! Make a simple flat cylinder from a leather-looking fabric, and glue one side shut. This side will be the bottom of your sheath. On the open end, near the top, glue a strip of fabric that is the circumference of your dog's waist, facing perpendicularly away from the sheath. I glued a button to it and made a cut on the other end of the strip so I could make the sheath easily attachable and detachable.

Congrats, your sword is done!

Finally, your dog's costume is complete! Dress your doggy up for the best Halloween they've ever had! No doubt that your dog will be the coolest dog at the Halloween party with a costume such as this!

Now you can freely take the most awesome photos of your dog that the world has ever seen! Congratulate yourself! Throw a party for you and your dog! You both deserve it after all the hard work you've done!

How can I make a whole instructable for my dog without including more of the adorable finished shots at the end? I can't, so here you go!

Anyway, thank you so much for going on this journey with me! This took me about a week to create (it would have been much longer had I not had a deadline for this!), but I enjoyed every part because of my end goal: to create an adorable costume for my adorable dog!

While I'm here, shoutout to Willow for being such a good sport (and dog) !! <33