Hawaiian Hula Costume

Aloha from my doggy to you.

If you are looking for a cheap and easy homemade costume to make for you pet or even your kid, then this is it. In this instructable I will demonstrate how I made a Hawaiian hula girl costume set for my dog. Its quick, cute, and easy to make!

-foam paper

-super glue or hot glue gun

-fishing wire or clear string

-wire

-paint and paint brushes

-string

-3D Printer (Optional)

-Iron or heat gun

-scissors or laser cuter

I started off by using CorelDraw to trace a leaf outline so I could cut several leaves using the laser cutter. The size of your dog should help you determine how many leaves you need to cut out. The material I used for the leaves was foam paper because this material is easy to paint and glue stuff onto. It's also a comfortable material for your dog to wear. If you don't have a laser cutter or CorelDraw you could just do it the old fashion way and trace the leaves with a pencil and use scissors to cut it out. I used white foam paper so I could paint the leaves afterwards using acrylic paint to give it more of a real leaf look but you could also just use green foam paper if you'll like.

The fishing wire was used to tie the leaves together so the skirt would be more resistant. I used a pen to poke holes through the leaves having them one on top of the other forming a skirt so I could insert the string through them and tie it.

For this step I just cut out random little thin leaves to glue on top of the skirt just to make it look nicer. I also painted those leaves green. I cut extra of those leaves to use for the head piece in the upcoming step.

For the flowers, I traced a petal outline onto colored foam paper and then cut the petals out. I used a heat gun (flat iron works too) to curl the leaves to give it more of a real flower look and gust glued then together. For an extra realistic touch I painted the center of the flowers yellow. These flowers are going to be added to the head piece and skirt.

I went ahead and painted along the edges of the petals with dark green. Then I glued the flowers along the top of the skirt and lastly I added ribbon to the ends so you could tie the skirt on.

For the head piece, I used wire for the base of the headband then added the thin tiny leaves onto it. I painted some leaves dark green and light green. Then, I glued the leaves and flowers on with super glue for better stability and attached string to the end so you could tie it on.

I decided to 3D print my coconuts just because I wanted the perfect shape and size coconuts for my dog to wear comfortably. I design the coconuts to be 3 inches in diameter and added a few holes along the sides to insert the string. Depending on the size of your pet is how long you would need the string to be. Lastly I painted the coconuts with brown paint ( multiple coats of paint needed). If you don't have access to a 3D printer you can make the coconuts with real coconuts or paper.