How to Make a Baby Rabbit-in-a-Hat Costume

Say abracadabra, and a white hoodie, felt, bow tie, and bowl become baby's first Halloween ensemble.

Rabbit in a Hat costume
Photo: Johnny Miller

For your next trick, transform a white hoodie and black footed pants into your baby's very first costume. Attach ears made from white felt and millinery wire, and a clip-on bow tie. Then turn thick black felt into a top hat with leg holes, and—abracadabra—place your bunny inside. See below for a step-by-step tutorial, or peruse our collection of Halloween costumes for infants.

What You'll Need

Materials

  • 2 Pieces lightweight wire, such as floral or millinery (Panacea Cloth-Covered Stem Wire, 18", in White)
  • White felt and thick black felt (Mood Fabrics Industrial Poly Felt in Black)
  • Fabric scissors and marker
  • White hoodie (Jiffy Shirts Infant Zip Fleece Hoodie in White (similar to shown))
  • Black footed pants (Ziweistar Unisex Cotton Footed Pants in Black (similar to shown)
  • Hot glue gun
  • Large bowl (with an opening large enough for your infant to comfortably sit in)
  • Clip-on bow tie

Instructions

  1. Make ears: Bend wires into rabbit-ear shapes. Cut four same-size rabbit-ear-shaped pieces of white felt, just wider than wire shapes, leaving a few inches of wire at bottom. Hot-glue edges of two rabbit-ear pieces together and slip over wire frame. Feed wire ends of one ear through material at top of hoodie where you want the first ear to be. Twist wire ends together inside hoodie to secure; if wire ends are scratchy, cover with small pieces of felt. Repeat for other ear. Bend ears as desired.

  2. Make hat: Use bowl to trace a large circle onto black felt; cut out. (This will be the top of the top hat.) To make brim, trace bowl's opening again, then add about 4 inches all the way around. Cut out to make a donut shape. Place a strip of black felt on its side and wrap along edge of hat's top; cut to a length and height that lets it wrap all the way around—it should reach just under your baby's arms (ours is about 36 by 8 inches). Set strip around your baby to see where to cut leg holes, then cut two semicircle openings along bottom edge. Hot-glue strip around edge of top of hat, making sure leg holes are at bottom; hot-glue a thin strip over back area where the two strip edges meet to secure. Hot-glue brim around top edge of strip. Clip bow tie to hoodie; combine costume with footed pants.

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