Book Character Dress Up Day – Easy DIY Dr. Seuss Cat In The Hat and Sam I Am Costumes

Today in Microfashion… A few weeks ago, Luke & Isaiah’s school celebrated Spirit Week and included Book Character Day for the students.  Each child was to work with their families to create a costume (or inspired outfit) from the child’s favorite book.  Choosing a favorite book in our household is near to impossible since everyone in our home loves to read – but the twins settled on characters from their favorite Dr. Seuss books – Cat In The Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.  Creating the costumes were very fun and luckily I had most of the supplies on hand.  I promised the twins that I would share how I created their costumes with all of you – so today I bring to you a little Easy DIY Dr. Seuss Books Costumes.

Using what the twins had in their closets – we chose out clothes like a black and yellow (neon yellow) shirt to use with their outfits.  Since it was a chilly day we opted for a pair of denim jeans which worked and offered a casual flare while still giving the twins their own identity.  I picked up a few items at the store – like red, white, yellow and green felt, but most of the supplies I needed to create their costumes, I already had on hand.

Isaiah chose to be the Cat in the Hat.  While his costume was simplistic, it required a little more work than Luke’s with the hat having so many steps to create it.  Here’s what I did.

Starting with the hat, I first used foam core board and cut out a round base to use as the brim of the hat.  Then taking the red and white felt (I had them in 8″x 10″ pieces from Walmart), I cut them down to size – 2 inches in width and glued each strip together to create parts of the top hat.  I used my hot glue gun to do this as it was faster for me then sewing since I sew by hand (no machine).  I adjoined the pieces together to form the hat using white thread and stitched it by hand and then glued it to the brim that I created and covered with white felt.

I used the same red felt to draw a bow and glued it to a white strip of felt and then sewed a button on it so it could attach to his neck and could be easily taken off or put on.  He wore a black shirt and his jeans and his outfit was complete.

Supplies needed:

• 1 square foot of foam core board
• red felt – I used approximately 3 and 1/2 – 8″x 10″ sheets
• white felt – I used approximately 3 – 8″x 10″ sheets
• scissors
• glue gun with glue sticks (or sewing machine / thread and needle)
• thread and needle
• black permanent marker (to trace the outline of the bow)
• red button

The video where I show the details and explain each item can be found here.

Luke chose to be Sam I Am from Green Eggs & Ham.  His costume was fairly easy to put together though it took me a little while to figure out how to create the ham on his plate.  Starting with his sign – I took a piece of foam core board and cut it out so that it looked cartoon-ish, writing the words “Sam I am” similar to that from the book.  I then hot glued a wooden dowel to the back of the sign so that he could hold it in his hands.

Making the red hat for Sam was a little trickier.  I had to take 3 pieces of red felt (the 8×10 I mentioned) and pieced them together with hot glue so it would have a similar shape to what Sam wears in the book.  It kind of looks like an elf’s hat, with a triangle shape so that when we turned it inside out, it would have a slight curve at the top.  The Green Eggs and Ham was simple… by cutting a round shape out of the foam core board, I covered the board with yellow felt and created the shapes for the eggs and the ham, which I stuffed with scrap felt from the pieces I had cut.  Everything used to create Luke’s costume was sewed together with a hot glue gun.  I also glued an elastic band on the back of the plate so Luke could slip the plate on his wrists and not have to carry it around with him.

Supplies needed:

• 2 square feet of foam core board
• red felt – I used approximately 3 and 1/2 – 8″x 10″ sheets
• white felt – I used approximately 1 – 8″x 10″ sheet
• scissors
• glue gun with glue sticks (or sewing machine / thread and needle)
• black permanent marker (to write on the sign)
• elastic band

Check out my video where I walk you through the steps here and show you the detail of each item I created.  I apologize that I did not film tutorials or take photos as I was doing this project since they were kind of impromptu.

The boys absolutely loved their costumes and were so proud to tell their friends and teachers at school that I created them and they got to help.  I spent very little money – less than $15 to create the whole thing and if I had to add in the cost of their shirts, it would be less than $25 for both.  What we enjoyed about these costumes were that they were easy to put on easy to take off.  If the boys decided that they no longer wanted to wear them, they could remove the props and put them away.  These costumes are very easy – they just take a little creativity and time to pull it all together.  I think they would make a fun choice for Book Character Day for any school or even Halloween.

Be sure to check out the video above where I explain each step and show you all the little details of each prop.  If you decide to create your own costumes using inspiration from ours, please be sure to comment and let us know.  What about you?  What would you select for Book Character Day as your dress up costume?

Happy DIY and Fun!