Easy Shark DIY Halloween dog costume! +video

It's Halloween, baby!🎃 Make your Italian greyhound a star this Halloween with this easy to make Shark costume. What's cuter than dressed Italian Greyhound? I'll tell you - Italian greyhound dressed in a hilarious costume!👻

It's important to mention: this Shark Halloween costume will work perfectly well for all breed dogs, just use your creativity & imagination to choose the base clothing and you're good to go. The good part is - if you're careful, you will not damage the jumpsuit, the fin will come off nicely. Onesies, jumpsuits, vests, everything works!

So, this iggy costume was supposed to be Jaws, yet it ended up more to a Baby Shark. But hey, what can you do? It was kind of naive to expect our baby-face Oliver would look like cold-blooded shark from Jaws 🤷🏻‍♀️

And with no further ado, let's dive to the step-by-step instructions. You don't need to be a golden-handed crafts person to make this costume aaaaand it will only take up to an 1,5 hour to make this! So... Trick, treat or iggy shark? 

For Dog Shark Halloween costume you will need:

• A paper template of a fin (I drawn it myself, size of 13x21 cm or 5x8"). Please keep in mind you'll need to have an allowance for a seam of ~1cm / 0.5".
• A grey piece of felt or a similar fabric (you want it to be stiff as it needs to shape nicely). The exact amount depends on the size of fin's shape x 2.
• Grey thread and a needle for stitching
• Pins
• A piece of soap or pencil
• Foam filler
• Scissors
• A grey onesie. We used Dove from our essentials collection. Don't worry, you'll not damage the clothes.

How to make Shark's dog costume:

1. First of all, mark the shape of fin's template on your fabric with a piece of soap or a pencil.
2. Use pins to secure both layers if you want to speed up the process and cut both pieces at once. You need to have 2 identical fins.
   
3. Align the 2 pieces and stitch them together. You can use sewing machine or, alternatively, do it by hand. If you're going by hand, make the stitches short and firm, so that the fin doesn't open once stuffed with foam filler. Important: leave a couple of centimetres (or up to 1") at the corners without stitches. You want a fin to open nicely. 
4. Now make small cuts around the edges. Be careful not to cut the seams! Making those small cuts will help the seams to look more even and neat once turned inside out. 
   
5. Turn the fin inside out. Use your fingers, a pencil or something similar to make the top of the fin sharp and the corners even.
6. Fill the fin with foam to shape it. No need to make it super wide, you may want only 1-2 centimetres of extra volume.
7. We'll measure now! Dress your iggy with the onesie or any other piece of clothing you will use to sew the fin on.
8. Put the fin on top of your dog's back to align the fin, so that it looks straight and right on spot. You can mark the spot with a soap or you can pin the fin to the onesie. But be extra-careful not to hurt your iggy. Don't forget to spare a load of treats to your dog for being such a patient model!
   
9. Undress your iggy and start stitching the fin to onesie. Use pins first and then stitch it nicely with a grey thread and a needle. Do it twice. You want the find to be firmly sewn on. Yet, don't make stitches too short and don't use sewing machine - they may leave the traces on your onesie. And we aim to keep it as of the same condition after the Halloween :) 
10. That's it, congratulations! Put the shark's costume on your iggy & go on a test walk outside - collect all the positive vibes from people you don't even know. I've been there & done that, that was a blast! :)

DIY video of the process

I'd love to see the results if you make this costume! Please share your pic on social and tag us @harvoola or simply drop an email at hi@harvoola.com.

Happy Halloween, everybody! 🎃 

 Love, Ūla