Horse costume

Hooded sweatshirt in a horse color (a black one would probably be easy to find) with matching sweat pants.

Make horse shaped ears out of faux fur and sew them on the hood in the appropriate place.

Then take some yarn for the mane. Easiest way I know to manage that is like doll hair. Take a piece of cardboard half as wide as you want the mane to be long. Like if you want the hairs in the mane to be 4" long, you need a

2" wide piece of cardboard. Tape the end of the yarn to the end of the cardboard. Then wrap the yarn around the 2" wide part of the cardboard till it's completely covered by yarn. Cut the yarn off from the skein or ball. Then slide the blade of your scissor under one side of the yarn. You are going to cut it off the cardboard. When you open it out flat (after cutting) you will have 4" long pieces of yarn. Lay those out flat on a piece of tissue paper (or a piece of paper from your printer) so the middle of the yarn (The folded edge opposite the side you cut from the cardboard) runs down the middle of the paper. Then take it to your sewing machine. You are going to stitch through the yarn and the paper (paper is against the feed dogs) with color matching thread. After that, tear the paper gently out of the stitches. Now you have your mane. You can glue it on the hood of the sweatshirt with fabric glue. Remember to arrange it so she has "bangs" between the ears.

Do the same thing for the tail. Only you will want to make the hairs much longer. I would sew the tail to the pants along the row of stitching through the yarn. (it needs to be held on better than the mane in case she sits on it.) Then fold the tail over itself along that row of stitching and make a pony tail with it to hide the seam and keep it from parting in the middle. (does that make sense?)

Black mittens would work for hooves on her hands. Just tell her to keep her thumbs tucked under her fingers.

HTH!! Good luck

Sharon

Thrift store or cheap department store sweats in a horse-like color, with patches of color added if she wants to be a Palomino. Horsey tail made from a couple skeins of yarn. Hood made from horse-colored fabric with a yarn mane. I suppose you could make hooves out of some sort of plastic shell (spray can tops?) and add elastic so she can wear them like bracelets. Also, ask the other parents how they will be outfitting their stables. (Someone's gonna go rent or buy a fancy costume. Ignore that.) HTH

--Karen M.

Thanks for your great suggestions. Looks like I'm going to be busy this weekend!

Viviane