Comfy Totoro Costume!

BOO! It's almost Halloween! Which means candy, costumes, and lots of spooks! This year I decided (with my mom's help because I can’t sew for the life of me) to make an easy and comfy Totoro inspired sweater and a pair of ears. This is a project that can really add some simple cuteness to your wardrobe! Alright let’s get started!

What you will need:

Scissors
Fabric glue or a needle and thread. (A sewing machine will work the best!)

Belly:

Grey sweater
Any White fabric
Dark Grey felt

Ears with leaf🌱

Headband
Any Grey fabric
Stuffing (I used cotton balls!)
Green felt

Outfit:

Grey/black leggings or skirt
Grey or white shoes

Optional: Sewing machine

SWEATER:

To start grab your sweater and lay your white fabric on it, starting from the bottom and up to ¾ of the sweater. Using your scissors cut out a rectangle shape following the seams of the sides of the sweater. If you’d like you can leave a border so you can fold those in when sewing.

Fold the piece in half and cut out a curved shape. With your scissors clean up the newly made shape to create a seamless looking curve like pictured below.

If you like the belly so far then you can start making the little grey things on Totoro’s belly. From the original movie there are seven; but if seven doesn’t fit or looks awkward, feel free to add as many or as little as you want.

Using a scrap piece of paper I created a template by folding it in half to make it as symmetrical as possible. Trace your template on your grey felt. Make sure to make seven! Cut them out and arrange them. What I did, looking at reference, space them out with 3 on the top and 4 right under it!

Finally sew it all together! Start with pinning the belly to the sweater (please be careful!) go around the white, fold in a little bit and pin to create a clean edge. Sew using a sewing machine like I did for the best results! If you’re using glue please use fabric glue for the best results! Hand sewing works too!

For the grey things I used fabric glue but they started to come off and my mom eventually just hand sewed them.

Awesome job! You just finished your Totoro inspired sweater! I love mine and I hope you love yours just as much! It’s a simple way to add some cuteness into your outfit and it’s super comfy too!

EARS AND LEAF:

If you’d like to make the ears to make it a full costume then I’ve written instructions for them too!

Print out the template linked at the bottom of this post👇 Choose the best fitting size for you, cut out the template and trace lightly on your grey fabric.

When you've finished cutting out the pieces you can either sew or glue them together following the outside of the fabric. Make sure to leave the bottom open becuase we'll be stuffing it later. I used fabric glue for mine because I'm not very good with sewing heehee.

*tip try folding in the fabric to create a clean seem as you glue it down*

Next you can stuff your ears to your desired puffy-ness, stitch or glue the bottom up like you did before with the outside, and attach to your headband. Make sure it's a good width apart so you still have space in between for the leaf.

For the leaf you can use the template or make your own. It's super easy! Grab your green felt and cut out a large chubby heart shape. Turn it upside down and boom a leaf! You can use a little bit of wire to put in the inside to give it a lift! Use strong glue and glue it down to the headband in the middle.

There you have it! Your Totoro ears! Super cute and easy to make!!

Hope you enjoyed this project! have fun this Halloween and stay warm!!

Afraa