
Hello!! It's October and Halloween is coming! I love this holiday so much because I get to sew costumes. Today I'm sharing my much loved Oscar the Grouch costume that I made for my son a few years back.
It's always a last minute mad dash to get costumes done and this year was no different. This Oscar the Grouch costume was fun to make and I want to show you how I did it just in case you have to make a Sesame Street costume too! But mostly, I hope you can see that you can improvise and change a pattern to get the look you want. I'm super excited with how this one turned out.
DIY Oscar the Grouch Costume
Supplies to Make an Oscar the Grouch costume
- kids zip up hoodie pattern - I used Burda Kids 9378
- Green fleece
- plastic separating sport zipper
- a ping pong ball for the eyes
- wire hanger to keep the hood open
- Hot glue gun
- brown fur scraps for the eyebrows
- black fabric scraps for the eye pupils

What is Fleece or Polar fleece
Fleece is a soft fuzzy knit fabric typically used to make “no-sew blankets”. Fleece is also called polar fleece, blizzard fleece & anti-pill fleece. Fleece is one of my favorite fabrics to sew with for costumes. It is inexpensive, stretchy, and very easy to sew. It doesn’t fray and it never shows wobbly stitch lines.

Tips for Sewing with Fleece
Fleece is thick. Increasing the sewing machine stitch length to 3.0-3.5 will help the fabric move through the sewing machine a little easier.
Finding the RIGHT SIDE of fleece can be tricky sometimes. The RIGHT SIDE of the fleece will appear more fluffy while the WRONG SIDE will appear more smooth or flat.
Fleece will melt if the iron is too hot, so be careful when pressing the side seams. A seam roller is a good option to press these seams if you have one.
You can sew fleece with a regular machine but if you have a serger it would be a good time to pull it out for sewing the side seams, shoulders, and sleeves.
Because the fabric doesn’t fray you only need to fold over the fabric once to hem the openings. I suggest using a zig zag stitch for the hemming the legs or arm holes to allow the fabric to stretch while the costume is worn. I set the zig zag stitch LENGTH to about 2.5 mm and the stitch WIDTH to about 3.5 mm. Your machine may have different settings. Practice on a scrap of fleece until you get the look you like and the setting that allows you to sew easily.

To make the Oscar the Grouch costume
I sewed up the jacket and pants based on the Burda Kids pattern. Before hemming, I checked the fit and realized it was a little too baggy in the chest and sleeves so I took a little out of that area by sewing a bigger side seam on the sleeves and under the armpits.

Add Eyes and Eyebrows to the Hood
To turn the plain jacket into Oscar the Grouch I added a set of eyes and bushy eyebrows to the hood. To make the eyes I cut a ping pong ball in half with some scissors. I had to smash the ping pong ball a little to cut it and it naturally gave it a little oval eye shape.

I put the jacket on my son and placed the eyes where they seemed to look right. They were about an inch a part and 3/4 in away from the edge of the hood. I used the seams on the hood to help me keep them even and just glued them on with hot glue around the edges of the ball.

Next I cut out some eyebrows from brown fur and used them to cover the top of the eyes. I glued them on with hot glue. I also added small black circles for the pupils. This was way easier than I had expected it to be.
Add a Wire to the Hood
To get the hood to stand out I used an old wire hanger and bent it using a pair of pliers (not pictured). I used the basic shape of the hood lying flat as a guide to figure out where to bend it. I cut off the extra wire from each end and turned it to make a little loop on the end so it wouldn't poke my child. I cut a little opening in the hem of the hood and slid the wire in. Then I hand stitched the wire in place using the little loop at the end of each side to sew around.

Add Monster Gloves to the Jacket
To add monster hand gloves to the jacket I made a pattern by loosely tracing around my son's hands (I had him stick his 2 littlest fingers together to make four fingers instead of 5). Then I just cut out two pieces and sewed them together with a little extra length on the wrist.

I didn't want to completely sew on the gloves so I just sewed half of the glove to the top of the sleeve. Then he just slid his hands in and out of the gloves as needed and he didn't have to worry about losing them.

FYI: I did not add Monster feet. I just let him walk around in regular shoes.
Make the Garbage Can
For the trash can I cut up a piece of cardboard and glued some rope around the bottom and top and then covered it with duct tape to look like a rim. I folded the cardboard along the corrugations every couple of inches and spray painted the whole thing silver. I taped it together in the back on the inside and out to make a circle. He had to shimmy in and out of it and ended up just holding it up as he walked around but you could easily add suspenders to the can to hold it up if needed.


And that's it! It came together pretty easily. His brother when as Santa Clause

Have you made an Oscar the Grouch costume? If you do, I'd love to see it!