Snake costume DIY free pattern & tutorial

Snake costume DIY free pattern & tutorial! My kids have been really into snakes over the past year and I thought it would be a perfect time to make a diy snake hoodie that can be a comfy costume or everyday clothes.

This takes all of an afternoon to stitch up and I’m sharing the free snake costume pattern for the eyes, fangs, frill, and tongue that should fit roughly sizes 4-12, the example I stitched up here is a kids small 6/8. The dragon costume hoodies I made a few years back were a big hit on Halloween and then worn countless other times throughout the year, they were so cozy and fun I wanted to keep that trend going! Sweatshirt material is easy and stable so this is a great project for beginners and advanced sewists alike.

This post was sponsored by JOANN, which means they supplied some of the materials and compensated me for my time, but all opinions are my own.

The hardest part of this project was finding a hoodie with the double-seamed hood, that made it super easy to keep things symmetrical. This snakeskin print fabric makes anything look fancy and feels scale-like with the sequins, my kids are thrilled with how the project turned out.

Check out these other posts while you’re here!

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We went for a generic cobra vibe, but this would work well with a black sweatsuit as well, or you could add a 3-D tail with a rattle if your little one likes dancing around and making noise.

With everything appliqued on, this snake sweatsuit is ready for any action!

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Snake costume DIY free pattern & tutorial

Supplies

• • 1/2 yard of snakeskin print fabric
  • 1/8 yard of red knit fabric
  • Palm size scraps of black, white, and red felt
  • Green sweatsuit
  • Hand sewing needle & coordinating thread
  • Seam ripper
  • Sewing clips
  • Rotary cutter
  • Tracing paper to make the tail and belly patch pattern custom to your outfit
  • Printable PDF pattern –sign up for my newsletter and get the free download once you confirm your subscription! If you’re already a subscriber, you can access the pattern with the password in each newsletter, in the resource library.

Steps

Step 1- Cut out two white felt fangs, two shiny red eyes, and one red felt tongue. I like using freezer paper to cut small shapes like this (but be careful with acrylic blend felt, it can melt with high heat, use a cotton layer in between to protect your iron!); if you aren’t familiar, I have more detailed instructions on how to applique here.

Step 2- Cut (2) mirrored sets of the head frill! You’ll want to line up the grainline marker (long arrow) so it is perpendicular to the selvage (raw) edges, and in this case, following the sequins. This will make it so the stretch goes side to side and it is easier to gently bend around the curve.

Step 3- Clip right sides together, and sew the outer curve together with 1/4″ seam allowance. Trim the pointy ends off once you’re done.

Step 4- Flip the frill right side out and finger press the crease, flattening it out. Use clips to hold the layers together and sew along the raw edges as shown.

Step 5- Seam rip the hood seams one at a time, gently clipping in the frill with the raw edges inside. Clip, and resew this seam. Snip off the pointy edges sticking out once you’re done. Repeat with the other side.

Step 6- Hand sew on the tongue and fangs, centered on the hood lining.

 

Step 7- Lay out your red eye on to black felt and cut around the edges, and then applique it on to the hood, repeat for the other side. You can add a felt pupil if you’d like, but I liked the look of it without one!

Step 8- Next you’ll want to do some DIY pattern making and trace out a belly pattern. Make sure it’ll clear the edge of the kangaroo pocket so it is still functional. I made sure to cover the brand logo, too, and then used my pattern to cut out a mirrored pair of belly patches.

Step 9- [2024 edit – trying to break this down and make it clearer with substeps, wish I had taken more photos here, my apologies. Going to edit what I have and try to make it clearer. This step allows kids to still use the pocket. If that isn’t an issue, just applique it on over the pocket.]

9a: Seam rip out the top of the kangaroo pocket!

9b: Pin the bottom half of the belly patch on to the pocket top, sewing around the outside edges of the scale patch but NOT the top edge. In an ideal world, you’d layer it right alongside the zipper, but this particular hoodie had a thick, enclosed seam around the zipper guard, making that impossible. You’re sewing where the white line is.

9c: Then carefully fold the belly patch down, reattach the pocket top stitching layer along the line you seam ripped. You are only sewing the hoodie pocket back to the base body piece at this time, not even touching the scale fabric. This is shown with the white line.

9d: Lay out the top half of the scale patch down and pin it before appliqueing the rest of it on, sewing around the side edges as shown in white above. The green is the already sewn line from 9b.

Step 10- Lay your pants out and draw yourself a pattern piece that curves from the back seam up to the front – I was aiming to cover up the logo. Make sure to stay under the “pocket bag” (interior pocket) so you don’t end up stitching that to the leg. And you’re done!

I curved the tail around to the back but forgot to take a good photo of it – you can start/stop that wherever you want no problem! The only precaution with appliqueing a larger shape over an area that has a lot of movement (knee/elbow/bum) is to make sure it isn’t restricting movement. The larger the shape appliqued on, the more restrictive it could be. This tail was relatively narrow and didn’t affect anything, but you may want to experiment and baste (sew with long loose stitches) something on first to make sure it doesn’t feel too tight before the final stitches!