Make Your Own Cowboy Costume with Cow-Print Vest

This Halloween is the first for us as a family of 4! My oldest, T.J., is 2 years and 9 months old and my youngest, Nathan, is 7 weeks old. One of T.J.’s favorite movies is Toy Story, so what better costume for two brothers than Woody and Buzz?

After a quick search online, I realized that these costumes would not be cheap. A Woody costume can easily run up to $45 for something he would only wear once (and they all look a little ridiculous for his age, in my opinion). I really have a hard time spending a lot on halloween costumes that they’re only going to wear for a couple of hours.

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I set out to put together T.J.’s Woody costume using a combination of items we already own and inexpensive alternatives. I knew that we would need:

• A cowboy hat and belt
• Yellow flannel shirt
• Red bandana
• Jeans
• Brown shoes or boots
• The iconic cow-print vest
• Sheriff badge

Of these items, we already own jeans, brown shoes, and a red bandana. You could find a red bandana online or at Wal-mart for $1 or less! Although he owns a few flannel shirts, unfortunately none were yellow. I found this yellow flannel shirt on Amazon for under $12 and figured he can wear this again for Thanksgiving and pumpkin patch pictures this year. If you already own or find an inexpensive yellow shirt, you could draw red lines on it with a fabric marker.

You could definitely find a cheap cowboy hat and belt set but I decided to go with this one since it was on sale for $12! A steal, honestly, especially for the Disney Store. So, all I had left was the vest and badge, both of which I decided to make myself.

I don’t know how to sew or use a sewing machine so I knew I would have to find a tutorial that was “no-sew”. After searching around online, I found a nice toddler pattern and loved the pictures of how it came out. You can find the vest pattern and instructions here but it did require sewing, so I made a few tweaks.

Before You Begin…

Before I begin, I wanted to give a few recommendations. First, I read a few tutorials that used felt. Although it is thick and may not show any adhesive, I found that it was too stiff for the look I wanted. Flannel is a much softer fabric, moves nicer, and I got it at the same price. Second, if you can find cow-print flannel fabric I recommend getting it! I didn’t, but the original blog I linked found it at Wal-Mart. I went to Jo-Ann’s and just bought black and white since they didn’t have the print in flannel fabric. Third, I bought extra wide double fold black bias tape and found that it was way too wide for the edging for this project. I think wide would be just fine.

How To Make a No-Sew Toddler Cow-Print Cowboy Vest

Step 1: Trace and Cut Out All Pieces

Step 2: Glue Vest Seams Together

Step 3: Cut out and Add Spots

You could definitely stop here and add some decorative stitching around the vest instead of the edging (or no edging at all!), but I really liked the look of the bias tape. These next steps were definitely the most challenging but I think it’s because of how wide the bias tape was. My best piece of advice is to go slow and glue small sections of the bias tape at a time.

Step 4: Glue Your Edging Material

My grand total for this Woody costume ended up being under $30. If I’m going to spend the money, I’d like to get something that we will use again, like a regular shirt versus a costume shirt. Another pro for me is that it ends up looking less “costume-y” and more like a real outfit. Best of all, I was able to start and finish this vest during nap time, which is a huge win in my book!

I hope you all find this helpful, and tag me if you try this for yourself on instagram @naturallybyjess.