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Original Car Fox Costume from the CARFAX Commercials

I wanted to be a bright, orange fox but needed a twist – so I came up with the Car Fox (from the Car Fax commercials)!  It was so fun to be the Car Fox and have a unique costume that made people snap their fingers and say “haaaah!”

There are 6 parts to the costume – arm cuffs, hood with ears, boot covers, tail, shirt, and pants.

Materials used: 1.5 yd orange fur fabric, 0.5 yd white fur fabric, 12” square of black fur fabric, less than a qtr of pink fuzzy fabric, thick craft foam sheet, fluff, thick elastic, white tee shirt, black sharpie, iron-on letters, jeans.

*Optional – Manic Panic electric lava hair dye (although it turned out red instead of orange – still love it), orange lashes, red lipliner for brows.

The arm cuffs were easy so I started with them first.  This was actually my first time using my sewing machine (I only got 10 months ago for Christmas, lol) so I wanted to ease myself into it.

After that, I worked on the hood.  I measured the hood shape with newspapers (fancy, huh?) to get the length/ fit I wanted.  I used two pieces to make the hood so there is only one seam (less cutting, less sewing, less margin for error).  I sewed it together and cut a little more off the front as needed.  Then I made the ears.  I made a two-tone (orange with black tips) ear with a pink inside.  Any excuse to use pink, right?

I cut up craft foam and put it inside the ear to make it hold its shape.  I sewed the ears onto the hood.

Next up was the boot covers.  I took a couple sheets of notebook paper and wrapped them around my Uggs to make a stencil.  I made sure to note the direction of the fur and then traced, cut, and sewed it all together.  I did orange “feet” with white “toes”.

I was nervous about the tail because it could make or break the costume!  I drew out the shape that I wanted on an old bag and then cut it into sections where the direction changed.  I drew arrows noting where the fur should face, and wrote the color/ order.  I traced the stencils on the fabric, flipped them over and traced again.  I did the same thing with the white pieces, and then laid everything out together to see how my shape was coming.  Sew time!  I sewed the individual sides together first then sewed them both together.  It really helped to pin everything down!

I actually used Christmas “snow” as my stuffing.  I wanted a nice, plump tail so I stuffed a lot of fluff in there.  I sewed the elastic into a loop (2 pcs) with the sewing machine.  Then I put the loops under the extra flaps of fabric on the top of the tail and hand sewed them on.

You wear the tail by looping the elastic over a belt.  I didn’t even put my belt in my pant belt loops because I wanted to re-position the tail all day.  I would slide it to the side every time I got in the car or even while sitting in my chair at work.  BTW – I wore my costume all day to work

Bonus: The tail swung side to side as I walked, like I was wagging it, so I had fun with that all day.

The shirt was probably the easiest part of the costume.  First, I colored in the collar and sleeve rims with black sharpie.  Then I found iron on letters, cut them out, and ironed them onto the shirt.  As my son would say, “Easy peazy macaroni and cheesy!”

Last but not least is the pants.  I found some old pre-baby jeans that barely fit. Literally, I could not even zip them up all the way let alone button them… but I had a belt to cover that.

I cut horizontal lines into the jeans in three areas to make the holes.  Then I washed them and they came out all frayed.  Then I took scraps of my orange fur and hand sewed them to the jeans, on the inside.  I basically sewed all around the edges of the fur fabric (using black thread).  Once it was all in there, I pulled out some fur so it stuck out more.

*The pants, already too small, became a little tighter with the sewn in fur.  I guess it made those parts stiffer and less stretchy.  So when I bent down to put my baby in his car seat, I totally busted one of the seams!  I first fake-destroyed the jeans, then I really destroyed them, lol.  It still looked fine so I didn’t mend it at all, but it was pretty funny.

Hope you liked it!  “Show me the car fax!”

 

Original Car Fox Costume from the CARFAX Commercials

Original Car Fox Costume from the CARFAX Commercials

Original Car Fox Costume from the CARFAX Commercials



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