Okay, here’s my blog post about making a “tiger hood”, written from a personal, hands-on perspective:
So, I decided to try and make this “tiger hood” thing. I’d seen some pictures online, and it looked kinda cool, like something you’d wear for a costume party or maybe just for fun. I’m no professional crafter, but I figured, how hard could it be?
Gathering Supplies
First things first, I needed to get my materials together. I hit up the local craft store and grabbed:
- Orange felt – Lots of it, because, well, tiger.
- Black felt – For the stripes, obviously.
- White felt – For the inner ears and maybe some accents.
- Some fluffy stuff – I think it’s called faux fur? To make it look extra… tiger-y.
- Needle and thread – Orange, black, and white, to match the felt.
- Scissors – Good, sharp ones, because cutting felt can be a pain.
- Fabric glue – Just in case I got lazy with the sewing. (Spoiler: I did.)
- A headband – To attach the whole thing to my head.
- Some cardboard To give the ear a good shape.
The Messy Process
I started by sketching out a rough shape of the hood on a big piece of paper. Honestly, it looked more like a blob than a tiger at first. I cut out two of these blob shapes from the orange felt – one for each side of the hood.
Then came the stripes. I freehanded some wonky black felt stripes and, after a lot of trimming and adjusting, glued them onto the orange felt. Sewing them would have been neater, but fabric glue is my best friend.
The ears were tricky. I cut out some cardboard triangles and covered them with orange felt, then added smaller white felt triangles inside. I stitched these onto the top of the hood, trying to make them stand up straight. They kinda flopped a bit, but hey, it added character.
Next, I sewed the two orange felt pieces together along the top and back, leaving the bottom open for my head. I turned the whole thing inside out, and it actually started to resemble a hood! A very lumpy, slightly uneven hood, but a hood nonetheless.
I glued some of that fluffy faux fur around the edges of the hood, to make it look more wild and less like a felt blob. This was probably the most satisfying part. Instant tiger-ification!
Finishing Touches
Finally, I sewed the headband to the inside of the hood, near the front. This took a few tries to get it positioned right, so it wouldn’t slide off my head.
And… that was it! My very own, slightly janky, definitely homemade tiger hood. It wasn’t perfect, but I made it myself, and that’s pretty cool. I even wore it around the house for a while, pretending to be a ferocious (but very cuddly) tiger.
Would I do it again? Maybe. It was a fun project, even with all the felt fuzz and accidental glue-on-finger incidents. If you’re looking for a crafty challenge, give it a shot! Just don’t expect to become a master seamster overnight. Trust me on that one.
