If your kids love Ninja Turtles and you want to make a fun and easy DIY Ninja Turtle costume then keep reading! Whether you want to make a homemade Halloween costume this year or just a cool dress up outfit, this easy to follow tutorial will show you exactly what to do.
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Materials needed to make one Ninja Turtle Costume:
- Green plain t-shirt
- 2 pieces of green felt
- 1 piece of brown felt
- 1 piece of light brown felt
- 1 piece of either orange, blue, purple or red felt (depending on which Ninja Turtle you want to be!)
- Cardboard
- Fabric glue
- Elastic
- Scissors
- Glue (I also used hot glue not pictured here)
- Markers or pencils
I got all of my materials from Michaels Craft Store. However, you can find these items at any craft store as well as online.
Please note, this costume was made to fit my 4 year old. If you are making the costume for a younger child or for an adult you may have to adjust the sizing.
I have gotten very familiar with the Ninja Turtles over the past few months since my kids have discovered them. If you need a quick cheat sheet this is who each Turtle is:
- Rafael wears a red bandana
- Leonardo wears a blue bandana
- Michaelangelo wears an orange bandana
- Donatello wears a purple bandana
How to make a homemade DIY Ninja Turtle Costume:
The first step is to cut out the turtle shell. You can cut up any cardboard box to use. My oval shell measured approximately 12 inches by 8 inches.
However, you may need to adjust the dimensions depending on who will be wearing the costume. Scroll down to the bottom of the post to see how this size shell fits on my 4 year old.
Draw 2 ovals on the cardboard and cut them out using scissors or an xacto knife. You will need one oval for the base of the shell and another for the inner shape template.
Next, draw the shapes seen above onto the shell. Don’t worry about them being perfect!
Cut out the shapes and then trace onto green felt. Cut out the shapes and then set aside.
Using the second cardboard oval as a template, cut out brown felt the same size and then glue them together.
Next, glue (I used hot glue) the green shapes to the brown felt shell.
For the straps, I cut two pieces of felt approximately 14-16 inches long and about 1 inch wide. I then hot glued the straps to the back of the cardboard shell.
Next up is the mask. I freehand drew this mask onto plain white printer paper. However if you would like me to create some different sized templates for you to download, print and trace, comment below and I’d be happy to create them!
Once you have the basic mask template, draw on the bandana portion and a little piece sticking out on the right hand side.
Cut out and then trace the template onto green and orange, red, blue or purple felt. Then glue together.
Using a piece of elastic, measure your child’s head and cut a strip of the elastic and attach to the felt mask.
For the t shirt, I placed a piece of light brown felt on the center of the shirt and drew out six rectangles.
If your kids are able to use scissors this might be a great time to get them involved. Have them cut out the six rectangles and then you can use fabric glue to attach them to the shirt.
If I were to redo this project I would probably cut out the rectangles myself so they were a bit more uniform, but my son had a lot of fun helping so the misshapen rectangles are super cute to me. It also made him feel great to help make his very own costume.
I let the fabric glue dry overnight and then it was ready to wear!
This DIY Ninja Turtle costume would make a great Halloween outfit, or just a fun costume to play dress up with.
