As time went on, we became inspired by the 30th Anniversary Edition of the recently released DVD Disney's The Fox and The Hound as well as the The Fox and The Hound 2. Who doesn't love the friendship tale of Tod and Copper?
Both costumes utilize basics from Old Navy as the base pieces. The Fox uses their orange colored sueded crew long sleeve tee and the Hound uses the same shirt in white, any brand in those colors will do the job though. For pants, we also used their orange fleece pants for the fox and their brown for the hound. Plus, you'll need two black fleece beanies.
I started by using felt and other fabric I had left over from some projects to make oval cutouts in beige for the animals underbellies. The fabric could be sewn on or simply attached with fabric glue as I did. I also put a few more fabric pieces on the hound shirt randomly for a subtle spot effect. The pants were left plain so they could be easily worn again.
The bulk of the look comes from the ears:
For the hound, I cut out two long hound ears in brown pieces of felt and backed them with two beige pieces of fabric using the fabric glue again. You can stop there or attach brown bias tape all around the ear for a more polished look. I then had someone try on the beanie and marked where I wanted the ears placed. I cut slits where I wanted them and slide them in the slits sewing them in place. You could simply use a few safety pins of you'd like to avoid sewing altogether though.
For the fox, I cut out the triangular shaped ears in orange felt and lined it with the same beige color. Special note, before gluing these layers together, I added a couple pieces of pipe cleaner in between the two layers to help the ears take form. The pipe cleaner or wire will allow the eats to stand up more and give them some flexibility. I then added black felt to the upper 1/4 of the ear on the beige lined side which becomes the front of the ear. Again you can use orange and brown bias tape to finish it off or leave it alone. From here, it's the same as the hound dog, have someone try on the hat and mark. Cut slits where you want them and slide them in the slits sewing them in place. And once again, you could simply use a few safety pins of you'd like to avoid sewing anything.
Extra, I'll likely add a little black costume make-up on their noses on the big day if they allow me too.
