Oh my word, you guys….I’m cracking up about the costume I’m sharing today! And the younger the child that I make a costume for, the more I sit and laugh as I’m sewing up each part of it. HA! There’s just something so dang cute about tiny little costumes! But yes, we’re continuing on with our theme of Greek Mythology Costumes and in case you missed the others, you can find all the links just below this first image of Oliver.
And like I explained before, Connor and Ellie are big Percy Jackson fans (which is a book series about Greek mythology) and they convinced the rest of the kiddos to be Greek mythology characters with them for Halloween this year. Oliver had absolutely no idea what they were even talking about….but he’s 4-years-old and if his big brother Connor (who is 10 and Oliver idolizes) says something is cool, Oliver is ALL OVER IT! So, Oliver was pretty stoked for me to make him a SATYR Greek Mythology Costume!!!
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Max’s Eros Greek Costume is HERE, Chloe’s Demeter Greek Goddess Costume is HERE, Connor’s Poseidon Greek Costume is HERE, and Ellie’s Artemis Greek Goddess Costume is HERE.
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The Satyr is a mythological creature that has a human upper half and a goat lower half….and they live in the trees or forest. But Connor and Ellie especially loved the idea of someone in our family being a Satyr because in the Percy Jackson books, there was a Satyr named Grover who was a friend and protector of the main character Percy. And once Connor told Oliver how strong a Satyr was and that he sometimes carries weapons to help protect his friends, his eyes doubled in size and he became so excited!
And let me tell you, Oliver takes his Satyr role VERY seriously!!! ;)
You know, I take lots of pictures of my kids (both for the blog and personal things) and Oliver is usually kinda willing, but doesn’t always last long when I’m taking his picture. But you guys, we headed to this wooded area to take pictures and once he got into his costume, he was so dang excited and just smiled and laughed and posed and ran around doing Satyr type stuff. (You know, like acting tough and super cool. Ha!) It was the funniest thing!
He also told Ellie, Connor, and Chloe that he was the only one with a shield….so he would protect them! He would tell them things like, “Just stand behind me guys. Mmmkay?” “I’ll protect ALL of us!” Luckily, they’re all good sports and would oblige!
I’d have to say though, the part that cracks me up the most about the entire costume, are those little goat hooves. Those were a happy accident that came about after trying to decide how to make hooves…..and are made out of a really lightweight wood. (More details about that below.) But Oliver likes to prance around on his tiptoes while wearing them, because well, that’s what goats do, of course! ;)
But didn’t those turn out fun? I had no part in making them—my husband Steve whipped those up, working his scrapwood magic again!
And yes, they’ve been extremely durable and have been worn several times, including in the rain and also for a trunk-or-treat we attended this past weekend. So, lots of walking and running and being a kid in them!
Steve also made Oliver this knife out of scrap wood too…which he swings around and smacks leaves and branches with. Satyr’s are serious about their job!
But he also pretends he’s fighting off the “bad guys” and is constantly slicing through the air and whacking the ground and old tree stumps. If only I could take a peek into that big imagination of his!
The horns are also another favorite…..especially because I figured out how to get them to stick to his head without adding them to a hat or headband. They’re made out of a small portion of fleece and stuffed with batting, so they’re really lightweight too!
The part of this costume that took the longest time, was making a muscle shirt (like I made last year for his Strong Man costume) but other than that, the rest of this Satyr costume was very quick to put together. But you guys, this kid thinks he is just the coolest thing!
It has been so fun watching this kiddo turn from a hardly verbal toddler into a super chatty and imaginative little 4 year old. I just love watching him figure things out and become SO EXCITED to tell the big kids all about what he’s discovering! It just about makes my heart bust right out of my chest.
Oliver, you are the coolest little Satyr I know!!
Ready to make your own Satyr costume??
Okay, let’s get started…
***Check out my Sewing Terms 101 post, for additional help.
Okay, a few things that I don’t have a tutorial for. The shield was just a foam shield that I found at Hobby Lobby for a few dollars that I spray painted gold. The knife was one that my husband Steve made from scrap wood, that he then painted. He loves tinkering around with scrap wood….so that was fun for him. But another option is to find a cheap foam or plastic sword at the dollar store and spray paint it gold. Oh, and don’t forget the MUSCLE SHIRT is linked above….and can easily be made to whatever size you need!
Let’s start with the pants. I just created a pair of pants in the same shape as the Simple Leggings tutorial. Just be sure to use a pair of non-stretchy pants as your template, because your fur fabric won’t stretch. Also, you only need to make them slightly longer than the knee…and you won’t need to hem them. Using the tutorial above, you only need two pieces of fabric, shown like the piece on the left. The one on the right is the same piece, but folded in half, which is how you’ll cut it out.
Put them together just like the leggings tutorial.
As for the waistband, because the fur is sol bulky, I didn’t want to create a casing and add elastic inside. Instead I created an exposed elastic waistband, just like the Elastic Waistband Skirt tutorial.
(Yes, my elastic is shiny silver on the inside. Ha! It’s what I had on hand!)
Onto the horns. I just cut some very simple horn shapes out of black fleece, that only curved very slightly. The size of horn shapes that worked for my 4 year old, were 4.5 inches tall and 2 inches wide at the base. You’ll need two of these for each horn.
Place your two horn pieces with RIGHT sides together and sew along the two long sides, using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.
Turn right side out and stuff with batting.
Using a needle and thread, sew the end of the horn closed. (Hand sewing tutorial HERE.)
Grab some yellow (or lighter color) thread and tie a know in one end, and push the needle through the bottom of the horn to get the thread started, and then start wrapping it around the horn pretty tightly.
Once you’ve wound your thread around to the very end of the horn, stitch in several spots at the very top to secure the wrapped thread in place. Trim your thread ends.
Now, I experimented with attaching horns to a headband first. It was okay. But I kinda hated seeing the headband. So, I had some of these little clips that were attached to some really obnoxious colored hair extension pieces that my girls have used for fun, and they were just the right size. So, I hand stitched them onto the base of the horn….and they worked perfectly. They stay in SUPER tight and make the horn look more realistic! You can find similar clips HERE.
Now, onto the goat feet. My husband and I brainstormed a bit on how to make the hooves look realistic and we had several ideas. However, he told me he had some pretty lightweight bass wood out in the garage that he wanted to experiment with. A little while later, he came back in with these goat hooves that are hollowed out to fit over a shoe. (We got these shoes for like $5 at walmart…but you could even use an old pair of shoes that are worn out.) I didn’t take a picture before hand because I wasn’t even sure they’d turn out. But once he got the main shape, he added lines and texture…..and then added black and grey paint to make the hooves look worn and scuffed. They turned out way better than I ever expected!!!!
Here’s a better picture from the back, so you can see how they were hollowed out.
And here they are placed over the toe of the shoe.
Since they won’t stay on without a little help, I hot glued a piece of elastic to the bottom of the hoof to hold it onto the show.
And then I added hot glue to the inside of the hoof and slid the shoe in there…..and then added extra blobs of glue around all of the edges that touched.
Before adding the fur to the shoe, I grabbed some scrap fleece and created a base that the fur could sit on, so it would be lever with the hoof. I just folded it up to create a thick strip of fabric and stitched the ends in place.
Then I placed it on top of the shoe so that it was level with the wooden hoof. (You’ll have to experiment with a piece of fabric until you get the size you need.)
Then I cut a piece of the faux fur and glue it right on top, securing it down on the sides to the sole of the shoe as well.
I was so excited with how these turned out. They just make me laugh!! And Oliver has worn the shoes many times, even in some rainy conditions, and they have held up great and haven’t come apart at all.
(***If you aren’t handy with wood…another option is to cut this shape out of some styrofoam. And then maybe wrap it in tape to keep the styrofoam from breaking apart. Another idea we had was to use thick sheets of foam and contour that around the front of a shoe and glue it in place. Then you could paint it and kind of give it a split toenail look and add a little fur to the top of the foot like shown above. Or you could just have your subject wear the black leggings and black shoes….but just put a little fur down around the ankle or even down to the toes. All options would work with a little experimenting!)
To help transition between the bigger upper portion of a goat leg, down to the more narrow portion that connects to the hooves, I bought a pair of black leggings for $3 that were about 2 sizes too big (so that they’d be extra long). Then I sewed them in at the waist to make them smaller and along the inner leg. That way, when he puts them on, I pull the extra length from each leg and pull them down and over the bottom of the shoe, to cover the rest of the shoe….but also to make the leg look continuous, you know, more like a goat leg. Then, once he put the fur pants on top, it looks a little more like a goat leg.
The wrist gaurds were made the same way as the ones I made for the Greek Goddess Demeter Costume. However, I didn’t spray paint these and added the gold brads in different locations. I also added a little gold acrylic paint to the edges, just like I did with the Greek God Poseidon Costume. Easy and done!
The belt was made just like the Greek God Poseidon Costume …but without adding the metal octopus in the middle.
And that’s it! Our little SATYR is complete!
Hope that’s helpful for some of you wanting to make your own Satyr costume!
Enjoy!
-Ashley
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And you can always browse all of our DIY Halloween Costumes and even specific categories —> HERE!!
Hi, I’m Ashley—the DIY-enthusiast behind this crazy blog!
