How to Make a Sloth Costume for Kids? | Hoodie-to-Sloth DIY

Make a sloth costume for kids by sewing a felt face onto a hooded sweatshirt, adding felt claws inside the sleeves, and topping it with leaf accents.

For the full breakdown, see our best Animal Sloth Costume guide.

Layering the face pieces in the right order on the hood and giving sleeves authentic three-toed claws sells the illusion.

What You Need To Build The Costume

The material list is short, and most is standard craft-drawer stuff.

• A hooded top or hoodie in any color, preferably brown or tan
• Craft felt in brown, cream or white, black, and green
• Stiff felt (or a double layer of regular felt) for the claws
• Scissors, straight pins, and a needle with matching thread
• A printed sloth face template or your own hand-drawn version

Fabric glue works as a shortcut, but stitching holds up to playground wear far better. For a quick guide, a paper-bag sloth puppet pattern offers the same face pieces—eye patches, snout, and mouth—scaled down for your felt cutouts.

The Step-By-Step Build

This method turns a plain hoodie into a wearable sloth in about two hours. Lay the hoodie flat with the hood facing you and work through the steps in order.

1. Cut The Face Pieces

Cut a cream oval for the face, two large brown eye patches, two black pupils, a brown or black nose, and a wide smile-shaped mouth. Pin them on the cream oval to check the layout, adjusting so features sit centered on the hood’s front.

2. Assemble The Face

Stitch the eye patches, pupils, nose, and mouth onto the cream oval with small running stitches or a whipstitch along each edge. Keep stitches close to the felt’s edge so they don’t show from the front. This is easier flat on a table than after attaching to the hood.

3. Sew The Face To The Hood

Position the finished face oval on the hood’s front, centered and low enough to sit near the child’s forehead. Pin and sew around the entire edge. If the hood has a drawstring, work around it rather than cutting the cord.

4. Make And Attach The Claws

Cut four claw shapes from stiff felt, about four inches long, tapering to a rounded point. Stitch them into two sets of three (or two sets of two), leaving the base open. Slide each set inside a sleeve cuff so points extend past the fingers, then sew the base to the inside of the cuff, keeping seams inside.

5. Add The Leaf Accents

Cut a few leaf shapes from green felt and stitch them along the zipper or hood’s edge. This sells the “hanging in a tree” look and is the easiest step to skip if short on time.

An Easier Hat-And-Scarf Alternative

If the hoodie route feels like too much sewing, use a plain hat, felt scraps, and a long scarf. Sew or glue eye patches, snout, and mouth onto the hat’s front, then wrap the scarf around the child’s neck, letting the ends hang like fur. Brown gloves or socks over the hands serve as claws, and the build takes under an hour.

Safety Checks Before Wearing

Run through these checks so the child can see and breathe comfortably.

• If the hood has eye openings, cut them large enough for clear vision and reinforce edges with a whipstitch to stop fraying.
• Keep glued felt or bulky pieces away from the nose and mouth—nothing should block airflow.
• Make claws from soft or flexible felt for safe play; stiff felt is fine for the look, but an adult should handle cutting and sewing.