If you would like, you can complete your look by making Totoro ears with an adorable leaf in the middle.
See the resemblance?
A few years ago, I was Judy Hopps for Halloween and I learned the hard way that animal ears can be a real pain.
Why the weird face? Me from three years ago was not very photogenic apparently.
I thought it would be cool to insert the headband into my hairstyle so it looked like the ears were really growing out of my head. The effect was very cool, but had a bit of a downside. Car rides were impossible.
Horrible quality, but please accept this as proof of my point. It was not a comfy ride.
Needless to say, I have learned my lesson about animal ears and car rides, opting for a removable option for this costume. Plus, they fit perfectly between the seats in my car for easy storage. Win-win.
Morale of the story: if you’ll be in the car for a while, consider removable ears. Let’s go.
Supplies:
Scrap cardboard
Scissors
Hot glue gun and glue
Headband
Marker
Scarp fabric for stuffing
Green fabric
Gray fabric (or white fabric and some handy paint)
1. First, draw out the shape you want for your ears. Then cut out the template- you really just need one unless you want to put the cardboard directly into the ear to add support. I had enough stuffing so I did not include the cardboard.
2. Trace the template onto the fabric you are going to use for your ears. Then cut out the ear shapes. You will need 4 total.
3. Take two of the ear pieces and glue them together along the edges, leaving the bottom open. You will be turning the whole thing inside out so if there are any words/pictures on the material, you want them to be facing out at this point.
5. Now carefully, flip the ear piece inside out. To do this, I reached my finger through the bottom, grabbed the inner tip of the ear, and then pulled it through the opening, carefully slipping the whole thing through.
6. Start stuffing. I keep a jar handy when I do any sewing projects. I throw any tiny bits of scrap fabric/string/ribbon into the jar for just this purpose.
7. Repeat Steps 3-6 to make the other ear. Make sure the two ears are relatively even before proceeding.
8. Fold the bottom flaps of the ears down and glue into place, securing them closed.
9. Now we’ll start on the headband. Cut two strips of thin cardboard. They should be a little thicker than the headband you are using so they hang over each side. The strips only have to be as long as the outermost points of where your ears will be. I used longer strips and then trimmed them when I was ready to place my ears.
10. Glue along the two long edges and create a cardboard sandwich, leaving the two short ends unattached (this is where the headband will slip through).
11. Make sure the cardboard fits nicely on your headband by sliding one end of the headband through one open end of the cardboard sandwich. Next, attach your ears using hot glue. This is where you can figure out positioning. I chose to have my ears straight up-and-down since this is how Totoro’s ears usually are shown, but I have seen others have their ears pointed outward more like Eevee. To do this, put the headband on (without the ears), look in a mirror, and test out different positions. Once you find one you like, mark the placement with a marker then take off the headband and glue the ears on. They should be directly over the headband to best hold the weight.
12. Once the glue is dry, if you need to, you can take the insert off of the headband and paint your ears. I didn’t have any gray fabric handy so white fabric and paint worked for me. If you did use gray fabric, you can now paint the cardboard and cover up any hot glue peeking out from the base.
13. While your ears are drying, let’s make the leaf. Cut a leaf shape out of scrap paper/cardboard and trace onto the green fabric. You will need two of them.
14. Cut out and layer your two leaf shapes.
15. Using the same technique as the ears, glue the edges together, leaving the stem and part of the surrounding leaf open (seal with more hot glue if you wish), then turn the leaf inside out.
16. Stuff the leaf to your liking. I chose to leave the stem unstuffed so it would be flat. Once you’re done stuffing, Hot glue the stem closed.
17. Add some details with some green paint if you would like.
18. Now figure out the placement of your leaf. Again, you can put the headband on and figure out exactly where you want the leaf to be. I initially made the mistake of attaching mine before trying it on. It looked cute off my head, but looked completely difference once it was on because of the angle difference with my height. Play around with it. Once you found what you like, attach with hot glue.
Now you have some cute ears for your Totoro costume.
Here is a full list of all of the parts of this tutorial:
