Homemade Chip and Dale Costumes for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

We surprised our kids with a trip to Walt Disney World last October, so this post is only a year in the making, LOL! But I figured with Halloween right around the corner, it might help someone!

I am a planner and I love Disney, but we don’t get to go often so I have to make every minute count! I plan out our days, meals, fastpasses, outfits… everything! And keeping it all a surprise without my kids knowing was HARD, y’all! But I did it. I survived.

There is SO MUCH I could share with you, but today I want to show you my homemade Chip and Dale costumes because they were adorable and we got so many comments. Not to mention, Chip and Dale themselves LOVED them! And having something special leads to amazing character interactions you and your kids will remember forever. ❤️

Let me first give you a little tip. Florida in October is HOT. It is not fall weather. You will sweat and search for fans and misters just as if it were still summer. I learned after the last Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) we went to three years ago to NOT wear full costumes! We went as Han Solo, Princess Leia, Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper. And we were dying in those costumes. The boys didn’t even keep theirs on the whole night as they were so uncomfortable. So this time around I had a much better plan! Our costumes would be short, light and comfortable!

I first had to decide which child was going to be Chip and which one Dale, and since it was a surprise they couldn’t give any input! I ultimately decided to let my older son (age 9 at the time) be the more responsible Chip and the younger (age 7) to be the silly Dale.

Next I had to find the right color brown shirts and shorts as the base for their costumes. If you know your Disney characters, you know Chip is dark brown with a chocolate chip nose and Dale is a lighter camel brown with a red nose.

I ended up finding both shades of brown on Amazon – a chocolate color t-shirt for Chip and a camel color t-shirt for Dale. We already had a pair of dark khaki shorts that worked perfectly for Dale and I found some chocolate brown Gymboree shorts on eBay for Chip. Surprisingly, chocolate brown shorts were harder to come by, so grab them if you see them!

To make the shirts I designed an oval tummy and back stripe/tail in Silhouette Design Studio. You can download that file for FREE here! I used Siser Stripflock heat transfer vinyl which has a fuzzy texture to it. Perfect for these fuzzy little characters! I bought beige for the tummy and black and white for the stripes and tails. I cut the vinyl using the factory settings for “vinyl – flocked” and didn’t have to adjust it at all. But always do a test cut first to make sure your settings are right!

Then I got to use my brand new heat press! Oh, did I tell you I bought a heat press just for this Disney trip?! LOL! I found an inexpensive one on Amazon and figured it was worth the gamble for $120. It is only a 12” x 9” plate. If you can afford a little more, I’d totally splurge for the 15” x 15” heat press. The chipmunk stripes were longer than 12” so I had to press in sections. Not a huge deal. But it would’ve been nice to have a larger surface. For just $55 more you could get this one.

Now we just needed some ears! I bought some cheap headbands,  faux fur and felt from the craft store. I wrapped the headband in the faux fur so it blended better with their hair, but you could skip that step if you want.

It took me a few tries to get the shape right for the ears, but I found a shape that I could fold the bottom of and just hot glued onto the headband. Just save this template picture to your computer, print it and cut out the shapes. Then you can use them as a template to cut your felt.

Here is the finished Chip and Dale!