Hooded sweatshirts are a good costume base for cartoon characters as well as animals. In 2008 Ella was Piplup from Pokémon. For this costume, I picked up a light-blue fleece jacket and made a face and neck feathers/cape out of felt.
I like to use felt for complex constructions in costumes, toys, and doll clothes. I draw my design on a large piece of paper and cut out individual features that will be made of different colored felt. In this case, a medium blue felt forms the background and the light blue, white, yellow, and black are layered over it. I use fusible web to bond the pieces together.
The felt pieces can be basted or sewn to the garment. In this case, Ella thought she might want to wear the costume again, so I attached the face and cape with squares of Velcro. That way the felt could be removed when the jacket was washed. (Eventually, the Velcro fell off, and Ella wears the jacket now without decoration.)
