Learn how to make a super cute and affordable kid’s Chick Fil A employee costume in just one evening!
“Ava, tomorrow is dress like what you want to be when you grow up day at school… what do you want to be when you grow up?”
“A Chick-Fil-A worker.”
This was the response my 4-year-old preschooler gave when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up and I couldn’t be prouder. For one, Chick-Fil-A has the best food on the planet and amazing customer service.
As an entrepreneur, I really appreciate a business with good customer service!
But two, it’s it a Christian based company! So if my 4-year-old daughter wants to grow up to share the love of Jesus through delicious chicken then I say go for it sister!
As soon as she said Chick-Fil-A worker my brain went to work lol. I knew I needed to get a red shirt and some white heat press vinyl. She already had a black pair of pants she can wear!
After a trip to Walmart and a trip to Hobby Lobby, I had my supplies and got started right away.
Yall, I love making costumes lol so it’s safe to assume I was pretty excited.
Be sure to hang out till the end of this post! I included a slide show video of the making and wearing of this fun costume!
I started with the little hat strap.
I took two priority mailers I had stuffed in my craft room and cut them up to give the visor some stability.
I cut a thin rectangle that was about 1.5″ wide and 19″ long. I reinforced the crease (where the mailer was folded) with some duck tape. (fancy stuff over here).
I wrapped and glued the rectangle in a piece of long red felt. I made sure the felt was a little longer than the cardboard on each side so there was enough room to fit and velcro around my daughter’s head.
I sewed the ends of the felt closed then sewed on the velcro. The velcro I had on hand is actually sticky adhesive velcro and is NOT made for sewing. Hence my poor needle.
This is what happens when you ask a crocheter to sew ????
Onto the visor part of the hat!
To make this I traced a half-circle around a bowl, about the same size as my daughter’s head, onto a priority mailer. Then I sketched off from there to create the shape of the visor.
I cut two of these out and glued them together so it was extra durable.
Next, I glued the piece I just made onto some red felt.
I cut it out, around the felt, leaving about an inch of fabric to work with around the visor.
I snipped the felt all the way around the visor (about 1.5-2 inches apart) then glued each piece down, one at a time.
After all the glue dried, I cut out another piece of red felt, about the same shape as the visor, and glued it over all the little folds to give it a cleaner look.
This is the bottom of the visor and my daughter is barely 3ft tall, so I don’t think anyone will even see it lol.
Last I hot glued the visor section onto the strap section and the little hat was constructed!
Now to make it look official with the most important thing!
I googled the Chick-Fil-A logos, uploaded them into the Cricut Design Space and cut them out of the heat press vinyl using my Cricut.
I ironed them onto the hat-band and polo. Ok I say “ironed”- I used a flat iron, probably not super safe, but it worked.
The only red polo I could find at Walmart this time of year was in the little boy’s section and it had an embroidered racecar on the chest.
I thought I would be able to snip the embroidery off… I was wrong… time for plan B.
We go to church with the owner/operator of our local Chick-Fil-A. So I had my husband reach out to him and see if he could hook us up with an official CFA name tag for miss Ava.
Worst he could do is say no right?
He was more than happy to help us out! He made a name tag, just for her, that said Ava- Future Operator in Training (seriously could it get any cuter?) Accessories really make a costume!
We went to Chick-Fil-A to pick it up and he presented it to her in a pretty CFA gift bag and even included a stack of free kid’s meal cards to hand out to her classmates!! ????
Seriously- this guy when above and beyond for my little girl and I bout melted into a puddle right there. We LOVE Chick-Fil-A in our home!! The heart of that company is unmatched!!
The official CFA name tag covers the embroidered race car perfectly and now her outfit is complete!
Needless to say, her Chick-Fil-A team member costume was a huge hit! Her whole class lined up to “trunk or treat” and the moms and dads passed out candy. I, of course, wore a big blow-up cow costume, because what else would I be ?!
Huge thank you to our local Chick-Fil-A for making Ava’s day so special. I don’t have enough nice things to say about that family (from our church who own/operates our local CFA) but also about the company and their employees as a whole!!
Now here’s that slide show I promised!! Thanks so much for hanging out with me today! I hope yall loved this simple DIY costume idea!!