Stella's Spider Costume & Bag

There comes a time when your child has a very strong opinion about what she wants to be for Halloween. For Stella, this was last year. She was a pirate. This year, she insisted on being a spider. Are you seeing a pattern? Who knows what next year will bring, but I don't think she's planning on being a princess anytime soon.  Either way, she sure makes a cute spider--even when she's trying to be scary!  Here's what I used to make her costume:

black pillow (I got mine from Target.)

two pairs of toddler tights (not sheer)

webbing and buckles (I got mine from JoAnn's.)

batting

needle & thread

safety pins

black duct tape

fishing line

three pairs of black gloves

You can pretty much tell how to make the costume by looking at it, but I'll try to explain it as well. I started by stuffing the legs of the tights with batting. I then hand-stitched the bodies of the tights to the pillow. Each pair of tights faced the opposite way. For example, the legs on the left are from one pair of tights, and the legs on the right are from the other. The gloves are just placed on the feet of the tights. They didn't need to be attached. I then used webbing to make shoulder straps and a belt to evenly distribute the weight. (It's not heavy, just big.) I reinforced the webbing with safety pins, since they could be put deeper into the pillows than a needle and thread.

Once all of the legs are attached to the pillow, I used fishing line to attach the legs in two spots per leg. I made a duct tape "cuff" for Stella's wrist and used that to attach the fishing line to the legs. Without this, the fishing line would dig into her arms. When she lifts her arms, all of her spider legs are lifted as well.

Utah Halloweens are cold, so a long sleeve t-shirt, leggings, a skirt and top hat (because she is a fancy spider), boots, and a fur vest will hopefully keep her warm enough to do a little bit of trick-or-treating!

Her treat bag was super easy. I used a white tote from Hobby Lobby and made the lines with strips of black duct tape. The spider is just two felt circles stuffed with batting and stitched. I hot-glued the four pipe cleaner legs to the bag and then hot glued the spider body over the top of the legs. I then added button eyes.

Thanks to my momma for helping with the hand-stitching and to Jeremy for his awesome knot tying skills. All that practice tying surgical knots has really paid off!

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