DIY Spider Costume

I did it! After all that craft store drama, I pulled it off. Not going to lie. I am pretty proud of myself. I did follow some very easy to use Pinterest instructions on how to “DIY” a no-sew Spider Costume for inspiration, so I can’t take all of the creativity credit here.

Of course, I waited until a couple of days before the program just to give myself enough added pressure to keep me on my toes. I work well when I have a little bit of pressure spurring me into action. With my hot glue gun plugged in and my supplies laid out on the kitchen counter, I was ready to work.

I knew this thing was going to take some serious hot gluing, but I didn’t realize exactly how much hot glue I was going to run through until I began. The first part was pretty easy. Glue 6 googly eyes onto a black hoodie of your choosing. Pro tip– Make sure the hoodie is on your kid so you can gauge where the eyes need to be glued. But don’t glue the kid. Of course. Hahaha.

Simple enough. Now for the fun part. The fuzzy stems. These things look like giant pipe cleaners. In fact, that’s what I would have called them if I ruled the world. You take these things (2 packs of 9-foot stems) and cut them in half. Then place them on the counter and shape them into a “V” shape until they start to resemble spider legs. Repeat until all 4 stems are shaped.

Next, you cut a cardboard box into 2 rectangles. This is the part where you need to measure your kid to make sure the box is relatively the same size as their back. Make sure the rectangles are exactly the same size because you will be gluing these suckers together later. An Amazon box worked great for me.

By the way, this is kind of the cliff notes version of costume making here so if you are looking for a detailed step by step tutorial, you might want to stop reading now and head over to Pinterest. 🙂 I will stick to posting detailed recipes and leave the costume tutorials to the real deal DIY mommy bloggers. I just hope you have fun reading a costume making experience from this non-crafty mom.

Back to it. You glue the stems to the cardboard. And by glue, I mean use about 47 sticks of hot glue. You’ll cover the stems with the other piece of cardboard by gluing it down as well like you’re making a sandwich of sorts. But before you do this you need to add the black elastic loops under the top spider leg so that your kid can slip their arms into the loops to secure this creation onto their back. Do this with, you guessed it, more hot glue. Then, you cut your black felt and cover both the front and back of the cardboard sandwich securing the felt down with glue. At this point, you may even have to take a quick trip up to the store for more hot glue sticks. That’s how many you are going to use.

After you complete this part, you are done! See not so bad. Even this wannabe crafter can do it in under an hour and on the kitchen counter whilst watching her kids make a mess of the living room.

The end product? A pretty dang cute spider that I certainly wouldn’t mind sharing my curds and whey with.