Last year I waited until two days before Halloween to make the boys their costumes. So, if you haven’t found a Halloween costume for your child yet, no worries! You have time! this easy, sweet, bat costume will take you no more than an hour to make, and is *so* inexpensive to put together.
The boys wanted to be bats last year! And, I love the look of a homemade costume. I found the path of least resistance to make them a quick, and easy bat costume. We started with black pants and black/grey shirts, and then added a simple pair of bat wings. Here’s how I made the bat wings:
What you’ll need:
hard black felt (sometimes called stiffened or craft felt)
black elastic
white thread
parchment paper
chalk marker/white crayon
scissors
sewing machine
How to do it:
- Make a pattern for your bat wings. With a pencil draw a pair of bat wings on your parchment paper. Edit it and make it just the way you want it, holding it up to your child for a size reference. Once you have the perfect shape, cut the wings out of the parchment.
- Layer the parchment paper bat wings on top of your black felt and trace it. I did this using a chalk marker, but you could also use a white crayon. Do this twice so you have two matching black bat wings.
- Cut your bat wings out of the felt, using the markings you just made.
- Sew the two bat wings together using a 1/2 inch seam from the edge with white thread. The white thread adds some cute/homemade dimension to these wings. But, you could use black thread if you prefer.
- Cut two pieces of elastic to the right size to be sewed on your bat wings and fit snugly around the child’s arms.
- Sew the elastic onto the center of the bat wings, with the loop facing toward the edge of the bat wing. Repeat for the elastic for the other arm.
I hope you and your little ones enjoy this costume as much as we did! Let me know if you end up making it yourself!
Darling idea Rennie! I think homemade costumes are the cutest.