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Beetle

Image: @ohhappyday

Beetle

Get buggy with it this Halloween.

  • Has instructions

  • No-sew

Materials

  • One black baby outfit
  • Corrugated paper (approximately 15 inches long)
  • Green lamé fabric (1 yard)
  • Polyfil
  • Gold sequin elastic (1 yard)
  • Propellor hat
  • Cardboard
  • Tape
  • Tacky glue
  • X-acto knife
  • Hot glue gun and sticks
  • Scissors

Instructions

Don't bug out this Halloween, we've got you covered with our simple, soft, cute DIY Beetle costume! Your little one will look adorable as can be crawling around in their shiny DIY shell, and will stay cozy all Halloween night in our Primary essentials!

For the shell:

  • Cut a piece of corrugated paper in the shape of a shell using your wearer for reference. We made ours about 15” long.
  • Draw lines segmenting the back into three parts as pictured. Roughly cut green lamé fabric to the size of the three sections drawn on the shell. Leave a 1″ margin around each piece.
  • Hot glue the fabric along the lines on the corrugated paper, then flip over and wrap the remaining edge onto the backside. Hot glue the majority of the edge, leaving an opening about 2” wide on each segment.
  • Stuff the segments with polyfill using the 2” opening. Since the lamé is stretchy, it will expand to give you nice, domed segments. Glue each opening shut when done stuffing. Trim any excess fabric.
  • Glue sequin elastic between the segments, covering the seams. You can tape off the cut ends of the elastic to keep the sequins from unravelling.

For the legs:

  • Cut out four L shaped cardboard pieces.
  • Cover with green lamé fabric and glue to the back of the shell so the legs stick out on the sides.
  • Cut a piece of lamé to cover the back of the shell, and hot glue in place.

For the belly:

  • Insert a piece of scrap cardboard inside of the black onesie to separate the two sides.
  • Cut two segments of lamé for the stomach section and stick to the front of the black onesie with tacky glue (Aleene’s glue is washable, so you can throw the onesie in the wash after Halloween and reuse it!).
  • Flip the onesie over. Glue the velcro to the back of the onesie with tacky glue, then attach velcro to the shell using the adhesive backing.
  • Remove the cardboard scrap from inside the onesie once the glue is dry.

For the pincers:

  • Cut a set of pincers from cardboard and cover in green lamé. Use a propeller hat and remove the propeller from the hat and stretch lamé over the dome, gluing to secure on the inside.
  • Make two 1” incisions on the top of the hat with an x-acto knife, and insert the horns in place.
  • Hot glue on the inside of the hat to keep the horns standing up and hold in place until cool.

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