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Beetle Baby Costume

This costume is so cute! Perfect for a baby of “crawling age.” Here is Irene sharing her inspiration:

Butterflies, bees, ladybugs, and spiders have had their time in the limelight but 2016 is the year of the beetle! This costume was inspired by fabulous green lamé fabric. Sometimes you find an awesome material and you start brainstorming what you can do with it and obviously a beetle made the most sense! This particular shiny green beetle is called the “fig eater” beetle and they’re a member of the scarab family. They have the most beautiful shade of iridescent green on their shells. No wonder these little guys were so popular in Ancient Egypt! I first made this costume for a friend’s baby in fabric and polyfill, but actually in this tutorial, the cardboard gives better structure to the shell construction. This costume is especially adorable for the crawling baby in your life. Watch out for those devastatingly cute pinchers. You could even pair this with the houseplant costume to make a fun duo!

Beetle Baby Costume | Oh Happy Day!

Beetle Baby Costume | Oh Happy Day!Beetle Baby Costume | Oh Happy Day!Beetle Baby Costume | Oh Happy Day!Beetle Baby Costume | Oh Happy Day!Beetle Baby Costume | Oh Happy Day!

Materials needed: Corrugated paper, scissors, marker, green lamé fabric, hot glue gun, polyfill, sequin elastic, velcro tape, black onesie, Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky glue, cardboard, propeller hat, x-acto knife

Step 1: 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.

Step 2: Roughly cut the lamé 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.

Step 3: 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.

Step 4: 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. 

Step 5: Cut out four L shaped cardboard pieces. Cover with lame 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.

Step 6: 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 is washable, so you can throw the onesie in the wash after Halloween and reuse it!).

Step 7: 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.

Step 8: Cut a set of pincers from cardboard and cover in lamé. 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.

Beetle Baby Costume | Oh Happy Day!

Beetle Baby Costume | Oh Happy Day!

Photography by Paul Ferney for Oh Happy Day
Art Directed by Irene Yu
Styled by Amy Moss
Produced by Alison Piepmeyer
Crafting by Naomi Julia Satake
Thanks to little K for modelling

  1. Michelle

    October 12, 2016

    This is so darn cute!
    https://www.makeandmess.com/

  2. Lindsay

    October 13, 2016

    that has got to be the cutest thing on the planet! Well done!

  3. Leather Bag

    October 16, 2016

    Baby looks cute…

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