Is it really that time of year already? Parents across the land tear their hair out wondering what costumes to make this year and try to desperately remember at school pick up where they put all the decorations from last year? Sound familiar? Well we thought at TMK HQ we’d help you out with a super easy DIY hardly any sewing craft project which you’ll love for two reasons. Firstly, it’s a fab costume for them to carry (not spend hours putting them in and getting them out of) and secondly it will protect them from the pitter patter of raindrops as they terrorise, sorry I mean sweetly visit, your neighbours.
What I LOVE about craft projects is the chocolate tin we keep all our bits and bobs in – reminds me of the one we had growing up which my mum kept all our colouring pencils and felt tips in – cute.
Personally, I would add perhaps one of two glow in the dark stickers just to give it a bit more va va voom. But you can add whatever your little creatives want to – just grab some glue or cellotape and get sticking!
This project will take you around half an hour start to finish once you have gathered your supplies, I know, because I made it 😉 and given the many places you can buy cheap umbrella’s for £1 and socks for £1 it’s a very low cost costume to create. Ready? Let’s get our craft on…
Supplies
- a plain black umbrella
- 4 pairs plain black knee high socks (no print)
- old carrier bags, newspaper, tights
- large sewing needle
- black thread
- cellotape
- coloured felt
- scissors
- glue
- optional cobweb spray and glow in the dark stickers
Instructions
1. Open your umbrella so that you have it ready to attach your spider legs.
2. Take each sock and fill with your stuffing (TMK TIP: old carrier bags make a great noise and we all have them lying around)
3. Once each sock is filled and you have sewn the top of each one to keep the contents inside you are ready to attach to the umbrella
4. Place 4 socks equally apart on each side of your umbrella to create the 8 legs of your spider. Attach with a few simple stitches to keep them in place. If your little one is particularly excitable or just is likely to pull on the legs a lot I would suggest you create some stitches which loop around the inner metal spokes to make sure your spider keeps all legs till the end of the night!
5. Now cut out two circle/oval shapes from your felt. Making sure you cut one larger and one smaller. These will be your spiders eyes. With any spare felt you can make two triangle shapes, these will act as the fangs.
6. Glue the felt to the umbrella first with your glue. Once it’s dry or whilst drying attach the smaller felt piece on top. We had issues with our glue so we ended up using some sticky tape.
7. Finally sew or stick the small triangle fangs to the front and voila you have your spider costume.
Your child will need to wear a black dress or black trousers or tights and black shoes or wellies and hold the umbrella close to their heads so the legs can dangle. They can then move the umbrella up and down to make the spider dance. If you have cobweb spray you could spray some on their clothes and the umbrella or just the umbrella to keep down on the mess.
Variations:
Having done this I think it would be relatively easy to simply change the spider to say a pumpkin by choosing an orange umbrella and making a vine out of some green tights stuffed and sewing to the top of the umbrella and using some water resistant markers in brown to create the ridges of the pumpkin on the umbrella.
So have fun, do share your photo’s if you make this project over on our Facebook page and share with your friends. Be safe, and enjoy a wonderful ghostly Halloween.
Remember, adventure is out there!
Nat x
