Bumblebee and Bee Keeper Halloween Costume Tutorial

Today we have one of my lovely pattern testers sharing an adorable DIY Bumblebee and Bee Keeper Halloween Costume tutorial with you all. Take it away, Natalie….

Bumblebee and Bee Keeper Halloween Costumes from The Cottage Mama. www.thecottagemama.com
Hi y’all, my name is Natalie and while I blogged for six years at Our Old Southern House I stopped earlier this year.  *tear*  But I just can’t leave social media alone and am now an avid poster on Instagram–feel free to follow me on there at natalie_t_cooper–I love making new friends!

 

Today I’m going to be talking about my son’s homemade Halloween costume.  I have a “thing” about making my kids’ costumes every year.  So far I’ve done a skunk, Minnie Mouse, Corduroy (from the children’s book), a bat, & a pirate–my kids have some random tastes, ha!  This year when I asked my four (going on thirteen) year old daughter what she wanted to be she said she just wanted to wear her bee suit (we keep bees at our farm so yep, she has her own suit) and she wanted her little brother to be a bee.  I think she chose this because she envisioned chasing her brother around all night with a net.  HA!
Bumblebee and Bee Keeper Halloween Costumes from The Cottage Mama. www.thecottagemama.com
So I got to work on his costume.  Sure, I could have bought a bee costume at any big box store, but as I mentioned above it’s just not my “thing”.  But I’m stingy and didn’t want to buy a pattern either.
So what I did was use an old jumper pattern from Mary Margaret’s younger days and just did modifications.  For instance, instead of doing buttons or bows at the shoulders I did Velcro.  And around the bottom I added elastic to make it, well, look less like the dress that it was.  I lined it so I wouldn’t have to worry about finishing the seams and added stripes of yellow fabric (both fabrics shown above are broadcloth by the way).  If you’ll notice I didn’t finish those edges either–I wanted my bee to look a little fuzzy.  😉  Then I stuffed it with some leftover quilt batting, added a quick little hat I made from a vintage pattern I had on hand, and dug through his sister’s old clothes to find black leggings and a turtleneck.

For the wings I cut two kind-of, sort-of wings out of felt.  I really did just “wing” it (oh, I crack myself up sometimes!).

Bumblebee and Bee Keeper Halloween Costume Tutorial from The Cottage Mama. www.thecottagemama.com

Above I laid it on my cutting mat so you can get an idea of the size.  Notice that I did one “flat” side.  Then I sewed the two pieces together right sides together (I used a 5/8″ seam allowance but that’s just what I normally do).

Bumblebee and Bee Keeper Halloween Costume Tutorial from The Cottage Mama. www.thecottagemama.com

I then trimmed the seam and pressed it open.  After that I cut out two 1.5″ of sew-on Velcro in black.

Bumblebee and Bee Keeper Halloween Costume Tutorial from The Cottage Mama. www.thecottagemama.com

I then pinned and sewed the loopy side to the back of his costume.

Bumblebee and Bee Keeper Halloween Costumes from The Cottage Mama. www.thecottagemama.com
I know how kids are on Velcro so I made sure to sew it on real good.  Mamas of boys know what I’m talking about–those guys are ROUGH on clothes!
Bumblebee and Bee Keeper Halloween Costumes from The Cottage Mama. www.thecottagemama.com
I then did the same thing with the “scratchy side” of the Velcro on the wings.  And then–violà!–my kiddo has a bee suit with wings that really flap when he runs.

{Oh, I should add that if you made your costume out of fleece you would technically only have to sew the loopy side of the Velcro–the fleece/felt/loopy Velcro combination usually make things “stick” pretty well without needing the scratchy Velcro side…not well enough for a nineteen-month old wild man, but for some?  Yeah, it should cover it.}

Bumblebee and Bee Keeper Halloween Costumes from The Cottage Mama. www.thecottagemama.com

And he makes a pretty cute bee {and she makes a pretty darling beekeeper} if I do say so myself.

Bumblebee and Bee Keeper Halloween Costumes from The Cottage Mama. www.thecottagemama.com
Thanks so much for letting me stop by & chat, Lindsay–I just love your blog!  Hope everyone has a very happy and not too spooky Halloween!

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5 Comments

  1. Now that is one cute Halloween idea! Such an adorable bee keeper and bee too!

  2. Eek! I love that! What an adorable little bee!

  3. Natalie, you are amazing! These costumes are adorable and your kids are adorable!!!

  4. Absolutely adorable! Love stalking her on ig and fb!! 🙂

  5. Super cute Halloween costume!!