Does your child love ladybugs? You can make this simple, No-Sew Ladybug Costume in less than an hour and your little critter will look adorable. Remember the grade school trick to making symmetrical hearts? If you can fold a piece of paper in half and cut out a heart, you can make this project! Just remember to tie the cape around your child’s shoulders; never tie it around your child’s neck.

Want more Halloween ideas? Take a look at more No-Sew Halloween Costumes.

Materials:

• 1 piece of red felt, measuring 18-inches by 18-inches
• 2 sheets of black craft felt
• 2 red or black pipe cleaners
• 1 piece of red or black ribbon, measuring 54-inches by ¾-inch
• hot glue gun (adults only)
• chalk
• 1 roll red or black duct tape
• scissors
• black t-shirt
• black pants
• 2 red or black pom-poms (optional)
• 1 headband (optional)

Instructions:

Make the Ladybug Wing Cape:

1. To make the ladybug wing cape, fold the 18-inch by 18-inch piece of red felt in half. Draw a half-heart shape on the felt with chalk. Be sure the curved part of the heart is facing away from the fold on the fabric. Cut out the heart along the chalk line.
 

2. Open up the heart shape, and make sure the curves are at the bottom and the point is at the top. Cut the point off, making the top end flat.

3. Hot glue the center of your ribbon 1-inch from the flat top of the lady bug wing cape, then fold over top inch of felt and hot glue it to the ribbon, leaving both ends of the ribbon loose so they can be tied around your child’s shoulders—always avoid tying this around your child’s neck. (See photo.)

4. Cut several hearts out black felt. Turn cape over and glue black hearts to back in a ladybug spot formation.

Make the Antennae:

There are several ways to create ladybug antennae for your costume:

1. Create antennae by bending a pipe cleaner in the middle and duct taping the bent part to a headband.

2. Add hearts or pom-poms to ends of the pipe cleaners with hot glue.

2. Alternately, cut a band of felt 1-inch wide and long enough to wrap around your child’s head with about 1-inch extra. Hot glue the felt into a headband, and attach a bent pipe cleaner with hot glue. Cover the bent part with a small felt heart. Curl the ends of the pipe cleaner around a pencil.

3. Or, if your child is wearing a hooded sweatshirt as part of her costume, attach two pipe cleaners to the front of the hood with duct tape. Curl pipe cleaners around a pencil, and hot glue hearts or pom-poms to the ends of the pipe cleaner with hot glue.

Put the Costume Together:

1. Have your child wear a black, white, or red long-sleeved shirt or turtleneck and black white or red pants.

2. Put the antennae on your child’s head.

3. Secure the cape on your child using the ribbon. It’s best to avoid tying anything around your child’s neck for safety reasons, so I take each ribbon end and lop it around my child’s shoulders, going over his shoulders and then under his armpits so the ribbon ends come out dangling down his back. Then I tie both ends together at his back leaving them loose and giving him plenty of room.

The post No-Sew Ladybug Costume Tutorial appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Let’s go out to the lobby and dress up like a snack! Your little movie-lover will be thrilled to wear this no-sew Popcorn Costume for Halloween. With a few clever materials, you’ll be able to make this no-sew costume in about an hour.

Materials:

Main Costume:

• ½ yard white felt
• 1 roll red duct tape
• 4 pieces of ribbon, each measuring 18-inches by ¾-inch (choose black, white, yellow or red)
• 1 package of 2-inch white pom-poms
• 1 package 1-inch white pom-poms
• 1 sheet yellow craft foam or felt
• 1 sheet red glitter craft foam or felt
• 1 yellow marker
• hot glue gun (adults ONLY)
• hot glue sticks
• scissors
• stapler
• staples
• ruler

Hat:

• 8-inch round piece of white felt
• 5-inch round piece of white felt
• 6-inch round piece of scrap cardboard
• 1 large white pom-pom
• 3 small white pom-poms
• elastic, ¼-inch wide (length depends on your child’s head size)

No-Sew Popcorn Costume Instructions:

Make the Popcorn Box:

1. To begin, lay the white felt flat and cut out 4 rectangles. Two of the rectangles should be sized 12-inches by 18-inches (these will be known as “the long pieces”) and 2 of the rectangles should be 5-inches by 13-inches (these will be known as “the short pieces”).

2. These 4 felt pieces will form the popcorn bucket. Arrange all 4 pieces in line on your work table. They should be arranged like so: long piece, short piece, long piece, short piece. It’s important that the bottom edges of the felt pieces are aligned so they form an even line, and there should be about ¼-inch gaps between each felt piece.

3. Use your red duct tape to tape across the bottom section where all the felt pieces align, so they are connected. Fold the tape over (horizontally) the other side of the felt, so no sticky parts of the tape are exposed. (This will be the bottom of your popcorn box.)

4. Run red duct tape between the felt panels (along the ¼-inch gaps between each piece of felt) to secure them together. Then flip the felt over and run tape between the felt panels on the other side, and press the two pieces of tap together where they touch in the gaps (this will allow the edges of the popcorn box to crease into the corners of the box).

5. Run red duct tape (folding it horizontally, so half covers one side of the felt and the other half covers the flip side of the felt) over the edges of the long pieces of felt past where they align with the short pieces so all edges are covered.

6. Now, all pieces of the white felt should be taped together and every edge of the white felt—except for the tops of each panel—should be covered with red duct tape. At the bottom, the felt pieces align evenly and at the top they are staggered, with the longer pieces taller than the shorter pieces.

7. Attach the felt panel on the right with the felt panel on the left with the red duct tape creating a loop of the felt fabric. Crease each corner (between each panel) so the felt piece is now the rectangular popcorn box. The long pieces are the front and the back of the costume, and the short pieces are the sides of the box.

8. Use the red duct tape to add vertical stripes to each panel of the costume. I added two stripes to the front and back panels of the costume, and one stripe to the side panels.

9. Staple 2 pieces of the ribbon to the front of the costume (staple each ribbon about 6″ from each edge, so they look like the ties on an apron), and staple 2 pieces of ribbon to the back of the costume.

10. Cover exposed staples at the top of the costume with two pieces of duct tape – one across the front of the costume and one across the back.

11. Cut a popcorn shape from the yellow piece of craft foam or felt.

12. Cut out letters that spell “POPCORN” from red glitter craft foam (or use pre-cut letters) and glue them onto the popcorn shape. Once dry, glue this to the front of the popcorn box.

13. Make popcorn pieces by gluing 2 small pom-poms together and then gluing these to a large pom-pom. Glue 1 more small pom-pom on the other side of the large pom-pom to form a popcorn kernel. If desired, color popcorn kernel lightly with the yellow marker (especially in the crevices where the pom-poms meet each other) to make the popcorn look buttery.

14. Glue popcorn kernels to the costume, or attach popcorn kernels to t-shirt with safety pins (or hot glue if you don’t intend to use the shirt again).

15. To wear, have your child stand inside the box and tie the ribbon over his shoulders.

Make the Popcorn Hat:

1. Crumple up the paper towel sheet and glue it to one side of the 6-inch cardboard circle. Then, turn the cardboard circle over, and put a line of hot glue around the outside of the cardboard circle, close to the edge. Fold the 8-inch felt circle over around the entire edge so it’s covering the side with paper towel (which will make the hat puff up on top) and is secured by the glue on the other side.

2. Measure the ¼-inch elastic all the way around your child’s head going under his chin. Cut the elastic so that it’s snug but not too tight. Glue raw edges of elastic flat to middle of cardboard circle (on the underside of the hat).

3. Glue the 5-inch round piece of felt over exposed the cardboard and elastic (on the underside of the hat).

4. Make another pom pom popcorn kernel by gluing 2 small pom-poms together and then gluing these to a large pom-pom. Glue 1 more small pom-pom on the other side of the large pom-pom to form the complete popcorn kernel. If desired, color popcorn kernel lightly with the yellow marker (especially in the crevices where the pom-poms meet each other) to make the popcorn look buttery.

5. Once dry, glue the popcorn kernel to the top of the hat. 

No Sew Costume Tips

What to wear underneath the popcorn costume: Wear neutral pants or leggings (black or white) or tights (black, white, red or striped) and black, white, or red shoes. Wear a black, white, or red turtleneck, long-sleeved shirt, or hooded sweatshirt underneath the popcorn bucket.

Popcorn treat buckets: Pick up a cardboard popcorn bucket next time you go to the movie theater and add a ribbon handle; or buy a plastic popcorn bucket at the dollar store and add a duct tape handle.

The post No-Sew Popcorn Costume Tutorial appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

The Princess Costume is a classic for a reason! Who doesn’t want to dress like a princess? It’s simple to create your own no-sew princess costume for use as a Halloween costume, or just for everyday pretend play. 

Even if you don’t sew, this princess costume idea is perfectly simple to construct. You can make this princess dress in under an hour using a few no-sew tricks. The main requirements for a great-looking princess dress are proper length and the right color, so let your child help you pick out the perfect color of fabric and ribbon for a dress she’ll just love.

Don’t let these instructions stress you out! You’re basically making a tube of fabric with elastic. You can do it!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which may provide a small percentage of any purchase you make when clicking on the links, at no additional cost to you.

DIY Princess Costume Materials:

• 1 yard of fabric (color of your—or your child’s—choice)
• 1 spool of coordinating ribbon
• fusible fabric webbing tape (I used Stitch Witchery)
• ¼-inch wide elastic (length depends on your child’s measurements)
• safety pin
• hot glue gun
• hot glue sticks
• scissors
• iron
• measuring tape
• ribbon (at least 36-inches long)

Princess Costume Instructions:

Adjusting the Size: This dress fits a 5T nicely, but if you want to make a different size, measure from your princess’s armpits down to the tops of her feet and get your fabric cut to that length. Once you add the casing and the bottom hem, the dress should be about 3-inches above her feet, to keep her from tripping.

1. Iron the fabric to remove excess wrinkles and creases. Open up the fabric and lay with right side down. You should have a rectangular piece of fabric with two raw edges and two finished edges. Fold over one raw edge about 1-inch and iron to crease. After fabric is creased, iron a piece of fusible fabric webbing tape under the crease and fuse fabric according to package instructions. This is the hem of the dress.

2. With fabric still right side down, fold the other raw edge over about 2-inches and iron to crease (this will be the edge opposite the hem). Use your hot glue gun to glue just the very edge of the 2-inch fold, leaving a casing. You will run the elastic through this casing later, so be sure to leave an unglued area wide enough to eventually feed through a safety pin and the elastic.

3. Lay fabric out flat with right side up. Fold in half so that the plain edges meet. Hot glue the two plain edges together to form the back seam. You should now have a tube of fabric with the hem at the bottom, the casing at the top, and a seam at the back. The dress will be inside-out.

4. Leave dress inside out for now. Flatten the dress so the seam is in the middle back. Cut a 24-inch piece from your ribbon. Fold the ribbon in half to find the middle. Hot glue the very middle of the 24-inch piece of ribbon to the front-center of the dress (over the casing) so it forms a V. This will be a halter strap to keep the dress from falling down.

5. Turn dress right side-out. Flatten dress so seam is in the middle back. Take your remaining piece of ribbon (about 12-inches depending on your child’s size) and fold it in half to find the middle of the ribbon. About 6-inches down from the top of the dress, squirt a 4-inch line of hot glue horizontally on front of dress, and attach the center of the ribbon to the line of hot glue. This will fix the ribbon waist ties to the dress.

6. Use the measuring tape to measure around your child’s chest right at the armpits. Add 2-inches and cut a length of ¼-inch elastic using that measurement. Attach a safety pin to the end of the elastic, and thread through the casing at the top of the tube. When the elastic is threaded completely through the casing, tie ends of elastic together.
 

7. To wear the dress, the elasticized top will be pulled up to the armpits. Tie the neck ribbon around the back of the neck halter-style. Take the long waistband ribbons and criss-cross them around the body as many times as you can and tie at the back or the front.

No Sew Princess Costume Tips

What to Wear With This Costume: Pair this dress with a long-sleeved top or t-shirt underneath, and add tights for warmth while trick-or-treating.

Accessorize: Be sure to glam this dress up with the right accessories. Every princess needs a crown, jewelry, a wrap or feather boa. You can find most of these things at the dollar store or your local department store, or craft them up yourself.

Fabric choices: Plain cotton is the cheapest option, and the easiest to work with in terms of ironing. Polyester can come in many different finishes, and can look very shiny and princess-y, and will have a good drape and fluidity. You can find inexpensive costume fabrics at your local fabric store that will work nicely. You can add additional ribbons and trim to fancy it up as much as you like.

Washability: You can actually wash this garment, even though it’s constructed with hot glue! Hang to dry.

The post No-Sew Princess Costume Tutorial appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

I only made one costume for Halloween this year: a 60s-era Batman costume for my two year-old, who identifies anyone with a cape as “Batman.” I wanted to go with the blue and gray Batman because it’s a softer color scheme for a two year-old, and the Adam West Batman seems a lot more age appropriate for a toddler than the more recent versions. I used some readymade clothes and some dollar store finds to construct this costume with a minimum of effort. The key to a successful Halloween costume is to create the illusion of the costume without stressing about details, thus, I kept it really simple and didn’t do any finishing details (such as sewing!)

Project Estimate:

• Sweatpants, $5 or on hand
• Turtleneck, $5 or on hand
• Pair of blue underpants, about $1 (came in a pack of 6 for $6), or on hand
• Blue fleece baby blanket, $1
• Pair of blue adult socks, $1
• Self-adhesive craft foam, blue, black and yellow, about $1
• 3 safety pins, on hand
• A piece of elastic, on hand
• A piece of recycled cereal box, on hand
• Yellow duct tape, on hand or $3
• Tennis shoes, on hand

Total: $3 and up

Our costume cost was $13 total because we bought the clothes, the dollar store baby blanket, and the socks. You might already have the shirt and pants on hand. Although I spent $13 making this costume, I am happy with it because my son can continue to wear the shirt and pants, and I can wear the fuzzy blue socks!

How I made the dollar store Batman costume:

• Batman Mask: Craft foam, cardboard, elastic, template from Blog 5 to 9
  I cut the template out of a recycled cereal box (to make it more sturdy) and a piece of self-adhesive craft foam, stuck them together, punched holes in the sides and tied elastic on.  I wanted to reinforce the mask to hold up to the abuse it would receive at the hands of a two year-old, but it was a little too stiff for Gideon to wear for longer than it took to take the photo! I don’t think any mask would stay on a toddler for long, though.
• Cape: Dollar store baby blanket
  1. Cut about 6″ off of dollar store baby blanket (the side where the emblem is). This will give you a rectangular piece of fleece.
  2. Fold in half (with cut part at top), and cut arcs down the side of the cape at a slight diagonal, ending with a point at the bottom of the fold.
  3. For quick and easy cape-wearing, safety pin cape to shirt at the shoulders and the collar.
• Batman Emblem: Craft foam
  I traced a Batman emblem onto sparkly yellow self-adhesive craft foam, cut it out, and stuck it on a piece of black self-adhesive craft foam. Then I stuck both of them on his shirt.
• Belt: a toy toolbelt we had with craft foam bat
  I lucked out because we already had a yellow “utility” belt, but if you wanted to make your own, you could do so with yellow duct tape. I stuck a black self-adhesive craft foam bat shape on the belt. Unfortunately, I forgot to attach the Shark Repellent.
• Base Uniform: Blue undies, gray turtleneck, gray sweatpants — purchased for this costume, about $5 each (except for the underwear, which was in a 6 pack for $6), but will be worn after Halloween.
• Boots: Shoes with fuzzy blue dollar store socks over the top.
  This is a great tip for giving the illusion of boots without doing any work at all — just wear socks over shoes!

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