Bumblebee Costume Tutorial

I’ve never been big on Halloween.  But, I guess when you have kids a lot of things change!!  This year I was so excited to have Will dress up as a cute little bumblebee and to have a beehive themed trunk for our church’s annual trunk or treat.  

A friend of mine had a CUTE bee costume she allowed me to borrow.  Looking at the costume made my heart melt!  The wings and stripes were on a “backpack” type deal and there was the most adorable knitted bee hat I’ve ever seen.  A couple weeks before Halloween, I got the costume out and put it on Will.  Not only would he not leave the hat on longer than 2 seconds; he screamed every time I put the “backpack” on.  

This wasn’t what I was hoping for.  Plan B.

I looked all over the internet (namely through pinterest) for a Bee costume tutorial that my son would wear.  I didn’t find ANYTHING.  

So I decided that when I found a costume that worked for my finicky toddler, I would put the tutorial online.  Here goes…

I bought a black hooded sweatshirt (and pants, not pictured) and some yellow felt.  Like a glutton for punishment, I bought a cheap black stocking cap from WalMart just in case Will changed his mind about hats (he didn't).   

I cut the felt into 1 inch strips.  I cut WAY too many.  You only need about 5 or 6 depending on how big your kiddo is!

I pinned the stripes onto the sweatshirt to make sure they were where I liked them before I attached them. 

 I made sure the stripes matched up in the front too.

Then I found some yellow embroidery thread I already had stashed away in a box downstairs and began to sew the stripes on.  I started with the hood.  It took me 4 hours to hand stitch 3 rows onto the hood of this jacket. 

Then, my dear husband informed me that bees don’t have stripes on their heads.  It only took me 3 minutes to rip out my 4 hours worth of work.  

 By this point, it was the Friday before Halloween.  I needed to figure something out FAST.  I didn’t have time to stitch all these stripes on this costume and take care of my family and other responsibilities. 

 

Thank God for hot glue!

Finished product on my sweet bumblebee.  Now to add wings & an antennae.  I should also add that when I showed this costume to my dad (a real beekeeper), he informed me that bees don’t have stripes on their arms.  Well…this bee does!

I bought a package of pipe cleaners and some little puff thingys at JoAnns.  I cut 2 holes in the hood and fed the pipe cleaners through.  Then I twisted the end of the pipe cleaners together under the hood and on top of the hood (so they would stay standing).

This is before I twisted them together on the outside as well.  Honestly, that was a last minute effort to get the antennae to stand up!

For the wings, I had my Dad shape a wire hanger into the wings.  I bought tulle at JoAnn’s to cover the wire with, but it didn’t work out for me.  So, I took a sock and stretched it over the wire and sewed it at the end.  Mine ended up ripping and I had to go over it with embroidery thread, but it was completely unnoticeable!!  Then I took a piece of black ribbon and tied it around the middle of the wings so that they would gather.  I sewed the ribbon on with black embroidery thread.  I also used two safety pins to hold the wings close to the costume on both sides of the wings.  

This is the finished product!!  Too Cute!

Our “trunk!”

And…

 My sweet little bumblebee!!