snails, roly polys, and ladybugs Oh my – our diy bug Halloween costumes

diy bug Halloween costumes

2024, the year of our diy bug Halloween costumes

Before I became a mom I made Halloween costumes for myself, my husband and my dogs. Yes, my dogs. I was basically waiting for the glory days of making costumes for my kids and here we are, right in the middle of it and I love it so much. It might be one of my favorite parts of motherhood and I hope my children have fond memories of these years of costumes.

For the last six years my medium of choice for most parts of the costumes has been felt. Because its cheap and generally easy to work with. But this year I had the pleasure of teaming up with Fabric Wholesale Direct to make these DIY bug costumes come to life and up our costume game!

Knowing my daughter had requested to be a snail, and that my son is currently obsessed with roly polys, I would be diving into a family costume of bugs (and a bug catcher). Instead of leaning in a gross bug direction, I decided I would create some of the most posh bugs you’ve ever seen by selecting this Stretch Velvet fabric in the colors peach, charcoal, and dark red.

Mister roly poly

During the year of the DIY bug halloween costumes, my son is was newly two. I know from last year it works really well if I can just find a way for him to wear his costume as a backpack. (Which makes it really great for questionable Colorado weather too, it can go right over the top of a jacket)

Knowing this would be worn as a backpack my biggest, and most challenging part of creating this thing was to make sure it was maneuverable, and flexible like a roly poly shell. I picked up four plastic bowls from the dollar store and cut them in half. Then I wrapped them in this beautiful charcoal velvet. When it came time to figure out how to get this thing to flex, I drilled holes the sets of two and attached them with a brad pin. Then I glued the sets to each other.

Its truly so hard for me to take tutorial photos or even describe how I make these things because its so much of me figuring this all out on the fly, failing, trying something else and then being surprised when it works.

After getting the shell pieces successfully attached to each other and then the backpack. I wanted to add a head with antenna so that this costume was truly free standing so I could slip it on and off of a two year old with little fuss. I used a foam sphere cut in half for both the head and the eyes. The antenna are fun noodle pieces cut and strung together with wire and then painted black.

Lastly for the roly poly portion of our DIY bug Halloween costumes, I reverted back to my familiar medium of felt and cut out some creepy legs to glue to the sides as a finishing touch.

Why does it have a bow tie you ask? Partially because its helping hold the head in place and partially to cover up the giant glob of hot glue I accidentally got on the beautiful velvet. But if you ask me in person I’m going to say because hes a fancy roly poly, duh.

The snail princess, as she would like to be called

Remember how I said I was going for more posh and glamorous bugs versus gross bugs? Is she not the prettiest snail you’ve ever seen, just look at that velvet shell! A pink snail adorned with flowers, a lovely slime trail made of tulle, and of course those eyes.

To make the shell for this DIY bug Halloween costumes I cut the *beautiful* peach velvet fabric into this shape. Wider on one side and tapering smaller. I sewed the right sides of the fabric together to make a tube and then turned it right side out.

After sewing up the end of the tube I stuffed it with poly fil fiber, sewed it shut, and then rolled it into the shell shape starting at the small end. I hand sewed it to itself and then attached some straps as well as the tulle slime trail, all by hand.

I glued in some delicate little faux flowers and I think it really takes it from gross snail, to magical snail princess. Maybe my favorite part of making these costumes is watching my daughter answer the question “what are you going to be for Halloween??” when most people expect to hear *another disney princess* and she proudly proclaims “A snail!!” Previous years have been “apple cake” “ice cream truck” and “hamburger”.

the ladybug, called mombug

When it comes to my both me and my husband being a part of the family costume I try to make them both as minimal and low effort as possible, because 1. I will either not be wearing it or 2. if I am its just to stand on the sidewalk and remind my children to say “THANK YOU!!!” at each house. So when it came time to create mine and my husbands DIY bug halloween costumes, minimal was key.

For myself I made a ladybug cape and some antenna. I followed This cape tutorial which made super easy work of making me into a mombug, I mean ladybug. I simply made the cape and then hot glued on some black felt spots. I like to sew the edges of the felt before I glue them on so it looks like I put in the effort to sew them on. I certainly did not.

Where is my husbands costume you ask? Well I handed him a bug net, tada.- hes a bug catcher now!

DIY bug halloween costumes – the final look

And that’s it! Another year of costumes in the books! The poly poly, the snail, and the ladybug!! Oh and don’t forget the bug catcher.

Why yes, I did bribe my son with a sucker to get these pictures.

Thank you again to Fabric Wholesale Direct for helping us up our costume game this year!! Be sure to check them out for all your fabric needs they have a fantastic selection and great prices!!

If you enjoyed this DIY project, find More DIY fun here!!

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