Spider Baby Tutorial

Friday night when Baby M was doing this...

I broke out the sewing machine to make THIS...

{image via Martha Stewart}

It's a Martha Stewart project I found Online last year...I had my heart set on tackling a homemade costume for Baby M's first Halloween. Little did I know that it would end up taking so much time {~3 hrs} and would cost more than planned {~$30 for the entire project}. But it was still worth it. There's something satisfying in knowing that I actually made his costume rather than buying it. At our church's Fall Festival last night, probably about 2 dozen people let me know that if we'd had a Costume Contest {sadly they didn't do it this year} then we'd have won hands down. Yay!

Here's the creepy crawly tutorial:

Take 3 pairs of men's black dress socks and tuck in another 1-in at each of the ankles.

Stuff each of the 6 socks...these will be the spider legs.

Cut an oval out of cardboard and staple each of the legs to the backing. {Martha suggests using guaged wire, but I found stapling is much easier and I think it holds better than the suggested 2 holes per sock}

To finish off the harness and body, hot glue and staple 2 long pieces of black ribbon as indicated {or you could do velcro, but I just tied the ribbon in a bow around M}. Cut out a piece of black fur to hide the cardboard {add additional poly-fiber fill if you'd like some more depth to the back of the body}

Hot glue the fur to the body...et Voila!
For the Mommy skirt, I made a white apron from an old bed sheet {just cut and sewn down to size}. Drape black yarn as pictured and affix with pins. Sew the yarn lines at the top and bottom and then tie the horizontal yarn in knots so they drape in a web-like pattern. I simply pinned the "apron" in the back to wear it as a skirt.

Here's the spider in action!

{Dress Baby in a black body suit or sweat pants/long-sleeved onesie}

The pair of us: Spider and Web

{Mommy wears all white and drapes the apron across like a skirt}

Happy Halloween!

A few more pictures from the night HERE