How to make homemade bug costumes

If your kids like to dress up and like bugs, combine these two interests with homemade bug costumes. Use these costumes on Halloween or any day of the year that your little ones want to dress up like their insect friends. Using basic clothing items and craft store finds, you can create homemade bug costumes regardless of your sewing or crafting skills.

Start with a basic body. Use sweatsuits or long-sleeved cotton shirts and trousers. An all-black sweatsuit or outfit would make an appropriate base for most bug costumes. If you want to make a colourful bug, such as a ladybug or bumblebee, use black trousers with a red or yellow top.

Sew or glue buggy attributes onto your child's shirt. For a ladybug, cut circles out of black felt and glue or sew them onto the back of the shirt. For a bumblebee, cut out strips of black felt and glue or sew them around the shirt to make stripes. For a butterfly, cut larger wings out of felt and add stripes or polka dots in another felt colour, then sew or glue these onto the back of the shirt.

Add extra arms. Cut buggy arm shapes (like an "L" shape) out of black felt. You will need a total of two extras to give your child six limbs -- her regular arms, her new arms and her legs. Sew these onto the sides of your child's shirt, just under her regular sleeves. Then take a four-inch length of thread and stitch one end of it into the end of the bug arm, and the other end into the wrist portion of the shirt sleeve. This will allow your child's extra arms to move with her regular ones. If four inches is too short or too long, adjust accordingly to make it look natural.

Give your child antennae. Take a regular headband and wrap two chenille stems around the top, approximately three to four inches apart. Cut circles out of black felt and glue them to the tips of the chenille stems so the felt circles stick up over your child's head when he puts on the headband.