no-sew spider costume
Make a No-Sew Spider Costume

Need a Halloween costume in a hurry? We’ve got you! Follow these steps to create a super effective and spooky no-sew spider costume!

YOU WILL NEED:

For the body part of the costume, you will need:

1 x black long sleeved top or hoodie

4 x long-ish black socks 

2 x short black socks

Fabric scraps / dusters and / or newspaper 

Thin elastic, approx 2 metres (Black might be most effective, but we’ve used white as it’s what we had lying around. White looks a bit like cobweb…which is handy!)

Black duct tape

Coloured tape

4 x medium/large sized safety pins

Scissors – adult supervision required

For the spider’s eyes hat: 

A black beanie hat, the hood of your hoodie, or an old pair of clean black tights. 

Double-sided tape

Between 2 to 8 googly eyes (any size will do, can be all different sizes too!)

If you don’t have any googly eyes, you could make your own by cutting out circles from a piece of A5 cardboard packaging (cereal box/teabags box etc), and using a pencil or black felt-tip pen to draw eyes. 

STEP 1:

Stuff the four longish socks with the rags and/or newspaper. We used two rags for each leg, which makes the legs lightly shaped and lightweight. 

Step 1

STEP 2:

Put your t-shirt or hoodie flat on the floor, with the back facing upwards. Place the four stuffed socks with the open end on the back edge, spaced a sleeve’s width apart, two on each side. Fasten onto the top using a safety pin on each one. You only need to fasten the sock on through the back of the t-shirt or hoodie, not the front AND back. 

Steps 3 and 4

STEP 3:

Tie one end of your elastic around the lowest stuffed sock.

STEP 4:

Keeping a gap in between each spider leg, tie the elastic onto the middle spider leg and then the top spider leg (the sleeve of your hoodie). CAUTION! Your arm is going to be in the sleeve so make sure not to tie the elastic too tightly, you want it to be comfy! Luckily, it’s elastic, so there will be a bit of ‘give’. 

Step 5

STEP 5:

Now cut the end of the elastic and do the same thing on the other side. Cover the ends of the elastic and the safety pins with pieces of black duct tape to help keep them in place and also to hide them. 

STEP 6:

Put coloured tape around the ankle part of your joggers or leggings and on the six legs on your top. If you put the tape roughly the same distance from each end of your limbs (real and stuffed!), it’ll help make the eight legs match. 

STEP 7:

If you don’t have a beanie hat or a hood, but you do have an old pair of black tights, tie the legs together, cut the legs off below the knot and use the top part of the tights as a knotted skull cap. Attach your googly eyes onto the front of your ‘head’ part of the costume using double sided tape or a glue gun if you have one – just remember not to be wearing it while you do this! 

STEP 8:

Put little socks or mittens on your hands to match the other spider legs.

Once you’ve got the costume on, check you’re happy with the position of the legs. We found the legs below the sleeves had a bit too much distance, and we shortened it by wrapping the elastic around the sleeves another time.

You can use paper tape to make the pattern of a spider web on the front or back of your top if you like. You could even draw and cut out a bluebottle fly and stick it in the middle!

We would love to see your SUPER SPIDER SUITS. Send your photos to the address on the AQUILAnauts’ page of the AQUILA website.

If you enjoyed this brilliant blog, then why not think about a subscription to AQUILA magazine! 

Written by Jo Neary