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DIY Bat Costume

October 19, 2023 by Janice

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

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Do you want an easy DIY Halloween costume? This DIY bat costume is simple to make and your kids will have so much fun running around and trick or treating in these comfy costumes.

DIY Bat Costume

 

DIY Black Bat Costume

Bats!!!

A few years ago, I made our girls these fabulous DIY bat costumes for Halloween. They were comfortable, easy to make, and so fun.

One of the key parts of this kids bat costume is the bat ears.

DIY Bat Costume

While I sewed the ears that the girls are wearing in this video, you can easily make your bat ears without sewing.

Check out my how to make no-sew animal ears video tutorial.

I originally published this post in 2015 and I’ve updated it recently to answer several readers’ questions and add more detailed steps on how to make the bat wings. You can see more photos of our girls wearing their DIY bat costumes that year in our 2015 Halloween Photos.

That year our girls were obsessed with bats. At school, Julia’s teacher read the class a book called “Silverwing” about a young Silverwing bat. So then Susan read the other two books in the series to both Julia and Sophia. The story got them so excited about bats that they all decided to dress up as bats for Halloween.

Since I always make them diy costumes, I worked with the girls to design and make this DIY bat costume. They loved the costumes so much, they wore them around the house for ages after… running around pretending they could fly.

An Easy Costume DIY

DIY Bat Costume

I love to sew, but life is so busy it seems like Halloween is the main chance I get to sew. While in the last several years our girls’ costumes have become much more elaborate to make, these bat costumes were nice and simple.

To create a DIY bat costume, you just need to create bat wings and bat ears. The rest of the costume is just dressing in all black and wearing bat-inspired makeup.

Easy DIY Bat Costume

DIY Bat Costume

To make the bat wings, I measured the girls’ wingspan and drew a batwing pattern. I used the back of wrapping paper to get pieces of paper that were large enough.

At the top of the arms, I extended the pattern so I would have enough fabric to fold over their arms. I then sewed in place.

We used a knit jersey fabric that doesn’t fray so that I didn’t have to hem the edges. It is also made the wings soft and comfy.

Two photos of a girl wearing a bat costume showing the front and back of the DIY bat wings

Follow these steps to make the bat wings:

  1. Measure your child’s arm span from the palm of one hand to the nape of their neck. (It’s best to have a little extra length for their the arms.)
  2. Measure approximately the circumference of their upper arm.
  3. Measure your child’s height from the back of their neck to the back of their knees. Add their arm circumference to this number.
  4. On the back of a large piece of wrapping paper or packing paper, you’re going to draw the pattern for one wing. Start by drawing a horizontal line of the arm length you just measured. (Or use the top edge of the paper and mark the length of the arm width.) Then draw a vertical line (or use the vertical edge of the paper) that is the height of your child from neck to knees, plus arm circumference. Then use those two points to draw the shape of a wing. Look at our photos to see the wing shape we used.

    (You only have to draw one wing because you will cut your fabric on the fold, which will create two wings that are still connected.)

  5. Cut out your paper pattern of your wing.
  6. Fold the fabric in half length-wise so that the center fold of the fabric is lined up with the vertical edge of your wing pattern.
  7. Pin the pattern on the fabric and cut the fabric.
  8. Cut a small rectangle out of the center of the top of the fabric, about half the measurement of their arm circumference deep, to make a space for the child’s head.
  9. Fold down the fabric for the arms and sew in place (or use fabric glue.)

We didn’t include a printable pattern for the bat wings here in this post because we thought it was quicker for people to just measure their own child’s arms and then sketch the simple bat wing pattern on large paper, such as wrapping paper. We figured it would take more time to print out an actual sewing pattern and tape it all together, but let us know in a comment if you’d prefer a printable pattern.

DIY Bat Costume

If you want to keep this as a no-sew project, you could use fabric glue to create your armholes.

After I was finished with the wings, I made bat ears. For a no-sew option, check out my No-Sew Animal Ears tutorial.

For the bat ears the girls are wearing in these photos, I did a bit of sewing.

I made each ear by sewing together two triangles of fabric, turning inside out and sliding over the top of wire-framed ear shapes I had attached to a headband.

DIY Bat Costume

I then wrapped extra black fabric around the headband and secured with hot glue.

A Warm Halloween Costume

One of the key factors in designing a Halloween costume is ensuring kids can actually wear it comfortably to trick-or-treat in all types of weather. Where we live in the Pacific Northwest, it often rains on Halloween and is usually quite cold. So we like to make costumes that keep the kids as warm as possible.

While this bat costume isn’t the warmest of all those we have made before, it does still allow for layers. We had the girls wear tights under their leggings and layered a couple of warm tops under the black shirt.

DIY Bat Costume

The wings acted like a cape which kept them even warmer.

If you’re looking for a slightly warmer costume, you might also like our DIY Cat Costume.

What are your kids dressing up as this Halloween? Do you usually DIY their costumes, buy ready-made, or a combination of both?

Pin it for Later

Super Easy DIY Bat Costume - Fun To Wear

 

Bat Costume - DIY Halloween Costume For Kids - Easy to Make

 

Written and photographed by Janice Croze, co-founder of 5 Minutes for Mom

Talk with me: @5minutesformom and Facebook.com/5minutesformom
Pin with me at https://pinterest.com/5minutesformom/

Find More Costume Ideas

The Halloween after we made these bat costumes, we made Sophia and Julia each a DIY Deer Costume.

Each year we’ve come up with more fun ideas for Halloween costumes for girls.

DIY Halloween Girls Costumes

When our girls got a little older, we made these Teen Halloween Costumes that work well for older kids as well as teenagers.

DIY Halloween Costumes for Teens and Tweens

 

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About Janice

Janice is co-founder of 5 Minutes For Mom. She's been working online since 2003 and is thankful her days are full of social media, writing and photography.

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18 Comments

  1. Chris Lee says

    October 28, 2024 at 10:53 pm

    Just wondering if you have a video for the making of your bat costume?

    Reply
    • Susan says

      November 5, 2024 at 1:57 am

      Sorry, we don’t have a video for this costume DIY.

      Reply
  2. Lisa says

    October 17, 2023 at 1:42 pm

    I’m not finding a pattern. Is there a pattern to follow?

    Reply
    • Susan says

      October 18, 2023 at 11:21 pm

      Hi Lisa, for these bat wings, we didn’t actually include a printable pattern because it is a really simple but large design that would be quicker for people to draw out on the back of wrapper paper (or a similar type of large paper) rather than print out and tape together.

      To make your own pattern, simple measured your child’s arm span and draw a basic batwing pattern on the back of wrapping paper to get pieces of paper that are large enough.

      At the top of the arms, just extended the pattern several inches, so you have enough fabric to fold over their arms.

      We considered putting in an official pattern in this post, but we thought people would have an easier time just sketching it out using the exact length of their children’s arms.

      I’ve added more detailed steps into the blog post, I hope that will help.

      Reply
      • Lisa says

        October 20, 2023 at 5:11 pm

        Thank you so much!!!

        Reply
  3. Elaine says

    October 19, 2020 at 5:07 pm

    Hello! These wings look perfect for my sons costume this year! Are the wings all one piece or two separate. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Susan says

      October 20, 2020 at 3:33 pm

      We made them with one piece of fabric.

      Reply
  4. Alex says

    October 7, 2020 at 12:44 am

    Real late to this post. Did you see the wing to a long sleeve shirt? Or make them so the girls slip their arms into a separate wing “sleeve”?

    Reply
    • Susan says

      October 9, 2020 at 3:45 pm

      We did NOT sew the wing to the long sleeve shirt. We made it so the girls could slip their arms into a separate wing “sleeve”. This way they could pull the wings on over different shirts or even a warm black sweatshirt. They ended up playing with these wings for years afterward. Around the house, they’d put their wings on and run around pretending to fly.

      Reply
  5. Lauren says

    October 14, 2019 at 10:43 pm

    I can’t link to exactly how to make it! Is something not working? When I click on the final image that says “See How to Make it”, nothing happens… any tips?

    Reply
    • Susan says

      October 16, 2019 at 2:38 pm

      Oh sorry… the image that says “see how to make it”, is a pinnable image for this blog post. We didn’t actually include a pattern for the bat wings in this post because it is quite simple to cut and it’s best to base it on the length of your child’s arms.

      The main instructions are in the post as…

      To make the bat wings, I measured the girls’ wingspan and drew a batwing pattern. I used the back of wrapping paper to get pieces of paper that were large enough.

      At the top of the arms, I extended the pattern so I would have enough fabric to fold over their arms. I then sewed in place.

      We used a knit jersey fabric that doesn’t fray so that I didn’t have to hem the edges.

      I hope that helps!

      Reply
  6. Bethany says

    October 14, 2019 at 1:09 pm

    What kind of material did you use for the wings?

    Reply
    • Susan says

      October 14, 2019 at 4:57 pm

      We used a knit jersey fabric so that it was soft and comfy on their arms and so that I didn’t have to hem the edges because the knit jersey material didn’t fray.

      Reply
  7. Teena Johnson says

    September 29, 2019 at 6:44 pm

    I love this costume idea. So Cute…

    Reply
  8. Smellyann says

    November 4, 2015 at 10:04 am

    Those costumes are GREAT! And the girls look so happy with them. 😀

    Reply
  9. Star Traci says

    November 4, 2015 at 9:19 am

    Looks like a pretty happy bat to me!
    Happy WW!
    🙂
    Traci

    Reply
  10. orangeheromama says

    November 4, 2015 at 8:48 am

    Absolutely LOVE these fab DIY costumes!!
    I made one of my costumes, and my teens cosplay costume! 🙂

    Reply
  11. another jennifer says

    November 4, 2015 at 7:23 am

    Love it! And they look easy to make too.

    Reply

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