DIY Bat Costume

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.

 

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

Talk with me: @5minutesformom and Facebook.com/5minutesformom
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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.

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