How to Make a Butterfly Costume

Halloween is here and you've decided to dress as a butterfly. Whether you want to save money or you just enjoy making your Halloween costumes, you can make a quality butterfly costume that looks good and is economical. There are thousands of butterflies to choose as an example. Pick one and then follow these steps to recreate the look.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Poster board
• Pencil
• Paint or markers
• Decorating supplies
• Scissors
• Hat or headband, optional
• Pipe cleaners
• Stapler
• Glue
• Ribbon

1. Pick an outfit as the base of your butterfly costume. Black or green outfits work well as a base. You can use any outfit that matches the main color in the wings, though pants and a shirt work better than a dress. Pick an outfit that's both appropriate for the weather and comfortable.

2. Make antennae out of pipe cleaners. You can make spiral antennae by wrapping the pipe cleaners around a pen. To add balls to your antennae you need to glue small pompoms to the top end of the pipe cleaners.

3. Attach the pipe cleaner antennae. If you wear a hoodie or a hat for your costume, staple the pipe cleaners directly to it. If your head is uncovered, twist pipe cleaners to a headband that's close to the color of your hair and entwine the antennae into it.

4. Cut out wings. Most styles of wings can be made using white poster board as the foundation. You can save time on decorating if you use poster board that's already the main color of the butterfly. Draw one side of your wings in pencil and cut it out with scissors. Flip this over and use it as a template for the other side to keep your wings symmetrical.

5. Decorate your wings with paint, markers or other coloring, or paste cutouts onto them. You can use an actual butterfly as an example or you can be creative and make fanciful wings. For sparkling wings, use a glitter glue to create shapes, spirals and circles. You can add texture to your wings by using tissue paper or fabric for cutouts.

6. Put shoulder straps onto your wings. Hold the wings up to your body and mark where your shoulders hit the wings. Cut a 1-inch vertical slit at the marks and another one 12 inches from the top slit on each set of wings. Thread lengths of ribbon through the slits on each side of the wings and adjust until the wings fit as desired. Tie knots into each end of ribbon.