How to Make a Baby "Bee" Costume

If I can make award-winning costumes/cosplay for adults, I think I can make a little baby bee costume, right?! For my kiddo's first Halloween, I created a simple bee costume. The hardest part of this was whether my baby would even be open to wearing it, let alone wear the bonnet. Thankfully, my kiddo was a champ and actually quite loved it. The whole project took me a few hours over the course of 2 nights, so maybe 5 hours total.Let's get started!

There are not too many materials for this costume, but you do need to know some basic sewing. Or, you can use fabric glue in a pinch if you can't sew. But... You should learn how to sew.. it's such a useful skill to have. I do not have any patterns.. everything was hand drawn. But if you look at the pictures, you can get an idea of of the shape.

You will need the following items:

1. black craft balls
2. pipe cleaner
3. black stretch fleece
4. yellow stretch fleece
5. faux brown fur
6. white interface (it's what makes fabric stiff)
7. elastic for waistband
8. white felt
9. chalk for fabric to outline your patterns
10. fabric scissors
11. stuffing
12. black thread
13. sewing machine
14. iron
15. measuring tape
16. fabric glue
17. paper for pattern drawing
18. an existing pair of baby pants that currently fit to use as a pattern
19. an existing onesie to use as a pattern. Ideally, it will be a little bigger on your kiddo

Bonnet Base

The bonnet itself is made of 3 pieces of black fleece - (2 sides and one center), 2 antenna, and 2 chin strings.

1. Use your measuring tape to measuring from the forehead to the nape of the neck.
2. Take a strip of paper and fold it down the center so that when you draw your pattern on one side, it will be symmetrical once it is opened.
3. The length of the strip should be the length that you measured in step 1. It should be about 4 inches wide before you fold it in half.. It doesn't have to be exact as fleece has a little stretch to it. You can decide how baggy you wish to make it.
4. When you are drawing out your pattern, it is somewhat slimmer in on the middle, like an hourglass. this allows it to flare out in the front a bit. If that's too complicated, then just cut a strip and forget about the hourglass shape.
5. For the sides, create a paper template and make a square that is about the size of the side of your kiddo's head.
6. Round off one of the corners so that this will be the back of the bonnet that sits at the top of your kiddo's skull.
7. So now, take your patterns and transfer them to the fabric. You will need to create a 1/4 inch border on each side of the pattern that will be sewn together.. this is the seam allowance.. so for example, you will add 1/4 of an inch on each side of the center strip so when you sew everything together on your sewing machine, the bonnet is not super tight.. remember, you need 1 center and 2 sides.

Straps

For the chin straps, i took some strips of fleece and tri-folded it on itself. sew it down into a tube and then attach to the corners of the bonnet.

Antenna

1. Take your pipe cleaner and wrap it around the center of your craft ball. If needed, you can also use some craft glue to secure it in place.
2. take the pipe cleaner ends and start twisting them together to create a singular antenna "stem"
3. take a strip of fleece and wrap it around the "stem" and secure down with fabric glue.
4. repeat the process to make the second one and let both dry
5. position and sew onto the bonnet.

Pants

1. For the pants, first grab your existing pair of baby pants to use as a template.
2. Examine the pants and see how they are put together. you are just recreating the thing, but in fleece.
3. the seam on the original pants i selected was on the inner leg, so that meant i could fold a piece of paper in half and draw it out.
4. So, i literally spread out the pants on my folded paper and drew out the outline.
5. Open the paper up and that is your leg pattern (pic 2)
6. grab your elastic and wrap it around your kid's waist. Cut to length.
7. enclose the elastic in fleece and set aside.
8. transfer your leg patterns to the fleece, draw out with your chalk, and cut out. Remember, you need 1/4 seam allowance wherever you will be sewing ( so add 1/4 of an inch all around)
9. now that you have your legs down, attach your elastic band to the legs.
10. i had some extra brown faux fur so i cut a strip and essentially made little leg cuffs. i just hand sewed these on.

Arms

1. it is essentially the same process as the pants. so basically do steps 1-5, and step 10 but for the arms.
2. set these aside until the body is completed.

Wings

1. grab something circular to draw out your paper template. I think i used a roll of duct tape for mine.
2. you can choose keep them as circles, but i chose to cut a straight line near the edge as i thought it would sit better against the costume.
3. use that template to cut 4 pieces from the white felt, and 2 pieces from the white interface.
4. use an iron and iron on the interface onto a wing.. you are sandwiching the interface between two wing pieces.. So felt-interface-felt... i ended up using fabric glue for the "wing sandwich".
5. make 2 of these and set aside.

Stinger

1. Cut out a little triangle from the black fleece.
2. roll into a cone an sew the side together
3. fill with stuffing and set to the side.

Body

1. take your paper and fold it in half.
2. lay your existing onesie on top of it and draw out your pattern (pic 2)
3. once you open it up, it will be symmetrical (pic 3)
4. you will might find that the front and back of the onesie are slightly different shapes, so you might actually need 2 paper patterns.
5. use this pattern and transfer to the black fleece. Remember to add 1/4 inch around the areas that will be sewing together, so this is the sides, the shoulders.
6. grab your yellow fleece and cut out long thick strips.. i believe mine were maybe 3 inches x 8 inches..
7. place one strip on the black fleece body and sew 1 side, top and bottom.. leave one side unsewed for now.
8. take your stuffing and fill in the pocket of the yellow feel from step 7 to your desired plumpness
9. sew closed.
10. repeat this step til you have both the front and back completed.
11. once all the yellow strips are placed, you can sew the front and back together.
12. from there, i added a strip of brown fabric to the collar and also to the shoulders.
13. once done, i sewed on the arms pieces.
14. i originally thought i was going to make a traditional onsie, but opted to make it more of a dress to make things less complicated with fasteners.
15. sew on your stinger and wings
16. you can use a button or fastener(s) in the back to close the bee onsie. or you can just leave it open as most likely you will be carrying them or they will be sitting in some type of carrier. it wont be seen.

That should be it! If you want to participate in the theme, grab yourself a jumpsuit and purchase a beekeeper hat and gloves. This costume was super simple and the overall theme was such a fan favorite to those around us. My mom took things a further step and ended up crocheting my kiddo some yellow mittens as we were going to be outside most of the day.