Homemade Purim costumes: Ladybug, Butterfly, Spider

This year my kids wanted to dress up as bugs for Purim. I bought costume hats at IKEA and made the rest myself.

My older daughter has chosen to be a Ladybug. I sewed two semi-circle fabric wings with 6 black round patches.

Then I sewed the top of the wings onto the back of a black shirt. The finishing touch, she put on black pants and a Ladybug costume hat.

My younger daughter has decided to dress up as a Butterfly long ago, not just any butterfly, but a yellow one. For this costume I used a yellow shirt and pants, and an alien costume hat (I had only to paint the antenna yellow).

I cut out the wings and painted the pattern of the swallowtail butterfly on them. Sewed the top of the wings onto a piece of thick wire, and then onto the back of the yellow shirt.

My son wanted to dress up as a Spider and catch his Ladybug and Butterfly sisters :) This costume is the simplest one: an IKEA costume hat, a black shirt, black pants and a spider web. The spider web was made out of a hula hoop and a white ribbon.

These can be nice and easy-to-make Halloween costumes as well, especially the Spider :) Happy holiday!

See also our old Purim costumes: the Penguin, Princess, Clown, Elephant and Pinocchio.

UPDATE: I've been requested to explain in detail how I made the swallowtail wings. So, here we go.

First, I drew a sketch of one wing only on a large piece of paper (several joined A4/Letter sheets will do). Then I traced this onto a piece of yellow fabric folded in half. The crease goes where the line of symmetry of the wings will be (in the photo it's on the right). I used pins to secure the template in place.

After cutting out the fabric wings, I overlocked the edge, painted the swallowtail pattern, and finally sewed their top on to a V-shaped piece of wire. When sewing the wings to a shirt or sweater, attach them in a few points along the wire. That's it, I think.