Welcome to day 4 of Homemade Costume week. This bumblebee Halloween costume looks great in person, and could not be simpler to make. A black shirt, yellow duct tape, some pipe cleaners, and a pair of dollar store wings. You can make this no-sew bee costume in about 15 minutes.

Project Estimate:

  • Black hooded sweatshirt, on hand
  • Yellow duct tape, $3
  • 2 yellow chenille stems, on hand
  • 2 yellow pom-poms, on hand
  • 1/4″ elastic, $1
  • Hot glue gun and hot glue stick
  • Pair of bee wings from dollar store, $1

Total: $5

To make a no-sew bee costume:

I originally made this costume for Kaboose.com, a site that closed down several years ago, and unfortunately, there is no longer an internet archive of the instructions, and my version of the instructions are long-lost on my old defunct computer.

Basically, add yellow duct tape stripes to a hoodie, then hot glue pom-poms to a couple of chenille stems, then duct tape them to the inside of the hood. Curl the stems around a pencil.

Add a pair of yellow dollar store fairy wings to complete the look.

My Design Process:

I don’t know if you folks care about seeing my sketches or not, but it amuses me, so I’ll just keep posting them. My original sketch was slightly more complicated than the costume ended up — I originally envisioned a black hoodie with a yellow t-shirt over it, but when I started making the costume, I eliminated the yellow t-shirt and just went with yellow duct tape stripes. I also called for the costume to be stuffed with grocery bags (to make it more round) but I decided the stuffing was unnecessary when I put it on my model (my 4 year-old).

My craft planning process is this:

  • sketch the project and label what each part is
  • think through the actual process of making it and what supplies I will need
  • write down the process as I imagine it (so I have “instructions” to follow)
  • then take a step back and see if there is anything I can eliminate in terms of supplies or extra work
  • collect my supplies (from my stash, or shop for them)
  • do the project and change something (usually!)
  • make sure to photograph most of the steps so I can remember how I made it

How do you plan for your craft projects? Do you have a sketchbook?

DIY No Sew Bumblebee costume