Bee Hive Costume

By my3princes from North Hartland, VT

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This is a one of a kind beehive costume complete with attached bumble bees. The costume is soft, warm and comfortable. A must have for Northeastern Halloween nights where the temperatures can be near freezing. This costume has always drawn a swarm of attention everywhere we go. The kids like the fact that it doesn't require a mask or makeup and allows them the full range of vision. Mobility is also a breeze. This costume looks great accompanied by Winnie the Pooh or a bumble bee.

• 2 yard of tan stretchy fabric
• polyfill
• 1/2 yard of yellow fabric
• black fabric paint
• black pom poms
• googly eyes
• gold chenille stems
• 1 foot elastic
• 1/4 yard black lace fabric
• black turtle neck
• black pants
• black shoes
• 2 feet black ribbon
• velcro

1. I started by creating the hive. It is made up of a series of poly filled tubes of varying lengths. The longest length is around the waistline or center of the hive, decreasing size as you move up the hive or down the hive giving it a rounded shape. Our hive had 6 tubes plus one for the hat.
2. I used a sewing machine to create a tube, I think mine were about 1 foot widths by varying lengths. I stuffed the tube with polyfill then sewed the ends together creating a circle.
3. Moving upward I made 2 shorter tubes and hand sewed those tubes, one to the front and one to the back of the first circle. The smaller tubes left openings for the arms. Then another smaller circle created the neck. All of the tubes had to be hand sewn as the machine couldn't deal with the bulk.
4. After the top 3 layers were attached I moved down attaching shorter tubes as I moved down.
5. The bottom layer was broken into 2 sections making the costume easier to walk in. The hat is another tube.
6. The length was determined by the size of the childs head. That was topped by sewing on a circle of the stretch fabric. I also used a black ribbon as ties for the hat.
7. The bees were 2 pieces of yellow oval fabric sewn and stuffed into little balls. I used black fabric paint to create the black stripes on the bees (yellow and black stripped fabric would be ideal, but there was none to be had when this was made) Once the paint dried I hot glued a black pom pom on each for the head.
8. Then the googly eyes and chenille stem antennae were hot glued to the pom poms. I used a pencil to twist the chenille stems around to make a spring like apperance.
9. Lastly the I cut long ovals out of the black lace fabric, pinching the fabric in the center and sewing it to the top of the back of the bees bodies. Most of the bees were then sewn to various locations on the hive and hat. 2 Bees were attached to eleastic creating the wrist bands.
10. I also used velcro to secure the bees to the back of the costume which allowed me to remove them when my son wanted to sit down.
11. The finishing touches. Dress child in a black turtle neck and black pants then add the behive and hat. Black shoes would look great though my son wore is regular sneakers. Add the beehive, hat and bee wrist bands and you're on your way to a fun night of trick or treat.