Easy DIY Spider Costume for Kids Using a Hoodie

Looking for an easy DIY spider costume for Halloween? Starting with just a black hoodie you can create an entire costume by adding a handful of felt eyes and some stuffed fabric legs that move with the wearers arms (kids love this part!). The best part about this DIY costume is that all parts can be removed and you still have a completely usable hoodie.

This year, our son chose Pun Bugs as the theme for our annual family Halloween costumes. Each of us dressed as a different bug with a little twist, and his pick was the Snack Spider complete with eight legs, eight eyes, and of course some snacks to bring it all together! The snack packages were added to complete his pun-inspired costume, but the basic spider is a great Halloween costume on its own.

Learn How to Make a DIY Spider Costume

I’ll show you to to transform and ordinary hoodie into a creepy-crawly Halloween costume. While I’m showing you how to sew this on your sewing machine along with some hand sewing, this whole costume can be created using some fabric glue or hot glue and some safety pins.

Materials for a DIY Spider Costume

The nice thing about this costume is that you can start with clothing you already have and use relatively small amounts of fabric and other craft supplies that you likely already have on-hand.

Spider costume supplies:

• Black hoodie
• Black pants
• Black sweatshirt fleece fabric*
• Poly-fil polyester fiber fill
• 1/4-inch black elastic
• Red craft felt
• Black fabric marker
• White acrylic craft paint
• Black and red thread
• Hand-sewing needle
• Fabric scissors, pins, and other basic sewing supplies

Optional Snack Spider supplies:

• Empty snack bags and small boxes
• Additional Poly-fil stuffing (for the snack bags)
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

*For the spider legs, I used black sweatshirt fleece. This is the soft fabric commonly used to make hoodies and sweatshirts, with one smooth side and a one fuzzy side. I happened to have just enough of this on hand to make the legs for this DIY spider costume, however fleece or cotton would also work great!

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How to Make a DIY Spider Costume

First we’ll create the legs, attach them to the hoodie, attach them to each other, and make and attach the eyes to the hood.

Make the Extra Spider Legs

Start by making the four extra legs from black sweatshirt fleece. (Since there are already two arms and two legs, we only need four additional limbs.)

Using the hoodie as a sizing guide, cut your fabric into four sets (8 pieces) of rectangle leg pieces just a bit longer than the arms of the shirt.

With the two leg pieces right sides together, sew down the length of one side, created a slightly pointed and slightly rounded end, and back down the other side leaving the bottom edge open for turning and stuffing.

Turn the legs right side out and lightly fill them with stuffing. They don’t need to be packed real tight.

Once all four legs are stuffed, close the openings so the stuffing stays securely inside. Repeat with all four legs.

Attach the Spider Legs

Arrange two stuffed legs on each side of the hoodie, spacing them equally between the armpits and the bottom of the hoodie. Pin the legs in place and hand-sew the stuffed legs securely to the hoodie. (Safety-pinning is also and option for a temporary hold.)

Connect the extra legs together using 1/4-inch black elastic and sew in place towards the ends of the extra legs.

To connect the first legs to the sleeve of the hoodie, create a loop that can be put on and off around the wrist. This makes it so the extra legs can be taken off for eating or bathroom needs.

Be sure to test the movement while wearing the hoodie, checking that the elastic doesn’t pull too tightly or restrict arm movement.

Make Eight Felt Spider Eyes

These spider eyes really bring this spider to life!

Cut eight felt circles in three different sizes. I used a circle stencil to get matching circles, but tracing circle items works great too!

Use a black fabric marker to add shading to each eye. (You could probably use a Sharpie or other marker here, just make sure the ink sets and doesn’t rub off.) Gradually work the black color around the circles creating a darker gradient to give the flat circles a more rounded appearance.

Add a tiny dot of white acrylic craft paint to each eye as a highlight.

Arrange the eight eyes onto the top of the hoodie and hand-sew each felt circle in place using a simple running stitch around the edges.

[VIDEO: Making and attaching the felt spider eyes]

Put Together the Spider Costume

With the stuffed legs and felt eyes attached, the DIY spider hoodie is finished! Pair it with black pants to complete the look.

The stuffed legs give the costume its recognizable spider silhouette, while the red eyes add a fun pop of color and really bring it life.

Optional: Turn Your Spider into a Snack Spider Costume

For our family’s Pun Bugs Halloween theme, a regular spider wasn’t quite enough. We needed to turn this eight-legged creature into a Snack Spider by adding a variety of snack bags to the extra legs.

Since the packages were empty, I filled them with a little Poly-fil stuffing to give them some shape. I added clear packing tape to the backside to reinforce them a bit, and hot-glued them to the legs.

For the snacks on the shoes, I hot glued a little elastic to the back of those snacks and looped the elastic around the laces of my son’s shoes.

And just like that, our Snack Spider was ready for Halloween!

The snack decorations are completely optional, but they made this costume fit perfectly into our family’s pun-inspired theme.

Tips for Making a Comfortable DIY Spider Costume

A few things are worth keeping in mind when making a spider costume using a hoodie.

• Choose a comfortable hoodie. Since the hoodie serves as the base of the costume, make sure there’s enough room to move and add layers underneath if needed. Check thrift stores for an even more sustainable solution!
• Keep the extra legs lightweight. Stuff the fleece legs enough to hold their shape without making them unnecessarily heavy. Lightly stuffing will also create a natural bend in the legs, giving them an even more spider-y look!
• Test the elastic connections. Have the wearer raise, lower, and move their arms to make sure the legs move comfortably.
• Keep the decorations out of the way. If you’re adding snacks or other accessories, position them so they won’t interfere with walking or moving.
• Consider reusing the hoodie. Since the stuffed legs and felt eyes are hand-sewn onto the hoodie, they can be removed afterward if you want to return it to everyday use. I won’t be surprised if my son votes to keep the eyes on the hood.
• Use sunglasses for eyes! Since my son is able to wear his costume all day at school, sunglasses weren’t an option. Otherwise, some red circle glasses with some extra eyes attached to them would be another great option for spider eyes.
• This isn’t just a kids costume! This basic DIY spider costume concept can work for adults too!