It may be April, but I spent my weekend working on a homemade skeleton costume for my daughter. No, I am not super prepared and making sure her Halloween costume for the year is ready 6 months in advance, rather she is in a play this week with the part of a skeleton in an ancient ruin. Since we were given some creative latitude, she wanted a girly skeleton. Your average party store does not stock Halloween costumes at this time of year and I was not on the ball enough to order one ahead of time, so I was destined to make it myself.
We found a cute costume called Hip to the Bone as our inspiration:
For the homemade DIY version of this girly skeleton costume you need:
- Long sleeved black t-shirt (found on clearance at Target)
- Black leggings (already had)
- Black skirt or skort (found on clearance at Old Navy)
- Piece of pink tulle or similar fabric (was a remnant we had from a previous project)
- White fabric paint
- Pink puff fabric paint
- Marvy Uchida Fabric Ball & Brush Marker fluorescent green
- Paint brush
- Painter’s tape
- Printable bones stencil (print on cardstock and cut out with a hobby knife)
- Printable ribs stencil (print on cardstock and cut out with a hobby knife)
- Printable heart stencil (print on cardstock and cut out with a hobby knife)
Start off by placing a piece of cardboard between the layers of the shirt and use painter’s tape to hold the heart stencil in place. Use the pink puffy paint to fill in the heart – don’t worry about making it perfect. Remove the stencil before the paint dries completely. Let the heart dry for at least 4 hours.
While the heart on the shirt is drying, cut out the leg bone stencil and tape it to the lower leg of the leggings. Be sure to place cardboard between the fabric layers. Since we are adding a skirt to the costume, you just need a bone on each lower leg, not the thigh bone. Using the white fabric paint, fill in the bone stencil – it may take a few coats. Let the paint start to dry and remove the stencil before the paint is completely dry. Repeat on the other leg. Once the paint was dry, I outlined part of the bone with a glow in the dark fabric marker.
Once the heart is very dry, place the rib cage stencil over top of it and tape into place. Paint each of the ribs with white fabric paint and outline areas with the glow in the dark fabric marker, too.
This is how the rib cage of the skeleton costume looks when its done. You will need to paint the bones on each arm, too. Remember there is an upper arm and a lower arm. The lower arm is actually made up of two bones so I used the same bone stencil but did not fill in the inner part of the bone all the way.
To give the costume a girly look, I made an apron out of a remnant piece of pink sparkly tulle. I cut holes in the top edge and ran a piece of ribbon through it. We tied the apron around my daughter’s waist over top of the skirt rather than attaching it permanently – that way she can wear the black skirt on its own if she wants.
Drum roll, please… the finished project…
And guess what? I think I have her Halloween costume for this year ready to go already!!
