So you want to be a bat for Halloween, sweety? No problem, we can do that!

The theme of this costume is not really new, but imagination of what is scary for my five-year old (luckily) has not been filled yet with scary movie images and bats are cool anyway. We disregarded the costumes presented in the shops this time of year, and spend our afternoon doing this:

1. Bat ears
2. Bat skirt
3. Bat shirt
4. Bat mask (face paint)

For the ears, we cut four triangles out of some black leftover fabric, sewed them together two by two and filled them with some stuffing. Then we sewed them to a hairband also covered with black fabric (making sure to cut away extra fabric at the ears before closing up, otherwise the hairband will not be that comfortable).

The skirt was cut roughly from an old elastic t-shirt, the piece I cut was about 50 cm long and 36 cm wide. I stitched an 1.8 cm elastic band in the waist (in our case, 52 cm + 1 cm to overlap). Since I cut the bat wing pattern on the lower sight before stitching sides together, I had to correct this afterwards, so it might have been more precise doing this afterwards, BUT everyone knows spooky things are crooked!

Skirt fabric

Sewing in the elastic band

Closing the waist band

We chose not to work in all black, but sewed a bat pattern (here is the design for you) in black fabric on a white t-shirt (using small blanket stitches).

Since we WILL be getting out for the local trick or treat, we thought face paint would be a lot easier to manage than a mask, and gave it a go.

And that is one happy bat…