(20 crafty days of halloween) diy baby fish costume

Ohmygosh, excuse me while I die of cuteness overload. This is Amelia’s first gummy smile caught on camera! She clearly loves Halloween already.

This year for Halloween, Amelia and I are going to be fish while Logan and the hubby will dress as fishermen. I’m totally going to milk the family costumes as long as I possibly can. Plus, I promised my 3 year old that we’d add plenty of super hero costumes to his dress up stash right after Halloween when they’ll be on clearance. I’m still working on his costume, but I just finished Amelia’s fishy costume and I couldn’t wait to share it! She might possibly be the cutest fish ever (says her totally unbiased mother).

This DIY baby fish costume is totally easy to make and only requires minimal sewing skills. If you can sew in a straight line, you’ve got this. I used fabric glue to attach the scales, but if you are feeling ambitious you could also sew them on. It’s much easier to glue and works just as well. Her fish eyeball headband was crafted out of a styrofoam ball and only takes a few minutes to make. The fish scales are a bit more time intensive, but very simple to do. If you make this costume, make sure to share your cuteness with me and send me an email!

Check out our diy family dinosaur costumes from last year.

Materials

White Infant Sleeping Gown (purchased on amazon)

Rit Liquid Purple Dye

Purple, Green, Aqua Felt (I purchased 1/2 yard of each color for 2 costumes)

Iridescent Material (I purchased 1/2 yard for 2 costumes)

Permanent Fabric Glue

1 Small Styrofoam Ball

Black Sticky Felt

Purple Stretchy Headband

Hot Glue Gun

Instructions

Step 1: Use liquid Rit to dye the white sleeping gown purple. You can find my tips for dying fabric here. I used the entire bottle of Rit for this project, as I wanted the color to be vibrant.

Step 2: Flip the gown inside out and sew the iridescent material around the bottom of it, pleating the material as you go. Trim the bottom to your desired fin length.

Step 3: Cut several circles out of the purple, green and aqua felt. Cut the circles in half. Glue to the front of the gown (you can skip the sleeves), starting at the bottom, in a scale pattern as shown in the photo. Make sure to use PERMANENT fabric glue and only put glue at the top of the scale. You may want to place a piece of cardstock or cardboard inside of the gown so the glue doesn’t leak through the other side.

Step 4: To make the fish eye headband, cut a small styrofoam ball in half and attach to a purple stretchy headband using hot glue. Sandwich the headband between a circle of purple felt and the styrofoam when gluing. Cut small circles out of the black adhesive felt and attach to the center of each styrofoam “eyeball”.

Step 5: Place on baby and die of cuteness overload.