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Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Epic Octopus Costume Photos and Instructions

After many many hours of watching Jonathan Bird's Blue World videos on Youtube, Parker decided he wanted to be an octopus for Halloween this year. Not just any octopus, a blue ringed octopus. Threenagers have very specific needs. You feel me, mamas? So I said challenge accepted and started researching octopus costumes and inspo. If you follow me on Pinterest and were wondering what I was up to, now you know. There is a method to my madness! I lucked out in finding this octopus costume pattern and tutorial from Martha Stewart and the rest was history. Enjoy these snaps of my little octopus contemplating his return to the sea. All photo credits belong to my wonderful husband who is totally supportive of my crazy ideas. 

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This costume took a total of 4 hours of actual sewing and construction time. Add a few hours for the time it took for the puffy paint to dry. In total, it took me 4 days to complete the whole project because trying to find 4 hours of time to craft is nearly impossible.

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I perused the aisles of Joann's to find a solid yellow cotton similar to this and a lighter patterned yellow cotton for the interior that looked like octopus suckers. I used the instructions from this DIY Octopus Costume tutorial to add a bit of a curl to the tentacles.

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After sewing the outer part of the cape together, I pulled up a few photos of blue ringed octopuses (octopi?) and drew the blue ringed octopus pattern onto the outer part of the cape using brown and blue puffy paint. I had considered cutting the rings out of felt and sewing them on but figured puffy paint would be less time consuming. The paint actually gives the costume a cool texture too. Threenagers totally appreciate hand painted fabric, right?

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After the paint dried overnight, I finished sewing all the parts of the costume together and let Parker help me stuff the tentacles and head with poly-fil. He loved that part! Side note: the "filling tool" aka single chopstick that comes in the poly-fil bag is such a joke. HA!

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I was so happy with how the costume turned out that I made Parker and Tuan go down to La Jolla Shores to snap some photos. We arrived as the sun was setting and the tide was low. It was perfect and Tuan did a fantastic job capturing the essence of the costume.

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Now the only thing left to do is make my tiger shrimp costume and our family will be all set for Halloween. Happy crafting, everyone!

octopus costume, costume, handmade costume, halloween, toddler costume

octopus costume, costume, handmade costume, halloween, toddler costume

If you have any questions about the costume, leave a comment below!

9 comments :

  1. This is amazing! Awesome job! Now to see the Tiger Shrimp costume...

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    1. Thank you, Susan! Perhaps I should set up a photo shoot for myself at the beach once the shrimp costume is done. I'm not sure if it will have the same effect though. Haha!

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  2. I just love this, Mary! Fantastic job! As always, you are so crafty!!

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    1. Thank you! That's high praise coming from you :)

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  3. Hiya! Such a beautiful costume! My 3 year old has just asked me for an octopus costume and can't find any nice patterns. I was wondering if by any chance you still had the pattern and could share it. I've tried to go to Martha's website put the pattern's URL link is not active for me. Thank you in advance!

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  4. Hi G, Thanks for the kind words! Here is a link to the instructions and video from Martha https://www.marthastewart.com/266665/octopus-costume. Happy sewing!

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  5. Hi folks, Looks like the template link was updated with another type of octopus costume- but I really like the original! Does anyone have a copy saved? Please and thanks!! I have a 3 year old that can’t wait to be an octopus :)

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    1. Oh bummer! Unfortunately, I don't have the original pattern saved. I tried looking around but all I could find was the video of her making the costume. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-hmUH6HxeA

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    2. Hi, I had bookmarked your page because I think your octopus costume turned out incredibly gorgeous! I wanted to copy it for my toddler dance group but I have seen that Martha Stewart has replaced the octopus costume with a not so pleasing one. From watching the video you linked above though I found out that they have just renamed the pattern! It's now a spider pattern (which is the black costume Anaron made in the video). The instructions can now be found here: https://www.marthastewart.com/271412/spider-costume You just need to adjust the eyes but the rest is absolutely the same. Just in case you want to update the link in your post.

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