Venus Fly Trap Costume, How To..

I have 3 sons.  The two oldest love science.  We have grown all kinds of science experiments in our kitchen window.  plants, trips, sea monkeys. You name it we have probably tried it. Their favorite was the meat eating plants.  We loved to catch flies and feeding them to our Venus Fly Trap. It is amazing how the slightest of touch triggers there mouths to close. Then I saw a costume for a Venus fly trap online.  It inspired me to make his costume.

So this year after seeing this costume on Chasing Fireflies.I just had to convince my son to be a Venus Fly Trap for Halloween.

Photo from Chasing-Fireflies
 The price was a little out of budget so I decided to make my own version. Here is how I did it.

Supply list:
Green knit
Green Fleece
Orange Knit
Orange Fleece
White felt
Red felt
2 wire hangers
2 pieces foam core from the dollar store.

I started by cutting 2 large pieces of Green felt  and orange knit for the head.  I cut mine in huge leaf shapes. About 2 feet long by 18 inches wide.  this measurement may be larger or small depending on the size of the childs head.

Cut 20-25 triangles from the white felt in various sizes. These will be used for the teeth.  Once cut lay your green fleece on the table. Lay your white teeth with the points facing into the middle of the head along one long edge of the head. Lay the orange fabric on top. Pin into place and stitch along the one long edge.

Repeat this step with the other pieces.

Stitch around the finished edge.  Making a 1/2 inch pocket for adding your coat hangers.

Cut 2 large pieces of  Peltex or TimTex. The same shape but slightly smaller than the leaf shape.
Slide the Peltex into the leaf shape in between the orange and green fabric. This will give head of the fly trap some shape. For the piece that will be the bottom  cut a hole out of the center of the peltex for your childs head.  Make it an inch or two larger than the head.

Slide the Peltex in between the fabrics.

Stitch around the inside of the hole to combine the top and bottom fabrics.  cut the center of the circle out.  Your child's head should be able to fit through it.  The fleece is stretchy. be sure not to cut your circle to big.

  Sandwich your top and bottom together.

 Make a French seam. Stitch around the outside edge. Flip inside out and stitch again around the finished edge.  Be sure to leave one corner open for adding wire.

Stitch around the inside of the hole to combine the top and bottom fabrics.  cut the center of the circle out.  Your child's head should be able to fit through it.  The fleece is stretchy, be sure not to cut your circle to big.

To make the shirt I used a raglan style shirt my son has as a template.  Cut it out and stitch shirt together.

 I also used the orange knit to make a hood that attached to the shirt.

Cut 4 hood pieces.

Sew 2 together around the rounded edge.  Do this for all pieces.  Then with right sides together sew the two sections together.  This makes it so you don't have to finish seams.

Flip your hat right sides out and attache to your shirt at the neck line.

For the hands I cut 4 horseshoe shape gloves of each the orange and green fleece. lay the green fleece down add your teeth, and place the orange fleece on top.  Stitch around the edge leaving the bottom flat edge open.

Sew your gloves onto the sleeves of the shirt.

I found a few flies at the dollar store.  I also used strand of ivy from the dollar store. 

For the pot I used foam core from the dollar store.  I spray painted them and cut them the shape of a pot.  I used my vinyl cutter and cut out my "feed me" sign. To secure the pot I added fabric loops on the inside and threaded a belt through it.