Easy NO-SEW Butterfly Family Costume

As Halloween is just around the corner, I wanted to share this idea for a butterfly family costume with you!

A few years ago, some childhood friends and I started dressing up for and celebrating German Fasching again. With this tradition we prepare ourselves for the Lenten Season with music, dancing, and – most importantly – dressing up in fun costumes.

My friends and I have been Pirates and Angels & Devils in the first two years. As I am very much in love with butterflies, I suggested going as a butterfly swarm in various colors for our third year. 

Strap your wings on and fly!

If you want to do just that, let me show you how to make an easy butterfly family costume for either yourself, a group of friends or your family.

Join this Bling on the Crafts Blog Hop

As I know there is many bling addicted people out there and this Butterfly Family Costume is all about the bling, it was a no brainer as to which post to dedicate to the link party Bling on the Scream.

My blogging friends Marie from The Inspiration Vault and Pam from P.S. I Love You Crafts host these fun sparkly virtual craft parties a couple of times a year.

Make sure to reach the bottom of this tutorial! There you’ll find links to other gorgeous Halloween crafts, that are full on sparkly!

DIY: Butterfly Family Costume

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1. Supplies needed

You’ll find a list of supplies in my other post about another set of wonderful sparkly wings, I did this summer for a fairy festival. You might want to add the following things to your shopping list, if you want to copy this butterfly family costume in detail:

Materials to build the wireframe

You’ll find the supply list for the wing structure HERE

To decorate your wings, these items will come in handy:

• acyrlic paint in several colors+ brushes
• incense sticks
• glitter glue in various colors
• rhinestones + glue (I used the glitter glue – not the best hold, but ok)
• organza (I used orange as I represented the Monarch butterfly)
• pipe cleaners in your butterflies main color (only when you are adding the organza part)
• ribbon (it looks nicer, if you use a few different ones)
• silk flowers

To finish off your costume

• Learn how to make a Butterfly Antennae Headband HERE
• A wig in your butterflies main color
• I even cut out a tiny paper butterfly and stuck it to my right cheek after I was done with my make-up, using eyelashes glue.

Related:

If your man is not comfortable mimicking a butterfly at Halloween, why not let him be the male part of this fun butterfly themed couples costume?

2. Building the Structure of Butterfly Wings

To learn how to build the frame for each set of wings for your butterfly family costume, hop on over to my post on how to make fairy wings. It’s a very detailed instruction for you to follow step by step.

We used black pantyhose, so we didn’t have to paint the wings base black. If you are aiming for a lighter version, simply use white or skin tone pantyhose instead.

3. Decorating your Butterfly Wings

• Using incense sticks, we burned a pattern into each wing. Take a look at the bottom, left wing on the following photo. Try to make a similar pattern in each set of wings.
• Now it’s time to add some more detail to your wings by painting them with acrylic paint.

What would a craft of mine be, without tons of glitter? Right! Not mine, lol. So obviously we added a lot of glitter glue to the wings. Sometimes right on the pantyhose and in other places directly on the acrylic paint.

The glitter glue was simply not enough, so I used some rhinestones as well. As I didn’t have any regular glue at hand (we were crafting at my friend’s house), I used the glitter glue. It worked ok-ish. A craft glue would do a better job, though as we lost a couple of our rhinestones while fluttering away on the dance floor.

Let the decorated wings dry properly. As we crafted these wings on a whim, we didn’t have any silk flowers or ribbon at hand anyways. We met earlier on the day of our party and assembled our beautiful wings for our butterfly family costume.

Pro-Tip by Habiba:

My set of orange wings were the prototype. Can I just say that it would be a good idea to pay attention to the width of your wings if you want to be able to walk straight through any doorway.

As I am a good sport, I don’t mind people laughing at (or as I like to think with me), when they see me turning sideways before entering a room 😉

4. Assembly of Butterfly Wings

Oh my, can you see how wonderfully sparkly my wings turned out to be?

I taped my wings together, added the silk flowers and some ribbon. Click for a detailed description HERE.

As my friends wanted to experience the full butterfly effect, we added wing extensions to put on a fluttery show at the party.

It’s very simple, really: We bought a huge piece of shimmery organza (wider than the span of your arms), folded it in half and tied some of the ribbons around the middle of it. Pay attention that the opening of the organza points to the bottom.

Surely you don’t want to hold your wings all night. So go find that pipe cleaner and tie it around the open corner of your organza. Make sure your middle finger will fit through.

As you can see, there is no need to hem the edges. I took the following photo just yesterday after I wore my butterfly costume many times. When there are loose strands, I simply cut them off. There, good as new.

Multiple options for your Butterfly Costume

As you and your family or friends put in a lot of effort and love to create your very own set of butterfly wings, you might want them to be worn more than once, right?

1. Butterfly Family Costume

2. Fairy Wings for Adults

I borrowed mine to my friend for a Fairy Festival this summer. I made a new purple and pink, super sparkly set of wings for myself.

A girl can never can have enough options in her wing closet, lol.

I untied the fluttery organza bits of the wings for the festival, so my friend wouldn’t get caught in the greenery all the time.

Also, this photo shows you quite good how to strap on your set of wings: Simply use two strands of the ribbon, place them over your shoulders, guide them under your arms around to your back and make a bow tie.

3. Fairy Wings for Children

It didn’t take long, though, till my friend’s daughter asked to wear the wings herself. I don’t blame her – they are gorgeous after all and she really stood out between all those other kiddies wearing 5 $ store-bought wings. She received a lot of compliments, too.

Even though the wing-span is quite wide, she managed perfectly well. She weaved her way through the happy crowd at the Fairy Festival like a pro. If you were to make a set especially for your child, I’d recommend to make them a little smaller, though.

4. Butterfly Themed Couples Costume

If you pour in a lot of love into DIY-ing your costumes, you want to wear them several times rather than just once, right? As I was no longer merely a part of my friend’s butterfly swarm, but a part of a wonderful relationship with Markus, I kinda extended the theme.

Learn how to put together the butterfly catcher costume HERE and read up on some alterations for the monarch butterfly costume HERE.

Ready, set, go!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, I would be really happy if you gave it a try. Let me know if you have any questions at all, I am happy to help! We creatures of the sparkly wings need to stick together, right?

I can’t wait to see what you came up with! Be sure to send me a photo of you, dressed up as a beautiful butterfly.

Love,

You might also like

DIY sparkly butterfly or fairy wings

DIY Butterfly Antennae Headband

 

MerkenMerken