Firefly Costume

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, I cannot stand the cuteness!

So my Maddy Mat came home a few weeks ago with a part in the school play ‘BUGZ’. As the Bug MC, she needed a rocking costume to go with her part. At first, she mentioned that she wanted to be a firefly – which I was totally excited about. I mean, the challenge of making a booty that lights up? Yaaaaasssss!  But a day or two later, she started talking about wanting to be a butterfly instead. Boring.

And here is where the Momsuasion came into play. Why did she want to be a butterfly? (Because that is what most of her friends were being.) So I told her that I would be happy to make either costume for her – but a FIREFLY? I mean – it doesn’t get much cooler than that. Fireflies light up the world and shine, bringing light into an otherwise dark night. I mean, how cool is that?  We have a million butterfly wings upstairs in our costume closet, but to be a firefly in a flock of butterflies? Talk about standing out! If a firefly was what her heart truly wanted, then don’t conform to what everyone else was being. Be her awesome self for everyone to see!

It was quite an inspirational talk if I do say so myself, even if most of it was lost on her young ears. Ha!  But her favor shone on me that day, as in the end she chose firefly. Woo hoo!!!!  The happy seamstress in me did an internal shout for joy as I knew I was being challenged to make something new.

That is twice now that my children have challenged me in the costume department in the past couple of months. Chloe with Queen Elizabeth I last month, and now Maddy with her firefly costume.

(Queen E was way harder obviously, this one was just a LOT of fun!)

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Firefly Costume DIY

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MATERIALS:

• Brown / black butterfly wings -or- to make them:
  • 2 wire hangers
  • floral wire
  • black elastic
  • brown / tan colored tights
  • Needle and thread
• Mod podge (affiliate link)
• Glitter (affiliate link)
• Clear vinyl table cloth (affiliate link)
• Battery operated LED lights (affiliate link)
• Needle and thread
• 6 Black pipe cleaners
• Black headband

 

HOW TO MAKE FIREFLY WINGS:

To make the butterfly wings, I googled ‘fairy wings DIY’. I made the wings look upside down to normal butterfly or fairy wings, as a firefly tends to have wings that cover the bottom of their body.  Here is a great video you can follow to make regular fairy wings:

 

HOW TO MAKE A FIREFLY COSTUME:

Once you have the wings, continue below…

Step One – Cut out 2 ‘U’ shapes for the firefly butt. Sew U Shape wrong sides together around the outer edge, leaving the top open. Finish edge (I simply serged around the sides).

Step Two – Unwind and untangle the lights from the packaging. Insert battery operated lights into the U Shape, with the battery coming out of the opening at the top.

Step Three – Gather the top of the U Shape into a small 2 – 3″ opening. You can either gather the fabric, or use large pleats like I did. Make sure the battery is still coming out of the top. Hold the opening with your hand, keeping it in place with it’s smaller shape, use a needle and thread to sew a few stitches back and forth over the opening to secure the fabric together. (You don’t want it to be super tightly closed, just secure enough so that it holds its shape and will not come undone. This will help in the future, in case you ever need to switch out the lights for some reason).

Step Four –  Slip the top of the U gathered shape underneath the bottom center of the wings. Sew a few stitches back and forth to secure to wings, making sure the battery is easy to get to when needed to turn the lights on / off.

Step Five – If desired, add glitter around the outer area of the wings. To do this, place your wings on a protected surface, and simply paint mod podge along the wings outer edge. Spoon glitter onto the glue and let dry. Shake excess glitter off.

And you are finished!

 

 

 

HOW TO MAKE FIREFLY ANTENNA:

To make the headband antenna, simply wrap a few black pipe cleaners around a black headband in the shape of antenna. I double up my pipe cleaners for a more sturdy shape.

Furthermore, for fun I used a little bit of pink blush and black eyeliner to make black stand out freckles on her face. This girl loves that kind of stuff :).

She LOVES her new costume, and we had so much fun taking these pictures together!  Hopefully you can convince your little one to be a firefly among a flock of butterflies too :). This costume was a lot of fun to make.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and until next time…

Happy sewing!