Geek Girls Guild: Making a Chihua-Bee Dog Costume

I went on a Halloween crafting rampage over the long week and finished a couple dog costumes sure to entertain people and humiliate dogs. Abbey the Bee will be reluctantly joining Starla the Spider this year. Starla rocked her spider costume so well last Halloween she’s going to bring it again! Abbey is kind of yellow and has big eyes so of course I had to make her AbBEE. Because her coloring works for the stripes I came up with a design that only uses black stripes to alternate with her gold fur. If you have a black dog that you want to give yellow stripes just reverse the colors in my directions.

What You’ll Need:

Thick silver florist wire

Hot glue

1-2 length of black marabou

Iridescent cellophane

Jumbo black pipe cleaners (about 4 ft worth)

1-2 sheets of black felt

1 sheet of tan felt (or what matches your dog’s fur color)

1 sheet of craft foam (any color)

Velcro strips

** (all can be found at a craft store like Michaels)

Making the Stripes

Abbey ended up with four black stripes because she has a fairly long body so depending on your dog you might need one more or less. I made each about an inch wide so measure your dog from the neck (first stripe) down the back to where you want your last black stripe to be, just in front of the back leg crease. Every other inch will be a black stripe.

Now that you now where each black stripe will go, measure the circumference of your dog’s torso in those places.

Cut 1 inch lengths of felt to each length and lay them out in order and the right distance apart (about an inch).

For the stripes to be fuzzy you’ll just glue lengths of marabou on the felt with minimal amounts of hot glue and go all the way around.

Putting the Stripes Together

Next you’ll make the connector that will run down the chest and belly. For female dogs you’ve got a bit more length but for males you’re going to have to stop short just below the chest and angle the stripes so they’ll arch over the back of your dog more.

Measure from the top edged of your first black strip to the bottom edge of your last. Cut 2 identical lengths of your tan felt to length, they should be a little bit wider than the width of your Velcro.

Cut Velcro to the same length and glue them to the two pieces of tan felt. Go ahead and Velcro them together so it’s easier to work with.

You want your stripes to go the whole way around so line up the ends of one side of your black stripes and glue them ON TOP of the tan felt so the edges are flush.

Remember the lengths are probably different so the other ends aren’t going to line up the same way. Instead, glue each and to the underside of your velcroed connector piece lined up with the ends that went across the top. They don’t need to go the whole way across like on the top so just glue the edges.

If your connector piece is short for your male dog then just angle back the last stripe and set it closer to the previous stripe.

Try it on your dog with the front legs going between the first and second stripe.

Adding the Legs

For the legs decide which 3 stripes the legs will come from. After checking out some bee anatomy diagrams I chose the neck stripe and the next two stripes leaving the back one free. I suggest that the legs come out higher than their sides so they don’t drag and will be long enough to have some movement.

Take one of your jumbo pipe cleaners, cut to at least a foot long. You'll make 2 bends with center part curved to fit your dog’s back shape. The rest you can bend around the front of the stripe and work with to get a good leg shape.

On the underside of the stripes, glue the center section to back center of your stripe onto the felt.

Making the Wings

You need to decide the shape of your wings, if you google bee wings you'll find all sorts of ways to do it. Bees tend to have double sets of wings but I didn't want to get to bulky so I decided on a single wing on each side. You'll use your florist wire to to make a V shape for each wing and then bend them to shape the top and bottom edges. Doing both at the same time will help to ensure they are symmetrical. The ends won't meet, you'll just have a raw endge of your cellophane there instead.

LIGHTLY start a line of glue on the wire for your first wing on the underside only.

The glue might be set by the time you finish but that's ok. Lay you wire flay with the glue facing up and put the cellophane over it.

Use the tip of your hot glue gun to gently press the cellophane into the glue, remelting it in the process.

Use a razor or scissors to cut as close to the edges as possible. Leave plenty of cellophane on your open end for now.

To make the delicate designs of the wings use your hot glue gun to draw the lines on the underside (wire side) of the wings. Be careful not to drag the tip of your glue gun on the cellophane or you'll melt it. When you're done you can cut the open end to fit with your wing pattern.

**IMPORTANT: Remember when you start your other wing to transpose it so you don't end up with 2 left wings! (I learned this the hard way because I was watching TV while crafting and not paying close enough attention)

Attaching the Wings

I prefer to have the accoutrements like wings or big spider legs seperate from base of the costume. Being able to detach the wings makes life a lot easier incase your dog is having none of and needs a break from the wings. Plus, if your wings get torn up it's easier to just make a new set of wings than a whole costume again.

Get your wings into the position you'll want them with the bases as close together as you can get. Take a strip of velcro, just a few inches wide, and glue it to the wire frame at the base (not the cellophane, it will melt and warp).

The other side of the velcro will be on the underside of the neck stripe so position your wings base between the front legs and glue down the other side of the velcro directly to the felt/ pipe cleaners.

The more comfortable your dog is the longer the costume will be tolerated. To ensure your dog doesn't have the wires rubbing into their back I would suggest adding a strip of felt over the underside, again using hot glue only on the wire.

Adding Antennae

This is optional since your dog may not really tolerate something against the top of their head. My dogs have big bat ears so hoods are not going to work for them. I decided to make a piece that juts out over her head for the antennae base instead.

Cut a rectangular piece of foam and rounded one end. Trace that shape onto the tan felt but make it just a little bigger so when you glue it to the felt you can cover the edges.

To make it curve a bit I darted it by making little triangular snips and then gluing those edges together.

Next I took my razor and made 2 slits to pull my pipe cleaner antennae through.

You can either glue the base of your head piece directly to the felt strip on the underside of your wings or you can do another velcro attachment.

Little Extras

I decided to forgo a stinger since my dog has a tail but if yours is lacking in the posterior region I would suggest another foam piece like the one for the antennae but jutting out from the back stripe and just one slit for anothe pipe cleaner to be the stinger.

To make the legs stand out a bit more I took small yellow pom poms and glued them to the front legs to look like bits of pollen (I had flashes of the bee scene in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids").