DIY Dragon Halloween Costume
Create a cute baby dragon costume for your little one! In this tutorial I show you how to make detachable wings and spikes that can be added to a handmade or store-bought bodysuit to make a fun Halloween costume!
Hello Crafty Friends! Today I’m excited to share with you the cute little baby dragon costume I made for my daughter for Halloween a few years ago. My son went as a knight in shining armor so this dragon costume was a perfect match! I created it in fleece since our Octobers can be pretty chilly. Fleece is also so comfy and easy to sew – making it a great option for Halloween costumes.
In this post I’m sharing how I made the wings and spikes, plus sharing a free printable pattern for both. I won’t be sharing the pattern for the purple fleece bodysuit since I made that using one of my daughter’s pajamas as a template. You can make your own bodysuit using a commercial pattern like this Simplicity Pattern or purchase a fleece romper or sweatshirt romper that you can add the wings and spike to.
Making this costume was so much fun! The pink and purple fabrics look so sweet together for a little dragon. The wings and spikes are made from fleece and covered with sheer sparkly fabric that makes them feel extra special. Try to choose a sparkly fabric that doesn’t shed glitter – it will make sewing with it much more pleasant and it’s safer for little ones.
The wings and spikes are detachable which is super handy. This made it easy to put my daughter in her carseat carrier without having to take off the entire costume. It is a bit of extra work adding the Velcro fasteners, but it worked really well and was worth it.
How to Make the Dragon Wings and Spikes
Supplies Needed
- Free Printable Sewing Pattern – Grab the free file by filling out the purple form at the end of this post.
- Bodysuit – you can purchase one or create your own as I did using fleece. There are some great options I linked to above from Primary.com. Searching for “baby fleece pajamas” or “baby romper” should help you find something that will work.
- Fleece
- Sheer Sparkly Fabric
- 3/4″ – 1″ Sewable Velcro
- Straight Pins
- Fabric Scissors
- Thread
Cutting the Fabric
Start by downloading the free printable pattern and cutting out the pattern pieces.
Each dragon spike and wing will need two fleece pieces and two sparkly fabric pieces. The tail will just need to fleece pieces. I cut enough fabric to have 10 spikes total – 5 for the hat and 5 for the back.
Next cut the sparkly fabric. I folded my sparkly fabric in half and pinned the fleece pieces to use as a cutting guide rather than tracing the pattern on the fabric.
Sewing the Dragon Spikes
Each spike is made of 2 pieces of fleece and 2 pieces of sparkly fabric. Sandwich the sparkly fabric between the two fleece fabrics right sides together. Pin in place then sew around the top 2 edges with 1/4″ seam allowance. Trim the top point and flip right side out. The sparkly fabric should now be on the outside of both the front and back of the spike.
Cut a piece of fleece that measures 10″ long and 2″ wide then fold it half length-wise so it is 1″. Stitch a strip of Velcro the entire length of the fleece using your sewing machine.
Next, hand-sew the spikes along the strip of fleece fabric so they stick straight up and away from the fleece. You could tuck the ends of the spikes under to make a cleaner finish if you want.
Sewing the Dragon Wings
Follow the same process for stitching the wings. Layer the two pieces of sparkly fabric between the fleece layers, right sides touching, and stitch around the wings 1/4′ away from the edge. Once finished carefully flip the wing right side out.
Use a pencil to lightly draw 2 vein lines on each wing and top stitch along the lines. Next, finish off the raw edge of each wing using two fleece rectangles. Cut them to measure 1.5″ long and about 3.25″ wide (or the width of the raw edge).
Pin the rectangles to the front side of the wings, right sides together and stitch 1/2″ from the edge.
Wrap the fleece around the to the back side of the wing and pin in place. Stitch from the front of the wing along the seam where the fleece meets the wing – this is called “stitching in the ditch”. The stitch line will be hidden in the seam on the front side of the wing but will catch the raw edge on the back of the wing as shown below.
Attaching the Spikes and Wings
The wings and spikes are done and ready to be attached to the fleece bodysuit. Use strips of Velcro to adhere the pieces to the bodysuit. For the most part I hand-stitched the Velcro to the back of the wings so my stitching wouldn’t be visible but I was able to stitch in the ditch again to help attach the Velcro along the bottom of the wings.
The Dragon Hat
I made the cute dragon hat using my spike pattern and a tutorial for a Dino Hat by Stitched by Crystal. I made five pink sparkly spikes to use with the fleece hat. I love making separate hats for Halloween costumes since they can be used after the holiday and worn throughout winter or worn for dress-up.
The pattern by Stitched by Crystal worked very well. The only change I made to the pattern was to extend the ear flaps so they could Velcro under my daughter’s chin to help her keep the hat on.
The Dragon Tail
Last but not least, add the cute fleece dragon tail. Top-stitch around the edges of the tail sewing the two pieces of fleece together. Attach it to the bodysuit where the back spikes end.
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial for making wings and spikes to create a cute dragon costume. This tutorial can be used to make a little kid costume by enlarging the pattern pieces slightly. This dragon costume was a great sibling costume when paired with our knight in shining armor! You can read more about how I made that costume too – it was another fun one to create! :)
Get the Dragon Wing and Spike Pattern!
Fill out the purple form below with your first name and email address! The free file will be sent straight to your inbox! If you have already filled out the form below, don’t worry – you won’t be added to my list twice! This freebie is for personal use only. I hope you enjoy crafting something special. Please let me know if you have any questions :)
