Saturday, October 31, 2015

How to Make a Jellyfish Costume in 6 Steps

Get ready to sting!

Wondering what you should be next year already? Want to try a new DIY project just for kicks? If you want to feel elegant and still make your costume, try the Jellyfish costume! Wearing all white and having dangling, flowing light fabrics at your side makes for a classy yet fun costume. You can add so much to this idea too. I had fun with battery-powered LED lights on the inside/top of the umbrella for example. You can also try to aim for light blue or baby pink tones instead of all white too! The best part is this costume can be made unique and all your own.

DIY Jellyfish Costume

What you'll need:

DIY Jellyfish fabrics
- Clear Umbrella (large)
- Tulle (two 3-inch x 25 yards spools, depending)
- White lace fabric or ribbon (I used one 6-inch x 10 yards fleur lace spool)
- Tape
- Scissors
- Tape measure (optional)
- Battery-powered LED string lights (optional)
- Small white feather boas (optional)
- White paper streamer (optional)
- An all white outfit:
   White tights
   White dress
   White or silver flats or light-colored heels


How to get this look:

  1. Measure how long you need fabric strips to be. I stood with my shoes on holding the umbrella first to see how long they would hang from the edges of the umbrella to the floor.
  2. For fun layering, cut the tulle into 8 strips first (to the length you measured), and leave the width as is. To complete the layering, then cut the lace fabric into strips of 4 (also to length you measured). These are about 2 inches wide each, but can be any width of your liking, as long as you end up with 8 strips. 
  3. Once you have 8 strips of lace and 8 strips of tulle, stack each lace strip on each tule strip, and tape the top of each new layered strip to the inside corners of the umbrella. (You can even wrap the strands of lace around the tulle for a great effect, but they'll naturally tangle anyways!)
  4. Afterwards, you can cut even more strips of lace to fill in the other space gaps of the umbrella (I added 8 more lace strips)
  5.  You're almost done! Now add LED string lights to the inside top if the umbrella by tangling it up in the metal rods, and wrap up some more tule in the top around the metal rods as well. Tape the battery box for the LED lights towards the top inside of the umbrella so you can access the "on" switch but yet "hide" it under the meshy tule!
  6. Attach paper streamer edging to the outside of umbrella for a nice border using tape, and you've got your jellyfish costume put together!
Clear Umbrella DIY costume

Gear up in all white, and take flight as a jellyfish! Just be warned - these fabrics tangle easy which adds to the charm, but make it easy to trip on :)

DIY Jellyfish Costume
Photo taken by Blake Heiss at Fish Marketing

In this look/credit where it's due
Michelle DeCourcy dress, Forever 21 tights, fabrics & boa from Jo-Ann Fabrics, LED copper wire lights from Forever21. [Random, eh?] And I borrowed this umbrella from friend, Tara! Hope you enjoyed this fairly simple DIY project and hope everyone has an amazing halloween!

- Linds