Spider Dog Halloween Costume Tutorial

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Dude, I can make anything with a glue gun.  Even this awesome Spider Dog costume.  You've all seen the viral spider dog video, right?  If you haven't, check it out.  It's pretty darn funny.

I saw this, and immediately decided that I needed to make a spider dog costume for our family shih tzu, Murlin.  

How to Make a No Sew Spider Costume for Your Dog

Choose colors of felt, fake fur, and pipe cleaner wire that match your dog reasonably well.  Murlin is cream and brown, so I stayed in the brown family.

Cut out an oval of felt about the size of your dog's back.  This will be the underside of the furry spider abdomen, and won't be seen.  Then cut out a larger oval of the fake fur fabric.  It should be about five or six inches wider than the felt on all sides.

IMPORTANT TIP:  If at all humanly possible, cut your fake fur fabric OUTSIDE!  Cutting that stuff makes a huge mess, and it's way easier to do it outside, where you can just shake the pieces of fabric and let all that fur fly into the grass.  If you do it inside, you'll be doing a lot of vacuuming.  

Once your fur has been shaken free of all shedding bits, you can bring it back inside for assembly.  Cut the giant pipe cleaner wire into 4 segments (to make the eight legs).  For my little guy, I needed two packages of the brown giant pipe cleaner wire.  Each package was cut into two equal lengths.  If you have a bigger dog, you'll need more pipe cleaner to make the legs look the right length.  

Glue the four legs to the felt oval.

Cut a strip of felt, and glue on top of the spider legs that have been glued down to the oval.  This keeps them really securely in place.

Note that the felt oval with the spider legs is not glued down to the fake fur at this point.  It is just sitting on top of the wrong side of the fake fur fabric oval, ready for the next step.

Now it's time to start gluing the felt bottom to the hairy top part of the fabric.  Start folding the edge of the fake fur fabric over, and glue it to the outer edge of the felt oval.

Glue the fur to the felt, going most of the way around the circumference of the oval, but not quite all the way around.  We need to leave a bit open so we can add the stuffing.

Add the fluffy stuff.  Enough to fill the spider body to your satisfaction.   Then just use the glue gun to seal up that last hole in the spider body.

All that's left is to glue your creation to the dog harness, and strap it on your pup!  

I did find that our costume tipped a bit, because the harness wasn't very tight.  I ended up making a felt strap that went around Murlin's back legs, harness style, too, and that held the costume in place perfectly.

I can't wait to go trick or treating with our cute little mutant spider dog beast this year!  Neither can Murlin.  Look at him licking his chops already.

Nicole Wills, creator of Tikkido

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