How to Make a DIY Shark Costume for Halloween

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Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

No one can forget the smooth moves of Left Shark from Katy Perry's infamous Superbowl half-time show. If you're stumped on Halloween costume ideas, surprise the whole party in this full-body no sew shark suit. The DIY Halloween costume can be assembled in a few hours using our tutorial, making it a decent last minute solution for parties and cosplay.

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No matter how good (or bad) a dancer you are, this costume idea is sure to accentuate your every move.

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Things You'll Need

  • 3 pool noodles

  • Scissors

  • Duct tape in aqua blue

  • Aqua blue fleece, 4 yards

  • White fleece, 1 yard

  • Hot glue gun or fabric glue

  • Plastic baseball

  • Black sticky-backed felt, 8-by-10-inches

  • White sticky-backed felt, 8-by-10-inches

  • 1/4-inch thick foam, 1/2 yard

Cut the pool noodles

Cut two pool noodles at a 30-degree angle at each end so they fit together into a point, and then duct tape them together. Make a cut in the middle of each pool noodle and add another 8-inch piece of pool noodle to extend the sides. Duct tape these extensions to the noodles.

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Image Credit: Sonya Nimri
Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Cover the noodles with tape

Cover the entire surface of the noodles in duct tape. This will prevent them from melting when the fabric is hot-glued to them.

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Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Cut the aqua fleece

Cut two pieces of aqua fleece in the same oval shape as the oval noodle structure except 1 inch bigger all around.

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Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Add the white fleece

Cut an oval-shaped piece of white fleece 3 inches smaller than the blue fleece and glue it to the middle of one of the blue fleece pieces, turning under the raw edges by 1/2 inch as you go. Set aside the other blue fleece oval for later.

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Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Glue fleece to the noodles

Hot-glue the big piece of blue fleece to the edge of the oval pool noodle structure, leaving the raw edges exposed.

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Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Add a gusset

Cut two pieces of blue fleece that measure 8 inches wide by as long as your yardage will allow. Hot-glue each piece on either side of your blue fleece, along the front edge, turning the fabric under 1/4 inch as you go to cover the raw edge of the blue fabric oval.

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Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Cut the gills

Using scissors, cut gills out of your black felt sheet. You'll need a total of ten gills (five per side).

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Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Make a shark mouth

Cut a black felt mouth and 19 pointed teeth from white felt. Glue the teeth to the black felt mouth, ten to the top and nine to the bottom.

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Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Glue the mouth to the shark

Hot-glue the mouth a little higher than half-way up the middle of the front of the white fleece on the costume. Cut away the blue and white layers of fleece on the backside of the mouth so you can see through the felt mouth. This is to provide visibility for you while wearing the costume.

Image Credit: Sonya Nimri
Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Make the eyes

Cut a plastic baseball in half, and then cut a piece of black felt larger enough to cover half of the ball. Make sure the black felt curves in a semi-circle and and notch one side of it every 1/4 inch. Glue this sheet of black felt to one half of the plastic ball, overlapping the notches to pull the felt taut. Glue a strip of aqua fleece to the top, over the overlapping black felt, creating an eyelid. Cut a little white circle and glue that to the black of the eye for the glint. Repeat on the other half of the plastic ball to make the other eye.

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Image Credit: Sonya Nimri
Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Glue the eyes to the face

Add hot glue to the back of the fleece and stick the eyes on each side of the shark face -- on the blue felt -- a few inches above the mouth.

Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Create the shark fins

To get the right fun shape, cut two blue fleece triangles, two white fleece triangles, and two triangles of 1/4-inch foam that are as long as your arms and about 20 inches wide at the base.

Image Credit: Sonya Nimri
Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Glue the fins to the body

Glue the white triangle fins to the backside of the gusset, right where your arms fall on each side. Place each foam triangle behind each white triangle, and then hot-glue the blue triangles around the two long sides of the white triangles, leaving the short sides open at the back, which is where you will slide your arms through to wear the costume.

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Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Add a back to the costume

Add the second blue oval to the back of the costume, turning under the gusset's edge 1/4 inch and gluing it to the back side of the oval as shown in the photo. Sandwich the blue part of the fin to the oval where they meet.

Add back
Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Add fins to the gusset

Pull the sticky backing off of the gills and stick five of them to each side of the gusset right below the eyes.

Add gill
Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Make the shark feet

Wear tights, slim fitting pants or sweat suit bottom, and put the costume on. Have someone else trim the gusset strips where they hit your shoes and tape the bottoms of the gussets to your shoes with the aqua tape. This will be the "legs" of your costume. You could also secure the gusset strips to your pant legs with a small piece of tape as well.

Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

Finish your DIY shark costume

Now, strut your stuff in your new shark Halloween costume, and no need to worry about dance rehearsals, you got this!

Image Credit: Sonya Nimri

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