It’s spooky season friends! This is my first Halloween as a home owner and I wanted to decorate. I have wonderful, strong memories of Halloween as a child and I can’t wait to start creating a similar atmosphere for children in my neighborhood! I had fabric scraps left over from other projects and decided to make some scrap fabric Halloween spiders 🙂
Material
Most of the material you will need for this project are basic crafting supplies: hot glue, tacky glue, pipe cleaners, and aluminum foil. The only special additions will be the faux-fur for the cephalothorax and abdomen. I had some white fur scraps left over from my nephew’s Halloween costume, and the tail of a stuffed animal that I had altered to look like my brother’s dog.
Method
I started by watching as many DIY spider decoration videos on youtube as I could, but in the end decided to base my design on a Christine McConnell tutorial. I believe the video I used is only available through Patreon. I will say that Christine’s Patreon is most definitely worth it as there is tons of extra content. I would consider signing up if you like getting a dose of spooky stuff all year round!
Construction
Step 1 – Paint pipe cleaners
I purchased two widths of pipe cleaner, one normal and the other slightly thicker. I gave all of them a light spray of black spray paint to give them some dimension.
Step 2 – Make eyes
The eyes were actually quite easy as well. I took an old plastic egg carton and simply made small puddles of hot glue in two sizes. Once the hot glue cooled, I painted the glue black, and then followed that up with a glossy clear coat. The eyes popped right off the egg carton and looked perfect!
Step 3 – Build a spider frame
Make legs: First, I wound one regular pipe cleaner around one thicker one to create eight legs.
Make pedipalps: Next, I wound three regular pipe cleaners together to create a two pedipalps.
Create base: I brought it together by attaching the pedipalps and legs to a pipe cleaner circle.
Secure base: I then secured the base by wrapping pipe cleaners between the legs to close up the circle.
Attach fangs: Lastly, I wrapped two pipe cleaners in the opposite directions around the base leaving a bit out for the fangs. You should have a little of the original circle left at the bottom which you will use later to attach the abdomen.
Step 4 – Make it fluffy
I then fashioned a head (cephalothorax) and abdomen out of aluminum foil. I was making a jumping spider, so my head was going to be pretty big compared to the abdomen; shaped almost how you might imagine a frog’s head is shaped. I then covered both pieces in pipe-cleaners to help the hot glue stick in the next step.
I covered the pipe-cleaner covered aluminum pieces in faux-fur and hot-glued them in place. Since this fur was quite long, I gave the front of the face a bit of a trim to make sure the eyes would adhere properly in the next step.
Finally, I hot-glued the head (cephalothorax) to the main portion of the base from which all of the legs extended. Then, I hot-glued the abdomen to the small circle of pipe cleaner at the bottom.
Step 5 – Add the details
This is the fun part! I glued the eyes in place, with two large eyes in the center front, and two smaller eyes toward the side of the head.
Finally, I cut some smaller strips of leftover faux-fur and added to anywhere I liked. I added bands of fur along the joints of the spider’s legs as well as over the spider’s pedipalps. Be warned, this is a messy step! The faux-fur falls apart quite easily once cut and you will be left with bits of fluff absolutely everywhere.
Final Thoughts
These are so cute! I promised myself I wouldn’t make spiders that would gross me out, which is why I chose jumping spiders with their fluffy exterior and large, front-facing eyes. The black spider, which I did first as an experiment, looks more like a tarantula than a jumping spider but I’m fine with it. Variety is the spice of life.
Next year, I’m going to try to make even bigger spiders that have more detail, perhaps using paint to give them a more realistic appearance. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy these festive little guys this Halloween!
