How I DIY-ed Luth’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar Costume (and Somehow Won Best Dressed!)

Sometimes the best projects aren’t the ones you spend weeks planning.

Sometimes they’re the ones you throw together in complete panic the night before.

That’s exactly how this costume came to be.

It all started when I completely forgot that Luth’s school was having Book Week, where every student had to dress up as their favourite book character.

I only realised it the day before.

Cue the panic.

There was absolutely no way I could order a costume online and have it arrive in time. So I stood there staring at our bookshelf, wondering which character I could possibly recreate with whatever we already had at home.

Then I spotted The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Perfect. Not only is it one of Luth’s favourite books, but I also happened to already own almost every colour I needed.

Shopping my own house

The dark green pants were actually from Luth’s Chinese New Year outfit. His plain red T-shirt? Already hanging in his wardrobe from NEXT Kids. Base outfit secured.

Then I remembered something that made me feel ridiculously lucky to be a creative mum…

I had green felt fabric sitting inside my craft box. It was exactly what I needed to recreate the caterpillar’s body. I simply cut out organic-looking patches and sewed them onto the pants.

Most DIY mums would probably hot glue everything to save time, but I also didn’t want to ruin his nice pants.

Thankfully, I do own a sewing machine.

That actually worked in my favour because once Book Week was over, I could simply tetas benang and remove all the felt without ruining the original pants. The costume was temporary, but the clothes didn’t have to be.

The head was the hardest part

The outfit still felt… unfinished.

Every Hungry Caterpillar costume I found on Pinterest had some sort of headpiece. Most of them used headbands. The problem?

Luth was way too young to cooperate with a headband. Honestly, he doesn’t even like wearing caps or beanies. But I figured if he wore it for just a few photos, I’d already be happy. If he decided to take it off at school the next day, that was completely fine too.

So I went digging through our old clothes box.

And somehow…

I found an old red T-shirt. I honestly don’t even remember who passed it down to us. We’ve been so blessed with hand-me-down clothes from friends and family that I’ve completely lost track. The shirt was already well-loved, so I didn’t feel guilty cutting it up. I turned it into a little beanie. For the caterpillar’s eyes, I only had green and pink felt, so I painted the pink felt yellow before layering it with green felt to recreate the iconic eyes. Then I added two little green antennae on top.

It actually looked far cuter than I expected.

A very questionable strawberry

There was still one thing missing.

Using the leftover red fabric from the old T-shirt, I cut out a strawberry shape, added a green top, and drew the seeds with a marker.

I’m not going to lie…

It looked terrible.

Definitely not Pinterest-worthy.

But somehow, that’s my favourite part.

It looked homemade.

It looked imperfect.

It looked like something made with love.

And I think that’s exactly why I love it.

The sweetest surprise

The next morning, Luth looked absolutely adorable.

To my complete surprise, he actually kept the caterpillar beanie on for most of the school day.

Then something happened that I never expected.

He won Best Dressed.

I genuinely wasn’t hoping for that.

In fact, I assumed all the professionally made store-bought costumes would easily take the spotlight. But somehow, this little last-minute DIY that came together with old clothes, scraps of felt, and a slightly wonky strawberry ended up bringing home the award (or should i say a set of coloured markers as the winning prize lol)

Why this means so much to me

Looking back, this costume wasn’t really about winning anything. It was about creating something from almost nothing.

It was about seeing possibilities in what we already had. It was about making memories instead of rushing to buy something new.

And if I’m being honest, I don’t know if I would’ve had the time or energy to pull this off if I were working a traditional 9-to-5 job.

Moments like these constantly remind me why I’m so grateful to spend these years at home with my two boys.

Childhood moves so quickly.

One day they’ll probably want store-bought costumes that look just like the movies. But for now, they’re still little enough to happily wear a caterpillar beanie stitched together from an old T-shirt. And I wouldn’t trade these messy, last-minute, handmade moments for anything. 🤍