Octopus Costume????

i'm SO not crafty, but i had a friend make one from stuffed panty hose. it was MARVELOUS!
khairete
S.

Black hoodie. Six black socks stuffed and sewed on - three on the front, three on the back. Arms are the remaining two legs. Done.

Gidget - I had already thought of your point, but because the legs are too far from the arms and head, I think that'd look weird. Basically, the entirety of the costume is from the waist up. Personally, I'd do that and then wear a drape like the ocean from the waist down. Moot point, though - she doesn't want socks or stockings.

I agree with Veruca. Don't overdo this....it's Halloween. He's going to wear it ONCE. There's no reason to go crazy with detail and expense and work. I wouldn't even SEW the black socks on....I'd use safety pins. Save the hoodie and black socks to be used after.

I went to google images and they have a lot of good Homemade Octopus costumes. Lots of tights, stuffed and attached to sweat shirts. I recalled seeing bubble wrap attached to "tendrils" maybe you could add that to some of the stuffed Octopus legs.

There is a Henry the Octopus from The Wiggles "skirt" that they sell. Might be worth looking into.
I have to ask because I'm really curious...what makes the pintrest ones using socks or stocking not boyish"? The choice in color or something? Stockings and socks come in a great deal of colors, I'm sure you can find something that is "boyish" to work. Get a pair of sweat pants and a sweatshirt in the desired color and socks/stockings in the desired color and a hat of some kind maybe and you'd be good to go.

Watch the movie Love Actually. There is a great kid's octopus costume in that. (It is during the Nativity Play.)

Ok, geeky math teacher here, but why are people suggesting you add 6 arms. I would only add 4 - he has 2 arms and 2 legs, so that makes 4 so far. Add on another 4, and you've got 8. Otherwise you'll have 10 limbs, and I don't know what you'd call that ... a decapus?

ETA - Ok, now I understand why some people were suggesting adding 6 legs. I was thinking of Henry the Octopus from The Wiggles. He had 2 arms coming out of his chest and 2 coming out of his back. Of course, that's a professional costume, so I wouldn't even begin to suggest you try and make that one :-)

I would go with his arms and legs are 4 and then put two more "arms" on each side. It would probably be less work to get 3 same colored hoodies and a few pairs of mittens, cut off the extra arms, sew on mittens and sew them onto the hoodie under his real arms than it would to gut a stuffed toy. If you really wanted to get creative, some puffy paint (perhaps glow in the dark?) would make suckers. I'd use a bottle cap for a stamper. Tis the season for clearance summer stuff, so it might be cute to get a cheap snorkel and/or a floating ring to indicate "octopus" vs "spider".

I think you could do a hat- use a balloon and paper mâché the shape of the main body so that it is open in the front for his face, then comes down over the back of his head nearly to his shoulders. (or you could get a BIG beanie and stuff it to make a bulbous head.)

Then you can get a long-sleeved shirt, and attach 6 more arms to it at the chest level so that he has all 8.

I had to laugh at your question...When DS was in 3rd grade the grade level play had an underwater theme, his class was assigned octopus. There were a ton of elaborate octopi on the stage, and more than a few dressed like my son wearing a hat with a stuffed octopus pinned to the top. We used a beanie, but in hindsight I would use a baseball cap as it would support the weight better, just turn it around backwards.

http://www.instructables.com/id/No-Sew-Octopus-Costume/

Type in DIY octopus costume for google - it'll give you a variety of ideas

I don't have any advice other than what's already been offered. I would suggest not putting too much time, expense or effort into it yet, though, because young children often change their mind about what they want to be for Halloween several times before the holiday arrives.
And there's nothing wrong with steering your son in another direction if it turns out this costume isn't going to work, for whatever reason. Find costumes that are doable and show him those, there's lots of other sea creatures he could be!