Finding Dory Costume: Hank the Octopus

Everyone loves Nemo and Dory but I am super excited to meet some of their new friends in Finding Dory. Hank, their octopus friend caught my eye in the previews. I couldn’t wait to create a Finding Dory costume, a Hank the octopus costume.

Note Hank is actually a septopus because lots one of his tentacles along the way. You could totally drop one of his arms in this costume for authenticity if you like. 😉

This octopus costume is another hoodie costume. I find sweatshirt hoodie costumes really easy to make because I get a solid color base and a hood to create the upper details like a hat, hair or face. I happen to find the perfect red hoodie for this project at a local thrift store. It’s perfect because it was an XL women’s sweatshirt, this costume requires an oversized sweatshirt because of its design. It also didn’t have a front pocket which is unusual. In fact I can’t even find one like it on Amazon to suggest, as an alternative I think a red hoodie with side pockets would be a decent alternative.

Hank the Octopus Finding Dory Costume Materials

Red hoodie – at least a few sizes larger than the costume wearer
Black, light blue and white felt
White duct tape
Stuffing material

An octopus has 8 arms, the sweatshirt arms will become 2 of them. We need to create 6 more arms with the rest of the sweatshirt. Start by cutting along the side hem, stopping an inch short of the armpit on each side. Now cut the front section into three even strips and the back section into three even strips.

These 6 strips will be sewn into tubes to create the rest of the octopus arms. Fold each strip in half and sew up the side to create a tube. Stuff each tube with pillow stuffing and then sew up the tops. I did this all by hand, if you have access to a sewing machine, this would be a super quick step.

I used white duct tape to create my suction cups. Draw template circles onto parchment paper and tape a strip of white duct tape to one side. The parchment paper allows you to 1) Use a template for your duct tape design, 2) Easily cut through the duct tape and 3) The duct tape peels off the parchment paper easily.

Stick the white circles onto the back of each arm. They stuck fairly well for me but you could make them more permanent by hot gluing the on.

I created Hank’s eyes out of felt. I hot glued the eyes together but then sewed the eyes onto the hood. I wasn’t sure about the final placement, so I didn’t want to use hot glue for the final step. I think either method works well for this part of the process.