6 DIY Halloween Costumes You Can Make from Stuff You Have At Home
By: Claire, redwigwam
Trick or Treat?
Love it or hate it, the shops have been packed full of Halloween things for weeks – and while the organised parents amongst us will have the outfits sorted and face paint ready to go, the less ‘on it’ amongst us (and yes, I include myself amongst this) are having a major last-minute panic because they can’t find the outfit the child wants to wear, or the outfit from last year just doesn’t fit.
Or in my case, both.
Now, I COULD head to the shop and see if I can find two costumes in an appropriate size which are deemed acceptable. But I don’t have time (you know, work) and, I hate the idea of impulse buying something for one day that will inevitably end up in landfill.
So, as I search on Pinterest for some homemade-Halloween inspiration, I thought I’d turn it into work and pull together a blog featuring 6 EASY outfits you can make at home with stuff you already have it.
Skeleton
Get them to dress in all black (we used our base layers from football, but any plan black clothes will do) and then use white tape to mark out a rough skeleton shape on the arms, legs, and body.
For the face, you can either face paint a skeleton (only black and white needed!) or print out a skeleton face and make it into a mask.
Cat
Get the all-black clothes out again for this one – with the addition of white socks over the hands to make white paws if you like! To make ears, simply make pipe cleaners into triangles and wrap them round a hair band.
For the tail, the easiest option is to stuff a leg from a pair of old tights with newspaper (or the inside of an old pillow works well) and then attach round their waist with string, or just safety pin to the back of the top.
Finish off the outfit by drawing on whiskers and a cat nose with face paint – or even a black eyeliner if you don’t have any!
Ghost
The classic Halloween costume from my own childhood – but it really is quick and easy to do – and easy to take off at the end of the night too!
All you need is an old white sheet – cut the edges to make a rough ‘ghost’ shape – really doesn’t need to be neat. Cut some eye holes and emphasise these with a black sharpie.
If you have a bit more time – and a glue gun, I saw a fab tip where you glue the sheet to a hat which then keeps it in place – but honestly, my kids found it hilarious to just have a sheet over their heads.
Just like Halloween used to be!
Zombie Footballer
This was the eventual agreed costume for one of my 9-year-olds this morning. He’s wearing one of his football kits, and we are going to do him some Zombie face paint (TBC, but probably green face with black eyes & mouth).
Could of course be zombie anything! Zombie Ballerina, Zombie Gymnast, Zombie Skateboarder. You get the theme!
Mad Scientist
You’ll need a large white shirt to make the lab coat – hopefully a parent or older sibling has one hanging somewhere.
Decorate the shirt with pens – maybe some blood stains, or slime stains. Then accessorise with things like glasses, a stethoscope if you have a doctors dress up kit, and a test tube (glass vase). If you can, do some crazy hair – think lots of hairspray, and grey hair chalk if you have any) and maybe some face paint.
Red Devil
This was child no 2’s choice of costume. Now, admittedly, I have cheated a bit here as we had a devil ears head band anyway, but you could easily make your own by cutting pointy ear shapes out of red card and attaching them to a hair band (or even using pipe cleaners like the cat costume).
I made a pointy tail by sewing a shape out of an old red pillowcase and stuffing it with the insides of old pillow. If this sounds a bit complicated – or you really don’t have time, you could make one from old tights and a pointy shape from card.
He then just put red joggers and a red t-shirt on, and we pinned the tail to the waistband of the trousers. Add some red and black devil face paint and you’re done.
The point with all these ideas, is that they are just ideas! You can easily adapt any of these costumes to use what you have already. Halloween is meant to be a bit of fun for the children – and really doesn’t need to cost the earth.
Happy trick or treating!
