Homemade Halloween Costume Ideas

Budget101 Discussion List Archives Budget101 Discussion List Homemade Halloween Costume Ideas

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      Costumes from the closet or second-hand store

      The old stand by a Ghost: Grab a old white sheet, cut out the eyes.

      Be sure its is short enough not to trip you. Take scrap piece of

      sheet, and sew up a simple treat bag.

      .

      Clown: Sweet clothes that are too large. Decorate by using either

      fabric paint, or markers. For those who dare try tie-die. Tack on

      some large pop-poms, add a cheap wig, hat, and make-up. You may also

      stuff the extra space in clothing with tissue. However this could be

      messy, if you need to make a “pit-stop”.

      Scarecrow: Over sized flannel shirt, faded blue jeans with patches,

      rope for belt and to tie at the cuffs of his jeans and sleeves, stuff

      the shirt and jeans with plastic grocery, or paper, a little bit of

      straw to hang out of jeans and shirt. Add a little bit of make-up.

      The American tourist: Guys loud Hawaii shirt, shorts (if weather

      permits), Large straw hat. Gals bright loud dress, flats, big sun

      hat, straw bag. Don’t forget to have a camera, and maps hanging out,

      and that look of being lost. Guys can use a tourist bag, (like you

      get from travel agents, and gals can use the straw bag for their

      treats.

      1960s Hippy: This one is hard, after all its all back in style! What

      is real, and what is costume? 😉 Tie die clothing, long wig (in the

      old days we called a “fall”, sandals, headband, anything with fringe

      on it (vests, purse…) light colored sun glasses.

      Old man: Dark paints (cuffed), and jacket, most any dress shirt, mans

      flannel hat, walking cane. Gray the hair, with any of the commercial

      temporary colors, or dust with a little flour.

      Old woman: Old style dress, just below knee, knee-hi stockings rolled

      down a little, oxfords, large black purse.

      Your chance to be a real nerd. Slick back the hair, grab some paints

      that are too short, white shirt, white socks, penny loafers, or lace

      up oxfords, pocket protector, with lots of pens, dark rim glasses

      (don’t forget to tape the corner, or at least paper clip it)

      briefcase, or backpack for treat bag.

      Japanese Doll: My daughter won with this costume! Her face was

      painted white, she had red rosy cheeeks all shaped in a circle, Hair

      in buns, thoung slippers, and a kimono(chinese dress)

      Miss. America

      Use a old bridesmaid dress of formal, add a pair of gloves, a tiara,

      some oversized jewelry, and heals. For the banner, a piece of wide

      ribbon, and write “Miss. America” in glitter.

      Soda pop can: Use a round barrel, cut a hole in the bottom. You cut

      holes for arms and your head. Paint it the colors of a pop can.

      Presto! You have a pop can!!!

      Static Cling

      Wear anything a solid color is good all white or all black. With

      safety

      pins pin anything to yourself i:e: socks, underware, bounce sheets,

      etc. You can also spray your hair straight up in the air.

      1950’s “Sock-Hopper”

      It’s quite simple, just a round skirt, a white short-sleeved shirt,

      and some saddle shoes. (If you don’t have saddle shoes, plain buckle

      shoes are fine.) You could add some cat-eye glasses if you want. Tie

      their hair in a ponytail, and wrap a scarf around it.

      Mummy

      Wrap yourself in white bandages (rolls of gauze) Use splotches of

      green paint for “mold”. Use white make-up on face with “age lines”

      drawn on. The stiff-legged gait works perfectly.

      Quasimodo the Hunchback of Notre Dame

      Build the “hunchback” out of foam or cardboard. Find an old coat

      several sizes too large to accomodate this. Old, ratty clothes are

      great! Wear a snaggly wig and keep putting hand up to ear and

      muttering “eh?”.

      Pirate

      Form a fake aooden leg by wrapping your bad one in brown felt. Wear

      sailor pants or jeans with a striped top. Tie a bandana around your

      head, wear an eye patch, carry an empty bottle marked XXX (for

      the “rum”) and mutter “aargh” a lot. Ask for “Trick or treat,

      matey!”

      Crash test dummy – After! There is a commercial costume for this,

      but a good one can be made with sweats and tape to make the markings

      on it like the crash test dummies. Use bandages and fake blood to

      decorate. Fashion a seat belt out of webbing and an old buckle and

      pin in place. (or go to a junk yard as ask for an old seatbelt).

      Train Engineer

      A pair of blue jeans, a blue Jean jacket, a red and black bandana.

      a blue and white engineer hat, a whistle, and play lantern

      Mother Nature

      Silk flowers and silk plant leaves in a variety of shapes and colours

      an old skirt and vest

      a face mask

      € twigs (collected from your nearby park or in your own backyard) to

      make a nest

      € a foam bird that you can find at any craft store

      € glue gun and wire

      Decorate the vest & skirt with the silk leaves in a random pattern

      and glue into place. Decorate the skirt with flowers growing out from

      the leaves already put in place.Use the remaining leaves and small

      flowers to decorate the face mask. Gather your twigs and secure with

      wire to make a nest. Place your bird on the twigs and secure into

      place with the wire. You can add some leaves and peat moss as a

      filler. The child can wear a dark coloured turtleneck and leggings

      under the vest and skirt for the evening walk to get treats.

      Do it in tights & leotards or Sweats

      Skunk

      Black with white strip down the pack.. be careful everyone may run

      Bunny

      Pink, brown, or white, add a powder puff or large pom-pom to the

      backside, and a set of ears make from constriction paper and a

      plastic headband. Now just hop on out and enjoy

      Turtle

      Green with a piece of poster board attached to the back. Simple cut

      the poster board into a large oval, make random marks like a turtle

      shell, and paint.

      Puppy

      Brown, tan or white, either paint, or pin paper spots on. Make floppy

      ears and bobby pin to hair over your ears. The tale can be most

      anything, depending on what type of doggie you wish to be. Add a

      little make-up.

      Kitten

      Gold, brown, tan, white. Make ears from construction paper, attach to

      head band or bobby pin in to hair. Sew a simple round tale, and pin

      on.

      Spider

      Black, For the legs grab some cheap black hose, stuff with any thing

      dark and light weight. Either sew, or staple to keep stuffing from

      falling out. Pin to clothing, add a little make-up

      Lady Bug

      Use a pair of black sweats and black sweat shirt (and a pair of black

      shoes). Use a large piece of poster board or cardboard and cut out a

      large oval. Paint it red with black dots. Staple black elastic pieces

      (in a loop) onto the board to make arm holes. For the antenna atatch

      craft pipe cleaners with black pom poms on the ends to a headband.

      Snowman

      Last year my 3 year old was a snowman. It was the easiest costume so

      far! I bought white sweats, christmas socks, white keds tennis shoes,

      a cheap black hat, fake snow, mittens, scarf and black pom poms for

      the coal!

      I sprayed the hat to look like snow and added a cheap red bird from

      the craft store. I bought a white mask and bought a cheap carrot from

      the craft store and glued it onto the nose part of the mask. I glued

      the pompoms on his sweatshirt and that was it. Cheap, simple and he

      was adorable. Besides he was the only frosty we saw! He also had to

      have white face makeup on!!

      Cereal Killer

      Attach little cereal boxes to a shirt, cut a slit in the boxes, glue

      in plastic knives into the holes, drip red paint running down from

      the knife hole in the box.

      A Bunch of Grapes

      Using green or pruple sweets, attach balloons of the same color with

      safety pins. Ppaint face and hands same color.

      Grapes appear to be popular!

      My fav was purple tights, purple (long sleeves) body suit (I can’t

      think of what it’s really called), 12 purple balloons and a green

      felt hat. Balloons are pinned (by the tied off end to the fabric in a

      triangle shape, 3 on top, 2 in middle and 1 at bottom (on front and

      back). I was a bunch of grapes and the hit of the party!

      Bag of Jelly Beans

      – lots of different colored balloons

      – large clear plastic bag (I got mine from the grocery store – the

      big bags that they put all the recycled cans in)

      – colorful ribbon

      – two safety pins

      – two pieces of white cardboard

      blow up all the balloons. cut two leg holes in the bottom of the bag

      and two arm holes near the middle. have your child stand in the bag

      and fill with blown up balloons. write on each piece of

      cardboard “jelly beans 2 cents each”. safety pins signs to front and

      back of bag. loosely tie around shoulders with a colorful ribbon. cut

      off excess bag around face from: dee

      or

      if your prefer to be a little high class jelly bean… natalie

      suggested…put an enlagred jelly belly sign on the front of the bag.

      black eye pea

      when i was younger, a teacher from my elementary school dressed up as

      a “black eyed pea” and it was so cute, my mother dressed me up the

      same way the next year. it is simple and cheap. wearing all white,

      with black tennis shoes, i cut out the letter ‘p’ from black

      construction paper and pinned the p’s all over the white outfit. i

      painted a black spot over one eye (“black eye” … get it? 🙂 hee

      hee) and i was a “black-eyed ‘p’ “

      black bat

      using a black umbrella and tights, rip the umbrella in half. discard

      the center and innards of the umbrella. if you are fancy you can sew

      the edges of the umbrella to the back of the body. if you don’t have

      the time or patients to sew the umbrella you can always safety pin

      it.

      butterfly

      put on black sweats and black shoes. use a piece of poster board and

      paint wanted color cut them out in an appropriate wing shape. punch

      two holes toward the edges of the wings. put black ribbon through

      them and tie around waist. attach pipe cleaners and pompoms to a

      plastic head band.

      blooming idiot!

      get a green body suit and some green tights and on your head wear a

      beanie hat. glue fake flowers to the beanie hat and maybe pin a few

      on your body suit. also it’s fun if you paint some flowers on your

      face and arms. i found some cheap, fake ivy and wrapped it around my

      neck and arms and presto! your a

      blooming idiot!

      spider to bat

      you need an oversized black sweatshirt, black sweat pants, black

      open faced ski mask, two huge googly eyes, black yarn or fishing

      line, pipe insulation (for legs!), three pairs of gloves (very small)

      and black opaque tights.

      attached the ski mask to the neck of the sweatshirt. hot glue googly

      eyes over the opening in the ski mask, the foam pipe insulation is

      placed into tights. so that the “leg” could bend, i cut the length

      of pipe insulation in half. attach all legs together for coordinated

      movement with black yarn or (fishing line), attach toddlers gloves

      on the ends of the “legs” and have your child wear one pair. for

      safety, i bought some reflective tape and created a “design” on the

      back and front so that he could be seen. obviously, wear black sweat

      pants and dark shoes. two years later, we took the legs off, added a

      huge set of black felt wings hot glued from wrist to neckline to

      wrist and used craft foam to make big black bat ears!!

      darcy prairiedog (little dogs on the prairie)

      items needed: light and dark pink felt , an old hooded pink

      sweatcoat, pink gloves, pink slacks, pink slippers.

      cut out light pink felt into what looks like prairiedog ears. place

      the dark pink felt inside in in the same shape except smaller. glue

      onto the sides of the hood on the sweatcoat. with the remaining

      felt,cut out a piece of “headfur”. from the light pink felt. put on

      and paint your face pink with a black nose.

      ragdoll

      one year for my girls i had them dress up as ragdolls and i didnt

      have to spend a penny!

      i took an old sleeper and cut out the feet then i sewed patches in

      various places over the sleeper. i also sewed wide cuffs at wrist and

      ankles. (because the sleepers were to small). it looked so cute.

      for

      the head i used an old stocking cap and sewed strips of fabric from

      old clothes to the stocking cap. then gave them red cheeks and

      freckles. it was a great costume and completely free.

      basket of laundry…clean or dirty.

      wear sweat pants and sweatshirt if it is cold. tights and a

      turtleneck if you will be in a warm building. take an inexpensive

      (thin) plastic laundry basket and cut a hole in the bottom that you

      can fit through. make it small enough so that is “sits” on your hips

      after you pull it over your head. fill basket with laundry and pin a

      few dryer softener sheets to your sweatshirt.

      bubble bath

      take a white laundry basket and cut out the bottom, be sure to tape

      the cut edges with masking tape. attach two wide strips of material

      (white) to front and back of basket (these are the shoulder straps).

      attach white, light peach, and pearl balloons to the staps using

      safety pins (these are bubbles) wear a white bodysuit, and white

      pantyhose. put on your houseshoes, shower cap, and grab your scrub

      brush. (if the laundry basket has holes in it, cover the inside with

      posterboard)

      costumes made from boxes

      just use your imagination.

      pokemon card

      last year i made my 6 year old into his favorite pokemon card. i

      used a box and made his head blastoise’s head. my computer scanner,

      felt ,my computer’s publisher and a little creativity made him the

      hit of the party!

      paint it silver, glue on a few extras a presto.. a robot.

      paint it red, tack on some paper plate wheels, and you are a race

      car.

      paint it white and a handle and you will be a cool refrigerator.

      paint it light tan, tack a small flat box. draw on a keyboard, you

      will be the first walking macintosh. (may work with windows 😉 )

      wrap it in christmas paper, add a large bow.. wow a christmas

      present.

      paint it bright colors, and a crank. you can pop into the local

      halloween party as a jack-in-the-box

      cover with table cloth, glue on silver plastic platter in the middle

      (cut hole for head to pop through. glue on a couple of place settings

      of plastic dishes, and glasses. now your head in on a silver platter.

      thomas the engine & friends

      get a small box big enough to fit around your childs waist. paint

      box

      blue (for thomas), or green (for percy) etc. with colored

      construction paper add stripes and train number to sides, also add

      black train wheels. on front make a 3D face with construction paper

      to match your train of choice. Attach a belt from a robe to each side

      and harness over shoulders. Dress child up with a conductors hat.

      Rubics cube

      Using a large card board box and five different colors of contact

      paper or construction paper (contact paper is easier to stick on)

      enough to do 5 sides, black pants and long sleeve shirt. this was

      done very inexpensively and we had a lot of fun with it.

      Dice

      Grab a friend and take 2 cardboard boxes, paint them white. Cut out

      several black circles (From construction paper) and glue them in the

      appropriate places to make you and your friend a pair of dice! It’s

      so easy,

      OR

      Have the second person dress as a key ring and use a light weight

      chain to attach the two people. To make the key ring cut several

      large keys out of poster board, attach one to the back and another to

      the front. Attach a medal ring to a hat, then attach a few more keys

      to the ring.

      Lego Block

      Take a medium sized box (apple/orange boxes were a good size) cut two

      round holes in the sides for the arms. Hot glue 6 cottage cheese

      containers on the top of the box (the flat part) like a Lego piece.

      Spray paint the whole thing whatever color lego you want to be. (We

      chose our colors based on what color sweats and turtle necks we had

      on hand) Take a smaller box that will fit on top of their head snugly

      and hot glue one cottage cheese container and spray paint it the same

      color. Just slip into the open part of the back of the box and stick

      your arms through the holes.

      Dresser!

      Walmart or Kmart sells cardboard dressers in the laundry department.

      Cut out holes for arms on the sides and hole on top

      for head. I put foam in the inside for the shoulders to hold it up.

      I painted the dresser and wrote on each drawer underwear, socks, ect.

      Hot glue a doily to top with hairbrush and hair accessories. Hang

      underwear, socks, shirt, and pants out of drawers. Put a small lamp

      shade on child’s head so neck and face are base of lamp. From:

      anonymous (by way if you don’t want to spend the $$ for a cardboard

      dresser, it wouldn’t take much to make one out of a box. Attaching

      long flat boxes on the front and hot glue small balls on the front

      for pulls.

      Costumes for Chair Users

      With a little thought you may come up lots of ideas that make the

      chair a natural part of the costume. Here are a few ideas to get you

      started.

      King or Queen on Throne

      Convert chair into a throne, by wrapping the back and arm rests with

      gold or silver foil / paper. Use plastic gems (from craft store),

      old jewelry, Christmas garland to give it that “special look”.

      Simply wear a cape of a royal color (velvet looks great). Scepters

      and crowns can be purchased at most retail stores, or make your own!

      If an attendant will be going, they may dress as the mate (King or

      Queen) or as a court jester.

      A variation of this would be to dress like Santa and have the

      attendant be an elf.

      Skier

      Skiers have a bad habit of falling and breaking a bone or two. This

      opens the door for a great costume. Just put on some ski clothing

      (hat, scarf,…) Wrap a leg in wide white gauze (to look like cast)

      and if you really want to “ham it up” and you use a power chair, wrap

      an arm too.

      Ventriloquist

      If you know anyone who has a ventriloquist doll, this can be a quick

      and easy one. You may wish to go with the formal look wearing a tux,

      or the casual look by dressing to match the doll.

      Gift, Jack in a box, or Robot

      Find a box that will fit conformably over chair (still allowing you

      room to maneuver inside). Remove top flaps, cut hole in top for

      head, and in sides for arms. Decorate.

      For gift box, wrap box in wrapping paper, make a large bow and wear

      as hat.

      To be a Jack-in-the-box, paint the box in bright colors, than wear a

      matching top and hat. Clown make-up will add that little extra.

      To be a robot, cover box in foil, then use your imagination to

      decorate.

      Car, Truck, Space Ship

      Again using a box (as above) decorate as you favorite vehicle.

      The space ship can be done much as the robot. This can be real cool

      costume for high tech power chairs and or using a vent.

      Make Your Own Make-up

      You will need:

      2 tablespoons of soft shortening

      4 tablespoons of cornstarch

      Food coloring

      Mix ingredients shortening and cornstarch. Separate the recipe into

      different cups, add food coloring.

      Wash your face and any area that you will be applying makeup to and

      than dry thoroughly.

      Apply a thin coat of cold cream to the entire face.

      Using a cotton ball, gently pat cornstarch over cold cream. Keep your

      eyes closed.

      Apply make-up with fingers tips.

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Budget101 Discussion List Archives Budget101 Discussion List Homemade Halloween Costume Ideas