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Homemade Halloween Costumes

Sam is the mother of two young boys, Juju and Blaze. Their family enjoys going on trips, crafting, learning, and exploring.

It's Halloween and you have no costume. Oh no! Maybe you don't care very much about the holiday, or maybe you didn't have plans until the very last minute, or maybe you're on a very tight budget, or maybe it isn't even Halloween but some random costume party you or your child have been invited to. Whatever the case is, don't freak out--and don't worry! You can have a cool costume without shelling out big bucks.

I have always loved Halloween and dressing up in costumes in general. So over time I have learned how to re-work every day items into costume pieces. Here's a collection of costumes for men, women, and children that you can create with items straight from your closet or by spending just a couple dollars on materials.


Now let's go save your Halloween!

Fantasy Costumes

Fantasy is a go-to theme for many of our costume choices so I've created quite a few that fit in this catergory.

Made these hats and fairy costume seriously last minute! The kids loved them and everyone thought they looked awesome.

Made these hats and fairy costume seriously last minute! The kids loved them and everyone thought they looked awesome.

Last Minute Fairy Costume

Suggested Items

  • Wire Hanger Wings
  • Fairy-like Dress
  • Shiny Sheer tights
  • Elemental Accessories (flowers for a flower fairy, snowflakes for an ice fairy, etc.)
  • Cute shoes
  • Glitter Make-up


Step 1. Check out my Hub on how to make wire hanger wings and fairy dust necklaces to make some quick and awesome fairy accessories. Once you have your wings, it doesn't really matter all that much what else you wear.

Step 2. Pick an element. Do you want to be a Spring Fairy or a Winter Fairy? Or maybe you want to be some other type of Fairy like a Water Fairy, or a Wind Fairy, or even a Space Fairy. Use this as inspiration to gather your accessories and sell your costume.

Step 3. Check out YouTube for some awesome fairy make-up looks to finish off your costume.

Before

Before

After

After

Hair clip

Hair clip

Bunching up flowers on flower crowns makes them look fuller and prettier.

Bunching up flowers on flower crowns makes them look fuller and prettier.

I extended the visible length of the head band by placing the leaves so that they would go past where the headband ended.

I extended the visible length of the head band by placing the leaves so that they would go past where the headband ended.

Re-Vamped Fairy Costume

This how-to was based on a costume I quickly made for my niece for a costume party my sons and their cousins went to.

Materials

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  • Old princess dress/nightgown/simple dress
  • Sheer fabric (I used an old curtain)
  • Fake flowers (make sure to pick ones with leaves!)
  • Hot glue gun
  • Scissors

We used an Elsa nightgown to make this fairy dress. This is a neat costume because if you can use costumes or nightgowns you may already own, or make this costume cheaply by buying something simple from a thrift store. This particular dress had a sheer layer over the satiny nightgown which made it fuller and added a bit of sparkle. I think a simple dress would have worked just as well and if you add several layers of fabric it will make the dress fuller. I apologize for not taking pictures of the process, this was truly a last minute costume and to be honest I wasn't all too certain it was going to work out. However I LOVED the final product and--more importantly--so did Maddy and her mom.


Step 1. Cut fabric roughly the width of the waistband of the dress to the edge of the dress, keep the length nice and long.

Step 2. Hot glue the fabric pleated along the waistband of the dress, making sure to leave a bit of slack between each pleat if the dress is elastic, otherwise it will have no stretch in it and may not fit. Since this dress had a sheer top layer, I added the fabric underneath it. Glue down the seams in the back. Repeat for as many layers as you would like to add. I believe I added two because there were snowflakes on the fabric underneath and I didn't want them to be easily seen since she was a spring fairy.

Step 3. Take the plastic leaves of the fake flowers and glue them along the waist band and edges of the dress to hide any rough edges.

Step 4. Cover up any decals (such as Elsa's face in this case) or flaws (such as tears or stains) with leaves and flowers. Create a pattern and hot glue as many flowers on as you like (or have).

When I was done I also glued down the cut edges of fabric at the bottom of the dress to the back of the flowers I added at the hem to keep them from fraying too much.

Maddy had her own wings, but if you would like to make your own I mention my Hub on how to make them in the section above. I also mention my Hub on fairy accessories, but here's how I made her hair clips. I will also run through how to make the flower crowns below.

Materials

  • Fake flowers with leaves
  • Hot glue
  • Single prong hair clips (I have a lot, a bobby pin or other hair clip could work just as well if that's what you have)
  • Scissors
  • Cardstock (optional)