Friday, October 12, 2012

Easiest Do It Yourself Halloween Costumes


Here is a list of great DIY Halloween costume ideas that can hopefully be achieved with basic scrappy supplies like duck tape, bottles, cardboard, or whatever you have lying around. I've linked to photos of examples on our Pinterest (and you can click the photos for further tutorials on particular costumes). Disregard who is wearing them, these costumes could work for any age!

Keep in mind the easiest costumes to make are ones that allow you to use your own regular clothing for the majority of it. A black shirt and black pants go a long way for many DIY costumes! (This is especially the case when it comes to animal costumes.) Or if you're willing to make something slightly more complicated, cardboard boxes are often a good starting point for more ambitious costumes. 

Examples:

Bee- black tape on a yellow shirt for stripes or vice versa, with black pants, headband with pipe cleaners or wire
Ladybug- black shirt and pants for the body, cutout red posterboard with black spots for wings, pipe cleaner antannaes.
Butterfly-same black shirt/pant body but with fabric or paper wings
Shark-grey or blue hoodie and white felt
Bat-black pants/shirt with black fabric pinned under the arms for wings, and paper or fabric pointy ears glued to a headband
Poodle- white sweatpants and hoodie with lots of cottonballs!
Corpse Bride -a headband with shredded strips of white fabric, a white sheet for the dress. Or if you can get a cheap wedding dress from a thrift store tear it up!
Zombie- tear up any old clothes and mix up some fake blood with any recipe online
Owl- a paper mask and fabric wings
Super Mario- red shirt, overalls, hat
Rapunzel- yarn for braid, any girly dress 
Classic Skeleton- black pants and shirt with white duck tape or white paint
Raccoon- brown or black pants and shirt with a black mask, black felt on headband for ears, with a sock and ducktape for the tail
Pirate-a little vest from fabric with a fabric eye patch, a paper hat or classic bandana, a striped shirt underneath, and a paper tube roll for a cool telescope!
Medusa- fake snakes or maybe green pipe cleaners, a white sheet for a toga type dress/robe
Cat Lady-pin stuffed animal cats to an old dress!
Pilot- a cardboard box made into a plane and some goggles with a beanie and scarf
Train Conductor- another box around you type costume!
Robot- this is one that you could use basically anything glued to the cardboard box! bottlecaps and lids would make great beep boop buttons.
Spaceman- jetpack from bottles and some white snowpants with a rain jacket or white sweatshirt, a paper mache helmet or even a cut up bucket 
Knight- gray hoodie and sweatpants with a fabric tunic over it, a cardboard shield and sword
Little Red Riding Hood- a red fabric cape/hood over any little dress, a woven basket 


Adding personal touches to generic costumes is also a fun way to keep them unique. For example instead of being Spiderman or Captain America why not be your own superhero? Add designs to some brightly covered sweatpants and a cape and think of what your name and super powers would be. 

Or instead of being Harry Potter what kind of Hogwarts student would you be? Make a scarf of your house colors and customize your own cool wand.

These are just a few ideas, there are many many more out there! I've seen a lot of ones as obscure as a gumball machine to "spagetti and meatballs". The ones I've listed above are just my favorites because when given the opportunity to dress up, the feeling of actually being something is way more fun than being an inanimate object. (This is especially the case with kids, who like to play pretend year round anyways).

Enjoy making scrappy costumes and send us any pics of your handmade results!



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