DIY Halloween Costumes for Kids!
As children grow older, Halloween can become a source of stress for many parents as they attempt to create time in their busy schedules to make complicated costumes, or have to spend money on expensive store bought costumes. We hope with these few, extremely cheap and simple, yet adorable D-I-Y costumes, Halloween can be a stress-free source of fun for you and your little ones this year! Get your children in on the fun and have them help you in preparing the costume, and it will be a fun activity you embark on together! Plus, they will feel very accomplished having a say in the construction of their costume. After all, they will be the ones venturing all around the neighbourhood on Halloween night in their costumes, in search of tricks, treats, spooks and fun!
Spooky Ghost
MATERIALS:
- White sheet
- White tulle
- White beanie hat
- Fabric Glue
- Black Felt
- Black ribbon
- OR: black & white face paint
This is a fun take on the classic sheet ghost costume, that leaves your little one’s head free so that they can easily see.
STEPS:
- Trim white sheet until it hangs long enough to cover your child’s body, but not so long that they can trip over it.
- Bunch up sheet in the middle and snip off excess fabric to create a head hole!
- Repeat steps 1&2 with some white tulle and lay it over top of the sheet to add translucent, spooky ghost details (you can hot glue the edges of the tulle to the inner edge of the head hole in the sheet to ensure that it stays put)
- Cut out an eye mask from black felt and make two wide eye holes, then hot glue it to a length of black ribbon.
- Alternatively, if your child doesn’t want to wear a mask, you can be extra-spooky and paint their face white with face paint, with black around their eyes!
- Add a white undershirt, a white beanie and black pants and your floating spooky ghost is complete.
Shark
MATERIALS:
- Grey hooded sweatshirt & pants
- White felt
- Black buttons
- Grey paint
- Cardboard
- Hot glue
- Cut and glue white felt rectangles to the front of the hoodie for the shark’s underbelly
- Cut a zig-zag shape into white felt for shark teeth and hot glue the bottom edge around the inside of the hood.
- Cut out two white felt circles and glue them to each side of the hood, then add black buttons on top for the shark’s eyes.
- Cut a shark fin out of cardboard, paint it grey and glue it to the back of the hoodie.
This costume is super cozy and warm for trick-or-treating, and shouldn’t take more than an hour to put together! Your little one will be the biggest fish in the Halloween pond.
Superhero
MATERIALS:
- Fabric for a cape (you can use a sheet or go to a fabric store!)
- Hot Glue
- Ribbon band
- Felt for a mask
- T-shirt
- Felt sheets for Superhero logo
- Shirt & tights
STEPS:
- Use an old sheet or fabric from fabric store for a cape, and hot glue the edge along the inside of the collar of a t-shirt, so that the cape comes out the head hole of the shirt, flows over the shoulders and down the back.
- Cut an eye mask out of felt and glue it to a length of black ribbon so it can be securely worn.
- Finally, take some more felt to create your superhero emblem! For example, you can use your child’s first initial as the emblem, cut out a big letter from the felt and hot glue it to the shirt. Your little one is ready to save the day!
Wizard
MATERIALS:
- Construction paper
- Hot glue
- Unsharpened pencil for a wand (or a large walking stick for a staff!)
- Bathrobe
- Tape
- Felt
- Ribbon band
STEPS:
- Cut out many different sized star and moon shapes from construction paper
- Tape some of the stars all over a child-sized bathrobe (or hot glue for extra security, if you don’t mind not being able to re-use the bathrobe after Halloween)
- Cut a semi circle with a radius of at least 11 inches out of a piece of construction paper for your wizard hat
- Bring the two ends together to form a cone, ensuring that the base will fit your child’s head
- Tape the seams together along the inside of the hat and finish it off by taping or hot gluing stars and moons to it!
- Use an unsharpened pencil for a wand, and glue another, bigger construction paper star to the eraser end. OR, you can go out and find a walking stick big enough for your child that can become a wizard’s staff!
- For added cuteness, use felt to make a wizard’s beard. Cut out a long beard shape, add a fair sized mouth hole, and glue some ribbon band to the inner edges of each side of the beard, that way your child can wear it on their face with the band around their ears. They’ll be casting spells and charming people before you know it!
These are only a few of the really simple but adorable ways you can combine basic, inexpensive materials to create cute, homemade costumes that will stand out on Halloween night. The fact that you and your child helped make it together will make the costume a special memory for you both, and perhaps costume building can become a Halloween family tradition!