8 Unique Homemade Halloween Costume Ideas for Kids and Adults
As Halloween approaches, if you haven’t decided on your family’s wardrobe yet, you may start to feel the pressure of the clock. And if you want to make your own Halloween costumes, the pressure can be even higher, as homemade costumes take months of planning and days or weeks to put together.
You may have time to make costumes, but it can also cost you factors in DIY costumes, especially if you need to buy pre-made items to save time. If making DIY Halloween costumes takes up a lot of your time and money, the fun factor can wear off quickly.
Fortunately, you can easily create fun and easy DIY Halloween costumes. These costume ideas don’t cost much and assembly is straightforward, even if you don’t have innate DIY skills. In fact, you can make most of these costumes in under an hour, and you may already have most, if not all, of the materials you need lying around your home.
Try one of these eight cheap, fun, and easy Halloween costume ideas for kids and adults this year (I’ve included homemade photos of my wonderful son, niece, and myself!):
Holiday-Inspired Costumes
1. Candy cane
You can wear this simple costume again during the Christmas season as a fun way to celebrate the holidays. This was my favorite costume and it looked great on my young model. Even at his age, he wore the costume without a problem. Best of all, you can make this easy DIY Halloween costume in under 30 minutes.
Time commitment: 30 minutes
Age appropriateness: any age
Approximate cost: $15
- White T-shirt – $3
- White Pants – $6
- Red or green ribbon or both: $4
- Diadem – $2
- wire suspension
- White Felt – $0.25
- used toilet paper roll
- fabric glue
Assembly instructions:
- You can start with the pants or shirt by wrapping the red or green ribbon around the clothing in a way that resembles a candy cane. I started wrapping from the bottom by folding the ribbon under the bottom hem. For the pants, start with one leg and work your way down to the waist. When you make the second leg, you can still wrap it up to the waist by adjusting the ribbon between the first strip you placed on the pants.
- To make the hat, unwrap the wire hanger and re-bend it so it looks a lot like a candy cane. Then place the used toilet paper roll on the long part of the hanger. Wrap the white felt over the toilet paper roll and hanger so that it completely covers the candy cane shape. Use fabric glue to hold the felt in place.
- To finish the hat, wrap the colored ribbon around the felt the same way you wrapped it around the shirt and pants. Use the fabric glue to attach it to the headband.
2. Wrapped Present
You can also wear this fun costume as a Christmas costume or wear the costume to celebrate someone’s birthday. Most likely, you won’t have to buy a single item to quickly assemble it. In fact, if you wait until the last minute to decide if you want to dress up, you can put this costume together 30 minutes before you leave your house for a party or trick-or-treating.Advertisement
Time commitment: 30 minutes
Age appropriateness: any age, depending on the child’s temperament, as the box can be intimidating
Approximate cost: Free, assuming you have the supplies
Supplies needed:
- Box that will fit around your torso
- Gift Wrap
- decorative arch
- scissors
- Love
Assembly instructions:
- To make the box fit to be worn, open the bottom to fit the body. For the top of the box where the head fits, cut a large square in the middle and make sure one box rests on the wearer’s shoulders. Cut out circles on each side for the arms.
- Cover each side with wrapping paper and tape. You can also decorate your box to add a unique and individual touch to your costume.
- Attach a decorative bow to place over the head for a finishing touch.
3. Hershey Kiss
You can have Hershey Kisses all year long, but many people consider small chocolates to be holiday staples. This unmistakable symbol of celebration makes for a fun Halloween costume. In fact, you can get people talking and excited about eating Halloween candy. This costume takes up to two hours to put together, so make sure you start putting it together at least one night before Halloween.Advertisement
Time commitment: up to two hours
Age appropriateness: more than 5 years old
Approximate cost: $15
- Foil
- White Felt – $0.25
- cardboard clothes box
- red marker
- Poncho (with sleeves) – $10
- Hoop Dance – $5
- scissors
- Transparent tape
- Scotch tape
- fabric glue
Assembly instructions:
- To make the hat, use the cardboard garment box to create a dome that you cover with foil. To make mine, I used a mixing bowl to draw a circle on the cardboard garment box. I cut out the circle, and then cut a slit in the middle that would allow me to form a dome. I taped the dome into position and then covered it with aluminum foil. Tip : be careful when handling the sheet, it tears easily.
- Cut out a strip of white felt and write a message with the red marker, such as “Trick or Treat” or “Happy Halloween.” Use fabric glue to attach the felt to the hat.
- Cut off the hood and sleeves. Insert the hula hoop inside the poncho and glue the hem around the hula hoop so that when you lift the poncho up, it is now in the shape of a Hershey kiss.
- Next, cover the entire poncho with aluminum foil. Take care when handling the sheet to avoid rips and tears. Use masking tape to hold the sheet in place. Tip : Hang the poncho from a fan or door frame while you put the costume together.
animal costumes
4. Dalmatian
Young children like to dress up as animals for Halloween. Animal costumes look cute on children, and children tend to learn to identify them at an early age, which makes these costumes fun. If you want to make a pet costume for Halloween but don’t know how to sew, you can put it together in 30 minutes.Advertisement
Time commitment: 30 minutes
Age suitability: toddler
Approximate cost: $15
- White T-shirt – $3
- White Pants – $6
- 10 pieces of black felt – $2.50
- 1 piece of white felt – $0.25
- Black headband – $2
- scissors
- fabric glue
- Face Paint – $1
- Cardboard boxes
Assembly instructions:
- Using the black felt, cut out several Dalmatian spots in different shapes and sizes. Tip : These circles don’t have to be perfectly symmetrical.
- Cut the cardboard boxes so you can fit them inside the shirt and pants. Lay the shirt and pants face up on a table and insert the cardboard. Next, place half of the stains on the front of the shirt and pants. Reserve the remaining spots for the back of the costume. Once you have placed the dots, use fabric glue to join them together.
- After the glue has dried, turn the costume over to attach any remaining stains to the back of the costume.
- For the headdress, cut out small triangles from the white felt and slightly smaller triangles from the black felt to use as dog ears. Glue the black felt triangles in the middle of the white felt triangles. Attach the ears to the headband by applying some glue to the bottom of the ears and placing them on the edge of the headband.
- Finish off the costume by using face paint to create whiskers, a dog nose, and spots.
5. Spider
When my husband and I discussed ways to save on cheap Halloween costumes, we really liked the idea of making a simple yet clever spider costume. Kids have a blast trying to get all the legs under control while wearing this hilarious Halloween costume. We still like the idea, but after making it for our 18-month-old son, we realized it wasn’t practical to put so many limbs on such a small man. He was overwhelmed and unable to control all eight legs. This costume takes an hour to put together.
Time commitment: 1 hour
Age appropriateness: 5 years and up
Approximate cost: $15.50
- Black Shirt – $3.50
- Black pants – $6
- 8 Men’s Long Socks – $6
- a lot of newspapers
- fishing wire
- scissors
- safety pins
Assembly instructions:
- Stuff the eight socks with the crumpled newspaper. Tip : I’ve experimented with stuffing the socks with other materials, like more socks, cotton balls, and tissue paper, but newspaper worked best because it’s lightweight and we already had some stuff in our house.
- Safety pin from the open end of the socks to the black t-shirt. Place two at the bottom that hang down and then work your way up each side so the legs can go out.
- Using the fishing line, tie a bow around the end of each of the three legs. Leave the cord a couple of inches slack, and tie a loop around the second legs. Give the cord a couple more inches of slack and tie a loop around the top leg. Give the wire a few last inches and tie a bow so that the suit wearer’s wrists fit. This cable gives them the ability to lift six of their eight spider branches.
unique costumes
6. static cling
This costume works well for people who wait until the last minute to put their costume together. This easy DIY costume doesn’t require the purchase of any materials and catches the eye of others. Not only that, as long as the clothes are fresh, they should also smell good.
Time commitment: 15 minutes
Age appropriateness: any age
Approximate cost: Free
Assembly instructions:
- Take random clothing items and pin them to whatever you’re wearing. Consider socks, hats, underwear, scarves, towels, and any other small items you can find.
- Put a few dryer sheets on your costume so others will recognize your costume.
- Complete your outfit by placing an item of clothing on top of your head.
7. Highway
People who love cars and the open road love this costume. Children also have fun wearing this costume and playing with the cars. In fact, some kids can’t keep their hands off cars, making it hard to keep their outfit together. It only takes 20 minutes to put together this DIY costume.Advertisement
Time commitment: 20 minutes
Age suitability: 3 years to 10 years
Approximate cost: $20
- Black T-shirt (the gray one) – $3.50
- Black (or gray) pants – $6
- Yellow Ribbon – $2
- Velcro – $ 2
- Half a Dozen Matchbox Cars – $6
- Sombrero
- Paper
- safety pin
Assembly instructions:
- Cut the yellow tape into one and a half inch strips. The number of strips you need depends on the size of the costume. Place these strips on the pants and shirt in a pattern that resembles traffic tracks.
- Cut the Velcro into one-inch strips, and place one side in various places on the shirt and pants, and place the other side on the bottom of the Matchbox cars. Then glue the cars on the shirt and pants. Tip : When attaching Velcro to shirts, pants, and cars, slightly heat the area with a hair dryer to melt the Velcro in place.
- For the hat, search online for a picture you want to put on the hat to describe the way the costume portrays. For example, I found a picture of a sign for I-85 online, so I printed it out and put the security image on the hat.
8. Painter
Busy parents love this costume because kids want to help put the costume together. It also includes some fun accessories. This DIY costume takes 60 minutes to put together and works well for adults too!Advertisement
Time commitment: 1 hour
Age appropriateness: any age
Approximate cost: $12
Assembly instructions:
- Cut the cardboard boxes so you can fit the cardboard pieces inside the shirt and pants and so the paint doesn’t seep through to the other side.
- Put the shirt, pants, and hat outside in a place where you can work with paint. Splatter some paint by dipping a brush in paint and shaking it over the clothes.
- Let the clothes dry. If you want to decorate the back of the clothes, turn the clothes over and dot some more paint.
- To go with the painter costume, use a clean old paint can to act as a bucket of candy when trick-or-treating.
final word
These suits don’t require a lot of skill, time, or money to put together, but no one has to know that except for you. Remember, you don’t need to have a perfect outfit, and everyone loves homemade Halloween costumes. So have fun and relax; you’ll wear your costume at night, and no one will suspect that you didn’t spend months creating your look.
Have you ever made a DIY Halloween costume? What is your favorite?