DIY Halloween Costumes

Halloween - listed as one of my son’s all time favorite holidays, beating out both Christmas and Easter.

One of the best parts about Halloween, for me, is the costumes. Growing up, my parents didn’t buy Halloween costumes for us kids. As an adult I completely understand - my mom is from Korea where Halloween is not a celebrated holiday as it is here in the west. The thought of spending money on costumes for 5 of us kids probably didn’t even cross her mind. I remember wearing my Korean traditional dress - every single year. My brother wore his karate gi. And that’s the way it was. I do remember looking at my friends costumes longingly - why couldn’t I be Belle, or a police officer, or dress up like a cow! Maybe this is why I get overly excited to see my kids in their costumes.

As fun as it is to go shopping for costumes, it is equally as fun to create costumes at home - really let your creativity shine! And if this year doesn’t turn out so great, you will always have a chance to redeem yourself next year.

Making costumes with your kids is a great way to make Halloween more than just candy candy candy! Here are 5 DIY Halloween costumes that are simple, and fun to make with the kids:

Emojis

Materials:

Colored Foam Paper (Yellow, Brown, White, Red)

Cardboard

Large popsicle sticks

Glue

Instructions for Poop Emoji:

1. Draw out the Emoji on brown foam paper (I glued 2 pieces together to get a bigger size)

2. Cut out the eyes and the mouth on white and black foam paper and glue it on top.

3. Cut out the Emoji and glue it onto a piece of cardboard (or styrofoam board)

4. Cut the cardboard in the shape of the emoji.

5. Glue the popsicle stick on the bottom.

Instructions for Crazy Face Emoji:

1. Draw out the Emoji on the yellow foam paper (again, I glued 2 pieces together for a bigger size)

2. Cut out one eye on the white and black foam paper, and the winking eye on brown foam paper. Cut out a half circle on brown foam paper for the mouth, and cut out a tongue on red foam paper. Glue everything onto the yellow according to your traced drawing.

3. Follow numbers 3-5 from previous instructions.

*You could easily attach a elastic band to make a loop at the top of these emoji costumes so your kids can wear them around their necks - hands-free!

Bunch of Grapes

Materials:

Black poster board (2)

Purple balloons (30)

Stapler and/or tape

Elastic band

Black headband

Green pipe cleaners

Instructions:

1. Cut two large triangular shapes out of the poster board.

2. Staple 2 strips of elastic onto the top of the poster board, so that it can sit on your shoulders with the triangular pieces placed on your front and back.

3. Blow up around 30 balloons - 15 per side - and staple or tape them onto the posterboard. Make sure you don’t make them very big as it will be easier to pop the bigger the balloons get.

4. Twist some green pipe cleaners around the headband, making some stick up to look like grape vines.

Butterfly

Materials:

Large piece of grey felt

Other colors of felt (black, orange, yellow, pink, blue, white)

Elastic band

Fabric glue

Instructions:

1. Cut out the shape of a butterfly from the grey felt. Make sure the wing span is as long as your child’s arm span, and make sure you include an oval in the middle of the wings.

2. Cut out different decorations from the colored felt - you can find inspiration from looking at pictures of butterflies online! Glue the decorations onto the base of your butterfly.

3. Make 2 shoulder straps out of the elastic band and glue them onto the back of the butterfly (like backpack straps)

4. Make 2 wrist straps out of the elastic band and glue them on the edge of the butterfly’s wings.

5. Your little one could wear all black and let the colors of the butterfly pop out!

Lumberjack

Materials:

Black beanie

Brown felt

Needle and thread

Plastic ax (from the dollar store)

suspenders

Instructions:

1. Cut a large beard-shape out of the brown felt. It’s easiest to place the felt up against your child’s mouth and draw out the shape with a marker - making sure the beard starts from above the ear and goes down below the chin and the edges are long enough to fit under the beanie. Cut out an oval where the mouth is.

2. Cut out 5 rectangular strips of brown felt (tracing them to fit the base that you made) and sew them onto the base of the beard, starting at the top and layering the next right underneath the end of the previous strip. Cut tassels on the bottom of each layer, to give the beard some texture.

3. Sew the edges of the beard onto the inside of the beanie - put the beanie on your child’s head and mark the spot where it needs to be sewn for reference.

4. Finish the whole costume with any type of flannel shirt you have, jeans, and suspenders. I was able to buy a plastic ax at a dollar store, but you could easily make an ax with cardboard and colored construction paper!

Ash Ketchum

Materials:

White sweatshirt

Blue t-shirt

Green gloves

Yellow and green felt

Red hat

White acrylic paint

Pins

Needle and thread (or fabric glue)

Instructions:

1. Have your little one wear the white sweatshirt and place the blue t-shirt on top. Cut off the sleeves, the bottom, and the middle of the t-shirt to match the size and length of the sweatshirt.

2. Pin the edges of the blue t-shirt onto the sweater so it stays in place.

3. Sew OR glue the edges of the t-shirt onto the sweater.

4. Cut out rectangles with the yellow felt and glue/sew them where the pockets are.

5. Measure out another longer piece of yellow felt for the bottom edge of the sweater. Glue or sew this piece for the yellow bottom.

6. Cut the fingers off of the green gloves.

7. Paint the front section of the red hat with white acrylic paint. As it dries, cut out the iconic “L” shape from the green felt and glue it onto the middle of the dried hat.

8. Assemble the whole costume together with a Pikachu stuffed animal!

There are many steps in each of these DIY costume projects where your kids to help out. Let them feel a sense of pride in wearing something that they had a hand in making!

Let us know some of your favorite Halloween costumes that you or your kids have made!

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