Use these fun and cute Halloween costume ideas for kids and make them, right up to the last minute, with items you already have around the house!
20 Halloween Costumes You Can Make with Items Around the House
Thanks to our friend Kendall for sending these! Tawra
Use these fun Halloween costume ideas and make them — right up to the last minute — with items you have around the house. Find your “base” item and add a few choice elements to put together these ideas in a snap.
“Get a white sweatsuit. From there, your tot can be a dog, a cow, or a ghost. Just get some black felt, cut it in shapes and pin (or velcro) the ‘spots’ to her suit! Add a little black eyeliner to the tip of her nose. For a dog, use the pencil to draw whiskers.” — cl-mon71
“Attach balloons to a sweatsuit and be a bunch of grapes!” –cheatize
“I bought a hooded black sweatshirt for my two-year-old girl and hand-sewed black felt triangles on the hood and glued smaller white felt triangles inside the black ones. She just wore it with black pants and shoes and I used eyeliner to draw whiskers. She was an adorable cat and wore the sweatshirt all winter.” –barville
“Be a bird! I cut out poster-board wings and tail and stapled on elastic bands. My daughter glued on hundreds of feathers, about $2 at Walmart, and wore a blue sweatsuit.” –terri55
“One son was a dinosaur. He wore yellow and green sweats with yellow socks over his shoes. We cut green and yellow sponges diagonally, then tacked the corners together and to the sweats to make the ridges of stegosaurus running down his back and tail.” –terri55
“One of my kids’ favorite costumes was a skeleton. They wore black sweat suits and white gloves. I cut bones out of white contact paper, peeled the back paper off and just stuck them on, painted their faces white and black, and off they went! When they were done, I peeled the ‘bones’ off the sweat suits and they wore the suits all winter!” –mama2olscam
“Last year my one-year-old son was a snowman. I bought a white sweatshirt and pants. We painted his face white, black around eyes, and gave him an orange nose. He wore mittens and a matching knit hat. For ‘coal’ buttons, I cut circles of sticky-backed black felt that could be removed easily from his sweatshirt after Halloween. This costume worked well because he stayed warm all night while trick or treating, and then we were able to use everything all winter.” –mum2sunshinegirl
What’s a quick and easy costume for the toddler? How about a ‘baby greaser’? Use hair gel to slick his hair back, a white T-shirt, jeans rolled up, a comb in his back pocket and a jacket. We used a black spray-painted raincoat from a thrift store but you can also use a jean jacket or similar.” –cl-mon71
“Make a refrigerator out of a box. When you open the ‘refrigerator’ door, there are pictures of food glued inside.” –terri55
“When my sister and I were younger my parents made us into dice. They got a box for each of us, painted it white, cut out head and armholes, and then painted black dots on each side. I was six and on the front of my box were six dots, and my sister was two and so the front of her box were two dots. I have also seen this done with dominos (although that would be harder to sit down in, I imagine). We got tons of compliments and it cost next to nothing. Many stores will give away the boxes they have in storage! –mkadera
“The easiest costume (and cheapest) I ever made for my daughter: I got a big box, took off the bottom, cut holes for arms and head, and wrapped it in gift wrap. Then, I taped ribbon around it, and tied lots of curly ribbons in her hair. Everyone raved about how cute and clever the costume was. I was thrilled that, after years of sewing, one with so little effort got such a result!” –Cherie J. Michigan
“When my daughter was 18 months old, I made a peacock costume for her. I picked up turquoise material and stitched it into a large bag — large enough for her to wear her snowsuit underneath. I then took the leftover material and made a hat for her. On the hat, I glued a few feathers, googly eyes and a foam beak (using craft foam). I also cut out foam feet and attached elastics to them to use as boot toppers. For the tail, I cut out a tail shape and glued peacock-feather wrapping paper (the most expensive part of the costume) on both sides. She looked adorable! (I kept the costume. *Sigh.*) I even made a ‘matching’ costume for me, using a turquoise pullover, plastic mask covered with feathers and matching boot-toppers. It was a lot of fun! Both costumes cost me less than $20 Canadian (about $13 U.S.).” –wintersweet
“Get one of those orange, plastic-pumpkin leaf-bags and stuff it with newspaper. Place holes for you child’s head and arms. Then staple the bottom together. Total cost: about 90 cents.” –baj3
“When my son was two, I dressed him in a pair of his overalls and folded up one of the pant legs about mid-calf. I used a black makeup pencil and drew a few freckles on his face. He wore a baseball cap turned sideways. He was an adorable ‘Little Buddy.'” –Thaysen
“This year my 10-year-old daughter will be a scarecrow. Blue overalls, a plaid shirt, bandana, straw hat, raffia for the straw, a little face paint, and voila, one scarecrow.” –vmacsay
“Last year I had to make my seven-year-old a new costume at the last minute. My nephew was an M and M, so she decided to be an M and M bag. I put together two yellow pieces of poster board from Wal-mart, a few paints from around the house and some jute. I drew freehand the letters from a real M and M bag, painted them, used a paper punch to place holes at the top, and tied the jute together. It resembles advertisement boards people wore in the ’40s. She loved it and we received many compliments about how original it was. You have to cut the poster board down to fit your child. Total cost: $1.20!” –baj3
“The Halloween that my son was two, I let him wear his Batman pajamas (which were actually given to him by an older friend, so I didn’t even pay for them!). Jammies with feet in them lend themselves to all sorts of variations — add ears to make a bunny, paint his nose black and add whiskers for a lion, etc.” –dstorman
“When my kids were little, I’d dress them in snow suits (for warmth), stitch or pin felt ears to the hood and add a simple tail to the back. Then I’d get out my makeup and paint on a cat face.” –cheatize
“Add a little yarn on the hood of a sweatshirt or hooded coat. Paint on whiskers and a dark nose with eyeliner and you have an instant lion!” –debigat2
“Panty hose stuffed with paper, socks or other fabric makes for great ‘tails’ — perfect for all kinds of animal costumes.” –cl-mon71
My daughters want to be princesses for Halloween. So with two little girls u know we already have the dresses. So all I had to do was buy a new necklace and bracketed to go with them. I only spent $4 on thier costume this year.
My daughter is going as a pink Ipod – we got a box from one of the memory foam pillows my brother bought and cut off the flaps – added straps and wrapped it in a pink plastic tablecloth from the dollar store and added printed dial/screen. It turned out great and really only cost us about $2 (the tablecloth and the clear packing tape)
One year I was very pregnant so I wore a black trash bag and cut out the label off a box of Hefty trashbags and taped it to a sign that read, I’m Hefty. My husband wore a black trashbag with another label that read, I’m Glad!
What a crack up Kathy. Those are the kind of costumes I just love. I can’t wait for Tawra to read your post. She will die laughing too.
Oh these are great. Thank you so much for posting these. When my son was in 3rd grade, he entered a costume contest at his elementary school and won 2nd place with this one I made up on the spur of the moment. He went as laundry. I bought a $1 dollar laundry basket from the dollar store. I cut holes in the bottom for his legs and used belts to strap the basket over his shoulders. I filled it with towels, socks etc, added a small box of laundry soap and using double sided tape I put some dryer sheets all over his black sweatsuit. It turned out absolutely adorable. When I was pregnant with my son, I wore a black catsuit and cut a circle out of white construction paper and taped it to my very pregnant belly, and went as the 8 ball. I won most original costume..This is fun. Thanks again.
I found this at Dollar Store Crafts/makeitandloveit
http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/10/our-last-minute-adult-costumes.html
it was a skeleton costume (home-made) for a mom-to-be. It has a little skeleton inside. Too cute. Hubby’s matching costume had a fast food meal inside. Nice. Thought I’d put it on here when I read about the skeleton for kids.
Angela~
Coolest costume we ever made was a Hershey Kiss. Silver garbage bag (or leaf bag) holes cut in bottom for legs, cut holes in side for arms. Stuff slightly so it will be a little puffy around the bottom. Gather up the neck and tie. Put a piece of paper with HERSHEY coming out the top. Ta-da….Hershey Kiss. (Won second place in scount costume contest)
hehee .. i remember when i was little .. and we had no money for costumes (i am only 50 but i dont remember if the stores sold costumes like they do now) ..
well .. anyway .. my mom made me look like i was a tv set .. yep .. foil rabbit ears (antennae) and all! .. she took an ordinary box .. and on the front glued or taped a picture from a magazine (like it was a show on the tv) and for the dials (remember those? hehehe) she just took a black magic marker and drew them ..
halloween was so fun for us too .. my brothers would dress up like hobos or one time i remember then dressed up like ladies .. hehehe too funny! .. and we used to stay out late too .. even if it was a school nite ..
and as i got oler, i dressed like i was a teen in the ’50’s with the jeans, or the poodle skirt .. ehhehee ..
lots of fun! ..
Here’s a simple idea. My niece one year pinned Smarties candies all over her pants. She was…a smarty pants!
When I was pregnant with my son; who is now 18 yo; I went as an 8 ball. I wore a black cat suit and cut out a circle from white construction paper and drew an 8 on it. I taped it to my very big belly with duct tape. I won first place for most original costume..lol.
Hi Jill! Sharing just 2 of my favorite costumes for my granddaughter, made by my DIL. One year she took old black sweatshirts, cut off the arms and stuffed them, stapled to a new black sweatshirt as spider arms (the outfit included black sweat pants), glued glow in the dark and black spiders with fabric glue, and my GD was a “black widow” spider. Another was all black sweats, brown yarn cut really long, (to the feet) with a bowler hat and sunglasses to be “Cousin It” from the Adams Family, both won a prize. (The yarn was taken and made into something else by the other grandma!) Another year was a plain cardboard box with arms cut out, painted blue, with fish painted on it, for “Ariel, Under the Sea”, very inexpensive and all of them won prices (our town does a children’s parade, and then an afternoon of trick or treating, the Sunday around Halloween.
And, here in Salem MA, things are absolutely insane already!
Donna B.
Hi Jill and Twara! Just wanted you all to know my husband LOVES the chicken fried steak too! I have been making this for years using my grandmas receipe. Also we were thinking about Halloween a few weeks ago and now that both of us are in our late sixties and both of us are on medicine for one thing or another we decided that I would dress up as a prescription bottle and he would be an empty billfold lol! That might get a few laughs at our church Halloween party! lol! Last year we went as Matt Dillion and Miss Kitty from gunsmoke using what we had here and from our thrift store. Happy Halloween!
What a cute idea Susan. That should get a lot of laughs. Love it.
Hi it is me Joshua Talks Food 😁
Hi Joshua – how are you? Are getting ready for Halloween this week end. I just finished making some pumpkin cookies to take to school. Hope you have a fun week end. Jill : )