Through the years I have enjoyed making my boys’ halloween costumes. Now they are seven and five and are starting to go in the direction of characters and more mainstream costumes and it breaks my heart a little!
Here are some of the DIY costumes I’ve done for them over the years with steps on how to complete the look.
GIZMO FROM “GREMLINS”
I’m not the worlds’s best seamstress. So whenever I can use a glue gun, I do. I only used a glue gun with this one, but you could sew it if that’s more your style.
Supplies Needed:
- Brown sweatsuit with hood (Amazon)
- Brown and white fur (JoAnn Fabrics)
- Tan fabric (JoAnn Fabrics)
- Carboard (I used cereal boxes)
- Glue Gun
This one was pretty simple! I cut the fabric to match Gizmo and glued it to the sweatsuit. I drew an outline of the large ears and cut them out of cereal boxes. Then I hot glued the fabric and fur to the cardboard. Once the ears were glued on to the hood, the costume was done! Get ready for lots of picture requests for this one! Gizmo was huge hit.
OOMPA LOOMPA FROM “CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY”
Supplies Needed:
- Brown onesie turtleneck (Amazon)
- White leggings (Amazon)
- Brown knee high socks (Amazon)
- Brown shoes (Amazon)
- Large brown pom poms (2) (Michaels)
- Medium white pom poms (1) (Michaels)
- White puffy paint (Michaels)
- White duct tape (Walmart, Michaels)
- Brown sharpie (Michaels)
- Green hair spray (Walmart)
- Bronzer (Any brand makeup)
- Stuffed Animal/pillow fluff (Michaels)
The Oompa Loompa got so much attention! For the shoes I used a glue gun to glue the poms to the shoes. After it dried, I used the puffy paint to paint lines. I also used the puffy paint on the socks. I used duct tape on the turtleneck onesie to create lines. I drew the buttons on the pants with the brown sharpie. I stuffed his pants with the fluff. I sprayed his hair green and applied some powder bronzer to his face. And because I’m a bit extra, I had the Oompa Loompa song playing on repeat on my phone!
SHEET GHOSTS
My older son insisted on being a sheet ghost this year. Classic? Yes. Creative? Not at all. This costume killed my creative spirit a little! With two small children, I only had to use one sheet.
Supplies Needed:
- White Sheet (Dirt Cheap is great for this!)
- Scissors
I cut the sheet with a ragged edge to about their calves and then cut out eyes and mouth holes. To make it a little more exciting, I made my husband and I the same costumes and we were surprisingly a big hit!
MARIO & LUIGI
My boys got super into Mario Kart this year and decided to be Mario and Luigi. I found costumes in store but they just seemed so cheap and thin so I made them with a lot of things I already had at home.
Supplies Needed:
- Red T-Shirt (Mario)
- Green T-Shirt (Luigi)
- Red Hat (Mario) – I bought a white hat from Michaels and painted them with fabric spray paint
- Green Hat (Luigi) – I bought a white hat from Michaels and painted them with fabric spray paint
- Denim Overall
- Yellow “Button” Stickers (Michaels adhesive vinyl)
- White Gloves (Amazon)
- Fake Mustache or eyebrow pencil (Amazon)
- Boots (We used black tennis shoes)
- “M” and “L” emblem for Hat (Michaels adhesive vinyl)
Pretty easy assembly with these! I have a vinyl cutting machine and cut out the yellow buttons and hat emblems, but you can cut these out by hand easily. As you can see, my youngest refused to wear the buttons, gloves, and mustache, but it still worked out!
SPIDERS
The boys fell in love with creepy spiders this year. I had to try a few times to get this one right, but once I got it, they were in love.
Supplies Needed:
- Black Long Sleeved Shirt (Amazon)
- Black Leggings (Amazon)
- Black Socks (Amazon)
- Black Shoes
- Black Foam Board (2 square pieces)
- Wire Hangers (4)
- Cat Costume Tails (8) (Dirt Cheap – they have a TON of random mismatched costume pieces so these were a lot easier to find than I expected)
- Feather Boa (Michaels)
- Black Suspenders (Amazon)
- Glue Gun
The hardest part of this costume was getting the legs to stay on and not flop all over my son’s back. I laid down the first piece of foam board and took the four wire hangers and bent them into a “W” and glued them on the foam board. I glued the suspenders on top of the hangers, but left the ends hanging out. After the glue hardened, I stuck the cat tails onto the ends of the wire hangers. I taped everything down with electrical tape and I closed it up by gluing the second piece of foam board to it all. I glued the feather boa to the back of the foam board and all around the edges to make it look like the spider’s back. My boys picked an accent color and we added that color feather boa to the legs and back. Lastly we clipped the suspender to the leggings and viola! Creepy spiders. They were very sturdy and could bounce around on their backs without coming loose.
