Top Ten Homemade Halloween Costumes: Affordable but fun.

[Mel]

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 4 (October 2009).

Top Ten Homemade Halloween Costumes: Affordable but fun.
by Jessie, Katrina, and Nat (Strider)

Halloween is just a month away and, let’s face it, you’re never too old to dress up! Whether you are going trick-or-treating or to a costume party, we have some fun and inexpensive costume ideas for you! In alphabetical order, here they are:

Alice in Wonderland.

We all wanted to fall down the rabbit hole when we were kids. Maybe you’ll meet the Mad Hatter or Cheshire Cat this Halloween!

Make it from: clothes.

What you need:

• A baby doll style dress.
• White stockings.
• A white apron.
• Blonde wig or yellow yarn.
• Ribbon to match your dress.

How to: Dress up! We know, we know, Alice wore blue. But it’s the style that matters and dressed like that, who could mistake you for anyone else?

A painting.

Got some shabby clothes? Instead of throwing them away dress up as a masterpiece this Halloween!

Make it from: clothes.

What you need:

• Old clothes.
• Paint.

How to: Are you a modern Picasso or more of a starry night as seen by Van Gogh? Paint your clothes however you want!

Dancing iPod girl or guy.

Are you a big fan of music? Do you like to dance? Why not dress as the iconic dancing man in the Apple iPod commercials?

Make it from: poster board.

What you need:

• Clothes: Black shirt, black pants, black shoes, black gloves, black hat.
• One piece of brightly colored poster board.
• String.
• An iPod or MP3 player.

How to: Dress in your outfit and, using the string, attach your poster board to your back. Rock out with your iPod!

LEGO®.

We miss the days of playing LEGO®, too! (Wait, who are we kidding? You never outgrow toys like these.) Who wouldn’t want to dress up as this iconic toy at least once in their life?

Make it from: a box.

What you need:

• A box.
• Paint.
• A ski mask.
• Red peanut butter tops (you can paint them if you wish).

How to: Take a cardboard box and paint it your color of choice. Attach the peanut butter jar tops to your box in a LEGO-like pattern. Cut a circle in the top (for your head) and put on your ski mask, and you'll be ready to go!

Jack-in-the-box.

What better way to celebrate Halloween than in a costume that allows you to jump out at people all night?

Make it from: a box.

What you need:

• A box.
• Paint.
• A wire coat hanger.
• Electricians tape.
• Costume make-up.
• Yarn or a wig.

How to: Paint your box in whatever style you want. For ideas, use Google or your favorite search engine. Fashion the wire coat hanger into the hand crank, covering the end with electricians tape so no one gets hurt! Make yourself a wig with yarn and go wild with your make-up.

Ragdoll.

If it’s last-minute and you have no idea what to be, a ragdoll is it! Cute but comfortable, this easy costume shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to make.

Make it from: clothes.

What you need:

• Old clothes.
• Extra fabric.
• A sewing needle and thread OR hot glue gun.
• Costume make-up or brown eyeliner.

How to: Sew or glue patches to your old clothes and give yourself freckles and messy hair! You’re a ragdoll, no need to worry about appearances now.

Robot.

Are you a fan of technology? Or maybe you just do a killer robot dance. Whatever the reason, you can always make a killer robot costume!

Make it from: a box.

What you need:

• Aluminum foil.
• A box.
• Silver paint.
• Paint pens.

How to: Get creative with your box! Make sure you leave a hole for your head and the top. You might even want to make yourself and aluminum foil headband!

Rubik’s Cube.

Yeah, yeah, we can’t solve them either! But no worries, we know just how to make a Rubik’s Cube costume.

Make it from: a box.

What you need:

• A box.
• Paint (six colors andblack).

How to: Paint your box to look like a Rubik’s Cube! Whether it’s scrambled or solved is up to you.

Spilt bowl of spaghetti.

Who doesn’t dream of dressing up as an upturned bowl of pasta?

Make it from: common household items.

What you need:

• A red sweatshirt.
• A strainer.
• Yellow or white string/yarn.
• Small red pom-poms.
• Hot glue gun.

How to: Take an old red sweatshirt, and make slits through the center, going diagonally across. Throw your string and red pom-poms all over the sweatshirt, attaching them with hot glue. Next, take an old strainer and throw string and red pom-poms around and over it as well (so that it looks like it's a spilt bowl of spaghetti). Put the strainer over your head to become a spilt bowl of spaghetti.

Where’s Waldo?

Whether you want to hide in a crowd or just look awesome in stripes, this is one fun, and easy, costume idea.

Make it from: clothing and common craft materials.

What you need:

• A pair of blue jeans.
• A white shirt.
• Red tape or strips of red fabric.
• White toque.
• 2-3 black pipe cleaners.
• Red pom-pom.
• Hot glue.

How to: Either tape strips of the red tape horizontally across the white shirt, or glue red strips of fabric in horizontal stripes across the white shirt. Glue the red pom-pom to the top of the toque. Bend black pipe cleaners into the shape of glasses.