Let's face it! Homemade Halloween costumes are far more interesting than bought ones. Let's stop buying costumes at exorbitant prices and start making our own. From the most terrifying to the sexiest, we can easily make our own Halloween costumes at home. Follow the steps in this article to get some good ideas you can develop.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Choose the Subject of your Costume
Step 1. Find a subject for your costume
If you don't know how to dress up, search the net, consult Pinterest and browse old magazines to find ideas.
- On the Internet you can find a sea of ideas for making your Halloween costumes. Simply do a Google search and you will find an infinity of sites that deal with this topic.
- If you have a Pinterest account, create a specific board for Halloween costumes to keep your online search results sorted.
Step 2. Make a list of your favorite characters
Make a list of your favorite movies, books, TV shows, plays and celebrities. Fictional characters and famous people are an excellent source of inspiration for a Halloween costume.
Step 3. Also consider aspects of real life
Often the funniest costumes have to do with contemporary events, celebrity gaffes or current fashions.
- Think about the most talked about facts of last year or rummage on the Internet to find noteworthy events that could inspire you to create your costume.
- For example, when Mitt Romney declared in 2012 that, once elected president, he would cut funding on PBS, the television station that broadcasts "Sesame Street," he gave the Americans a great idea for making a costume. In fact, after Halloween, photos of couples of friends appeared on the Internet in which one person impersonated Mitt Romney and the other the corpse of Big Bird, a character from the show.
Step 4. Choose a thematic topic
If you can't think of any particular characters or events, opt for a themed subject of your interest to begin with. It could be, for example, the 1920s, the underwater world or the Disney films.
Once you've chosen the subject of your costume, start narrowing down the options. For an underwater subject, you could be a fish, a mermaid, the god Neptune, a whale, or any sea creature, real or fictional
Step 5. Decide whether to make a single or group disguise
Costumes that require multiple people to participate can be really fun and spectacular when crafted with care.
Typical group disguises include bands, superhero teams, celebrity couples, or a collection of characters from a book, movie, and so on
Part 2 of 3: Get the Costume Making Materials
Step 1. Decide how much effort you want to put into creating your costume
You can make one with minimal effort or dedicate yourself to making a detailed costume (assuming you have the desire and the resources to do it).
- Evaluate the time available to you. If you get to work on the eve of Halloween, don't throw yourself into an overly ambitious project.
- A last-minute costume can be easily made using objects, clothes and other objects that you can find around the house.
Step 2. Make a list of what you need to buy
Shops specializing in the sale of handicraft products are excellent places to find the material you need to create your costume (even if you don't have a clear idea of what you need before entering the shop).
- If your costume needs to be sewn and you are new to the subject, buy fabrics that are easy to sew or put together. Felt is quite inexpensive and can be glued with a heat gun or stitched together with staples. Cotton is quite easy to sew both by hand and by machine.
- Make sure you take all necessary measures before purchasing the necessary material.
Step 3. Visit a thrift store or second hand clothing store
These are great places to find quirky yet affordable clothes. In these shops it is also possible to find a homemade costume that is already beautiful and ready.
Step 4. Think about how to decorate your costume
To make your costume really pop, you'll need to embellish it with the appropriate ornaments. Many accessories such as, for example, crowns and artificial flowers or buttons and glitter glue, can be purchased cheaply at specialized stores.
Part 3 of 3: Costume Making
Step 1. Seamless costumes
These costumes are suitable for those who do not have much practice with the art of sewing.
- You can make a costume with minimal effort by using a heat gun to glue felt cuts together. Jot down a pattern on paper to measure your costume. Transfer the pattern onto the felt cloth and use the scissors to cut out the shapes that you are going to glue together.
- Use a heat gun to glue the fabric cuts together or pin your chosen ornaments over them. For example, you and your partner could dress in green tights with leaves, wrap a toy snake around your neck and hold an apple in your hand to make a last-minute Adam and Eve costume.
Step 2. Sew your costume
If you are good at sewing, search for a pattern online or create one to make a fabric costume.
- To make the pants you will have to take the following measurements: the circumference of the waist and that of the pelvis, the length of the crotch and legs (taken from the waist to the ground).
- For the shirts you will need these measurements: the circumference of the neck and chest, the width of the shoulders, the length of the arms and shirt and the opening of the sleeves.
- For shorts take the same measurements as for long pants, but shorten everything to the desired length.
- For skirts you will only need to measure the circumference of the waist and that of the pelvis.
- Make sure the fabric you choose isn't transparent or itchy.
- Only decorate the costume after sewing it.
Step 3. Reuse a cardboard box
You can use a cardboard box to put it around your chest or on your head, depending on the effect you want to achieve.
- Make two circular holes in the sides of the box to put the arms through and make one at the top for the head. Cut out the bottom to be able to fit the bust; the top side of the box should rest on the shoulders. Take the measurements so that you are comfortable inside your new cardboard costume.
- For the head, cut a hole in the bottom of the box that is large enough to fit your head into. If you want, cut out the openings for the eyes and mouth (before putting the box on your head). If your costume does not reflect the facial features, still make holes in the box to be able to breathe.
- Use a craft knife to puncture the cardboard.
- Typical costumes to be made with cardboard boxes can be the robot, the washing machine or the dishwasher, the car, the popcorn pack, the game dice or the television. Make all the necessary decorations only after drilling the holes in the cardboard.
