It’s OCTOBER which means……HALLOWEEN TIME!! I often run into the question of what I’m going to be for Halloween with a short window of time to make it happen. Based on my procrastination in years past, I’ve gotten pretty good at pulling costumes together with little to no effort involved! I always get so many compliments on my outfits, so I decided to help out my peeps and give you some of my tips and tricks for finding a perfect, week-of Halloween costume!
Cruella de Vil
OK, so this was one of my ALL TIME fave Halloween costumes. When you think of Cruella de Vil, you think white, black, red, and Dalmatian. HONESTLY, that’s it. Any combination of those three colors and a spotted print will get the job done for the outfit. I had an old red cotton skirt from Charlotte Russe, a white bodysuit from Express, and a black fur jacket from Macy’s (fur is always a nice touch). These were all things I had in my closet along with the classic thigh-high black lace tights that I bought years ago at Walmart. These are a GREAT staple item to have in your Halloween wardrobe arsenal. Obviously, Cruella is known for her iconic half-black, half-white hair. I ordered a wig on Amazon Prime along with red gloves and a fake cigarette prop to really do it up. The rest was cheap Halloween makeup to give it the Dalmatian vibe! I went for something a little more spooky sexy than cute and put patches of spots on myself along with some red to look like blood. This was done with the cheap crayons and eye palettes you can find in the Halloween aisle in Walmart or Target! You’ll never use the whole thing so just toss it in a Ziplock baggie for next year’s costume. To top it off I added some glittery green eye shadow to give that crazy-eyed look, and red heels I already owned. I will admit white or black booties would’ve been way more practical for walking and dancing 😅 It’s all about the look though right?!
Loofa
Alright, this one goes out to my true Yinzers. This costume was inspired by the little duck you see on my headband which I got at the one and only, Primanti’s when I ordered a drunk duck 😂 This signature cocktail is blue and contains a little rubber duckie to swim around in it. It got me thinking and I said ya know what? I should be something relating to this cute duck and thus the loofa was born.
So essentially, this costume is just two tutus fluffed up. I bought about 15 yards of green tulle and a packet of elastic. I made the tutus from this tutorial and pulled them apart in both directions right where it attaches to the elastic. This gave it a fluffy look! One went around my waist, and one around my chest. You can use any color obviously, but I had a strapless lime green shirt and green shorts already, so that color worked perfectly. I added some thicker white rope around my neck as the loop that you hook the loofa with, and then the rubber duck I glued to a headband!
Voodoo Doll
You’re probably thinking ok this costume looks pretty intense for a DIY, but what if I told you there was no sewing involved?? All I did was buy burlap, a red cloth square, and black string. The burlap I just cut into a shirt and then wrapped the rest around my waist. Since burlap is easy to rip, I just made little holes in it to stick the black string through to make the “stitches.” For the skirt, I ripped two holes in it and used the black string to tie it around my waist. I cut the red fabric into a heart and glued that to the burlap top. I cut little slits in the red and fished it through the burlap to give it the effect that the heart was stitched on. The rest was makeup! I drew everything with black pencil eyeliner and then used a cheap Halloween makeup palette for the “button” eye. As a fun touch, I added two white pipe cleaners I had in my craft box and glued little red cotton balls to the ends to imitate sewing pins. Super easy costume with a lot of room for error because ya know, it’s a burlap voodoo doll, they never look perfect.
Queen of Hearts
Who’s been painting my roses red?! Alice in Wonderland is full of AWESOME characters that can be recreated into Halloween costumes, but one of my favorites is the Queen of Hearts. Another appearance made by the black thigh-high tights, obviously. I wore a black bodysuit with spandex shorts, but really any white, black or red top will do! A tutu was made following the trusty tutorial that I’ve been using for YEARS! For the hearts and other card suits, I bought red and black felt from Walmart. Just trace the shapes, cut them out, and if you aren’t a sewing person (like me) you can just staple them! Honestly, it looks just the same. For the wand, I used a kabob skewer I painted black and then glittery scrapbook paper glued to it. Seriously, people underestimate how simple household items can be repurposed for easy Halloween props HAHA. The crown was probably the most difficult just because I had to get the gold glitter paper to dry in a small tube-like shape. After it dried though. I added some red glitter hearts made from the same paper as the wand. I added a strap under the crown to slip on the red headband from Michael’s so it wouldn’t fall off. TADA! Red and gold glitter was obviously added!
Grey’s Anatomy
Everyone knows that a doctor or nurse is an easy costume to pull off, all you need are scrubs! Well, a way to really make your simple outfit unique is by creating little props to make your outfit specific to a character in a memorable episode. I am a sucker for Grey’s Anatomy so I have done two Grey’s costumes in the past. The first was Meredith Grey on her “wedding day” and the second was *SPOILER ALERT* Lexie Grey when she died.
For Meredith on her wedding day, I wore normal blue resident scrubs and a jacket, BUT made a Meredith name tag and added to the pocket the blue sticky notes from Christina (as something new, old, borrowed, and blue). Super cute! For Lexie in the plane crash episode, I made a Lexie name tag, ripped up my scrubs, and covered myself in fake blood. Easy to make, but overwhelmingly well received by the party people!
Teletubbies
It’s TUBBIE TIME! If you have a squad of friends looking for costumes, the iconic group from many of our childhoods is an easy way to get it done. All you need is purple, green, yellow, and red shirts, pipe cleaners of the same colors, and sparkly duck tape. Matching bottoms of the same color are optional. If you don’t already have a shirt of one of these colors, you can get craft shirts at Michael’s or Walmart. Cut or tie them any way you want! Buy cheap headbands and twist the pipe cleaners onto them in the shape matching that Teletubby! Cut the sparkly duck tape and stick it on the front to imitate the televisions on their bellies. As you can see our tutus could’ve been better, but it was my first attempt LOL. See the bumblebee and butterfly costumes to check out my improvement over the years 😜
Bumblebee & Butterfly
A fun pair costume is a bumblebee and butterfly! These are again super easy and super cost-effective. Depending on your vibe, you can go more casual or more spunky! My friend went with a cute navy bodysuit, jeans, and wedges. I went with my thigh highs, black converse, a black bodysuit, and a DIY tutu. As many of you know, I’m a huge Pittsburgh sports fan so black and gold is my VIBE. I took extra time on this tutu because I know I’ll get more uses out of it! I’ve made plenty of tutus in the past and this is the tutorial I use each time! We each ordered a pair of wings from Amazon and headpieces. Toss some glitter on to really sparkle it up! These can also be done separately.
2 Blind Mice
This classic 3 person costume can actually be adapted to be a solo or pair costume to add some extra funniness! Since the mice are “blind” you can go solo and claim you got separated from the other two mice, or go as a pair and say you lost your third mouse! The great thing about this costume is you can wear anything black, get creative. We used the Walmart thigh highs (as I said it’s a Halloween staple to own a pair) and then whatever black outfits we had. For the shades, we used 2 pairs of plastic awareness sunglasses we had gotten from different community events and painted the arms black. The ears were just from the local costume store and the sticks were actually tubes of white wrapping paper from the local Dollar Tree. This outfit was SO easy and funny. The only purchases were the ears and wrapping paper tubes!
Thing 1 & Thing 2
+ the cat in the hat!
If you’re looking for a two-person or three-person costume, Thing 1, Thing 2, and the Cat in the Hat could be your choice. Order oversized shirts from Amazon and blue high socks for the Things and the “Cat in the Hat” accessory set from Amazon! It includes the little hat headband and the bow tie. Instead of ordering crazy blue wigs, I decided to buy some blue tulle and make big crazy bows! Just bunch it in the middle, tie it with string, and glue it to a hair clip. You can get some from Walmart or the dollar store! To style, we wore bralettes under the shirts and cut the neckline to be off the shoulder. We also wore matching converse high tops!
All of these costumes are super affordable and were truly crowd favorites! Takeaways: buy yourself the black thigh-high tights and a variety pack of glitter. With those two things, you can accomplish anything. Whether you copy the costume exactly or use my ideas for inspo, I hope this helped you create the perfect Halloween look 😚
The 412 Franimal 