My Favorite, Easy DIY Halloween Costumes for Kids

I’ll begin by saying I’m one of the least crafty people I know, but there is something about Halloween that brings out the DIY mom persona in me.

I love dressing my kids up in unique, fun Halloween costumes. They are both now at an age where I don’t get much say in their Halloween customers anymore, but I wanted to share with you some of my favorite costumes I’ve made. I’ll even throw in a few that I never got to try.

Hayden Fry

What Iowa fan doesn’t want to dress their child up as the legendary Hawkeye coach?

What you’ll need:

• Aviators
• Iowa hat
• Fake mustache
• Iowa jacket or sweater
• White pants
• Whistle

Weatherman caught in a storm

What you’ll need:

• Button down shirt
• Khakis
• Tie
• Newspaper or sheets of scrap paper
• Old umbrella
• Microphone
• Station badge
• Gel or hairspray
• Safety pins

How:

1. Turn umbrella inside out
2. Pin tie to the shoulder of the button-down shirt to make it look blown back
3. Crumble up paper and pin or tape to the clothing
4. Gel hair for a wind-blown look

Spaceman with a Jet Pack

What you’ll need:

• Astronaut helmet
• A silver jacket and pants or an old track suit and silver duct tape
• An old pair of pants
• Felt
• Tissue paper
• Two 2-liter bottles
• Duct Tape
• Stuffing or rolled up baby blankets
• Old shoes
• Hot glue gun
• Yarn (Optional)

How:

1. Fill pants of track suit or old pair of pants with the stuffing
2. Attach shoes to the bottom of the pants with duct tape
3. Wrap jacket in duct tape if needed then attach legs to the bottom of the jacket (The front of the jacket only)
4. Cut flame like shapes from the felt
5. Attach felt to the second pair of pants with hot glue gun to look like pants have flames down them.
6. Duct tape 2-liter bottles together and wrap in duct tape.
7. Attach tissue paper to the bottom of the 2-liters for another flame effect.
8. Attach “jet pack” to the jacket with either tape or using the yarn make a backpack-like strap for the child.

Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s

What you’ll need:

• Black dress
• String of pearls
• Black sunglasses
• Tiara
• Satin Gloves
• Baby blue gift bag

Veterinarian

This year my daughter wants to be a veterinarian at a zoo. Her costume won’t be too complicated, but we will have fun with her accessories.

What you need:

• Scrubs or a doctor costume
• Doctor’s kit
• Wagon
• Stuffed animals
• Two sheets of poster Board
• Wooden dowels
• Tape

How:

1. Place stuffed animals in wagon
2. Tape dowels to sides on wagon making a cage. Make sure to leave space between a few dowels for when your little one gets tired of walking between houses and wants to ride with their zoo animals.
3. Decorate poster board with the name of your zoo and attach to the side of the wagon.
4. If your wagon doesn’t have a canopy, use an extra sheet of poster board to make a border around the top of the dowels.

Clark Kent

What you’ll need:

• Superman shirt
• White button-down
• Black pants
• Glasses
• Name badge
• Suspenders (Optional
• Tie (Optional)

How:

1. Have child put on superman shirt under the button-down. Leave the top few buttons undone to give a glimpse of the Superman logo.
2. Get creative designing a Clark Kent Daily Planet name badge.

Tired Mom

We’ve never tried this costume, but I always thought it would be fun. Some of these are optional, but it would be fun to play around with different props to personalize it to your mom style. This costume would work for a child or a tired mom.

What you’ll need:

• Baby dolls
• Diapers
• Coffee cup
• Leggings
• Grocery bag
• Hair tie
• Burp cloth
• Yarn
• Black eyeshadow

How:

1. Use eyeshadow to create dark circles under their eyes
2. Give the perfect messy bun.
3. Using yarn, attach one baby doll to child’s leg
4. Use the rest of the props to get that perfect tired mom look.

Let me know if your family decides to use any of these fun options or share with us what Halloween costume ideas you come up with.

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