DIY Halloween Costumes for Girls

Making DIY Halloween costumes for my girls is one of my favorite family traditions! Growing up, my mom always made Halloween costumes for my sister, brother, and I and recalling them now brings back so many memories. I hope my girls will one day look back with this same fondness about the ones that I have created with them.

Although they take a bit more planning and work than a store bought costume, I love being able to make my girls costumes while they are still willing to let me. Each year presenting a fun creative challenge and the opportunity to making something together.

With a 6 and 2.5 year old now, it’s not just me coming up with ideas and designing the costumes these days. Hearing the ideas that my girls are dreaming up is now part of the fun and I love being able to help bring their visions to life! We are going with another sisters costume this year, and I can’t wait to share what we’ve been scheming.

Here are some tips I have learned over the years that I hope will inspire you to tackle a DIY costume of your own!

• NO SEW – You don’t have to be an expert seamstress to make a great DIY halloween costume for your littles. In fact, I made many of my girls costumes before I even had a sewing machine. You can make a great costume with just a hot glue gun, some felt, a can of spray paint, foam board or cardboard, and a quick a trip to your local Dollar Tree or craft store for some added embellishments.
• DIY PART, NOT ALL – You don’t have to craft every piece when making a homemade costume. Pull together some found items to save time and money and then add DIY elements to make it your own!
• HEART FELT –  Felt is my go-to fabric for Halloween costumes for a couple of reasons. It is inexpensive, it has some weight to it, it is durable, easy to sew and very forgiving. Felt is also super easy to cut as long as you have a good pair of sewing scissors. I find my felt by the yard at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, or Joann’s or by the sheet at Michaels or Hobby Lobby.
• PLAN FOR WEATHER – Here in Chicago we have been known to experience ALLLL of the elements on Halloween from rain to high winds to snow, so I always design my girls halloween costumes with the ability to layer over regular clothes or winter warmwear, ultimately making sure it fits over a coat.
• DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS – I love putting some creative thought into the candy bag and a headpiece that accompany each year’s costume. It is all in the details right??!

And now for a little stroll down memory lane where I am sharing more on how I created some of my girls DIY Halloween costumes from years past…

Matryoshka Nesting Doll Costumes

Last year my girls were nesting dolls for Halloween. Since I have just 2 daughters, I made them each a smaller doll to carry along as their candy bag so that we had a whole set to trick-or-treat with. Being that it was mid-pandemic, we didn’t end up trick-or-treating but we did have a backyard glow-in-the-dark egg hunt with our neighborhood friends and it was so much fun! If you are looking for other activities to do with small children other than trick-or-treating this is a great alternative!

These nesting doll costumes were constructed entirely of felt. To make the body shape, I traced the girls on a large piece of pink felt and drew the doll shape around them with a piece of chalk. Once I had the outline how I wanted it, I cut it out times two. Then I sewed each side up with a sewing machine and flipped it inside out. The head piece was constructed similarly, using two pieces of felt stitched together and then flipped inside out. Using a bowl to trace, I cut a small oval out for the face, slowly making it larger until it fit perfectly.

Next, I cut out the apron shape and the flowers/motifs out of felt using sharp scissors. After arranging everything in a pattern that I liked, I hot glued them to the white felt apron and then hot glued the white apron to the pink doll shape. In hindsight, I would have used fabric glue instead of hot gun for this detail work because you have to be especially careful that the hot glue does not come through the felt.

For the candy bags I made a one sided version of the costumes at a smaller scale, hot gluing the pieces to a doll shaped foam board cut-out to give it shape. You can attach the foam board dolls to totes or candy buckets with glue or wire.

Materials: Sewing machine, felt, hot glue gun, fabric glue, sewing scissors, foam board (backer if making mini dolls), a tote bag or plastic bucket (to glue the the mini doll to if using as a candy bucket)

Eiffel Tower / Stack of Macarons Costumes

When I was pregnant with my oldest daughter Josie, my husband and I babymooned to Paris. She has always loved the photos of her and I in front of the Eiffel Tower, so it came to me one day that the Eiffel Tower would make a great costume! Naturally, baby sister had to be a stack of macarons!

To make the Eiffel Tower, I sketched out my design in pencil and then used an exacto knife to cut a pattern of shapes out of a piece of foam board, giving it the Eiffel Tower appearance. Once the cut-out piece was complete, I spray painted it gold. I then attached the gold cut-out piece to a piece of kraft cardboard without the cut-outs to give it dimension and to make it stronger. I made two of these and then used gold ribbon glued over elastic to create an apron style costume. I love making apron style costumes for kids because the are super easy to put on and take-off, especially over coats and warmwear.

Willa’s macaron costume was inspired and adapted from this pattern.

For the candy bags, I purchased a set of two authentic Laduree’s Paris shopping totes on Ebay and I love how they tied the girl’s costumes together!

Materials: Eiffel Tower- Foam board, cardboard, exacto knife and extra blades, gold spray paint, gold ribbon, elastic, hot glue gun, kraft paper cone for head piece. Macarons – felt, sewing machine, hot glue gun, poly fill, sewing scissors

Toddler Rainbow Costume

Another example of my signature apron-style is my rainbow costume. For this no-sew costume, I attached felt rainbow pieces to a foam board base with hot glue. Next, I added white balloons forming clouds. The balloons definitely elevated this costume with the added bonus of making it more fun for my opinionated toddler to put and KEEP on!

For the headpiece, I made a sun-shaped headband out of scrap felt and a plain Dollar Tree headband. To make a pot of gold bucket for our candy bag, I spray painted a black cauldron gold, as it was easy to find this time of year.

Materials: Foam board for rainbow base, rainbow colored felt, hot glue gun, white balloons, black cauldron bucket, gold spray paint, sewing scissors, white ribbon or elastic

Toddler Flower Pot Costume

Probably my most popular costume to date, this flower pot costume was constructed with a black plastic flower pot and a can of terra cotta spray paint, giving the look of terra cotta without all the weight.

To assemble, I cut the bottom of the plastic flower pot off, spray painted it, and then attached faux flowers in arrangement around the inside of the pot with hot glue. I also drilled 2 holes on each side of the pot to string ribbon through, which tied around my daughters shoulders and held the costume up. To add dimension, I cut extra leaves out of green felt and added those, too.

To complete the look, Josie wore rain boots, a floral hair clip and collected candy in a watering can in place of a bucket.

Materials:  Plastic flower pot large enough to fit your child, terra cotta colored spray paint, faux flowers, green felt for extra leaves, hot glue gun, ribbon or elastic, clip for matching floral hair piece. 

Toddler Painter Costume

This painter costume was such an easy DIY with lots of found elements. I added a white felt collar to a black t-shirt we had on hand and layered it over a long sleeve striped shirt. Next, I purchased a canvas child sized apron, an empty silver paint can, and some Dollar Tree paint brushes.

To DIY, I cut a scrap piece of cardboard box into a paint palette shape and pre-painted the palette and paint brushes, letting them dry out over several days. Josie wore a beret for the headpiece and walked around with an empty paint can for a candy bucket. (Ok, I did. She only wanted to hold that brush!)

Materials: Striped shirt, black t-shirt, white felt, cardboard, paintbrushes, acrylic paint, beret, child sized apron, paint bucket

Newborn Ice Cream “I Scream” Cone Costume

With a newborn at Halloween, I loved the idea of making a onesie and swaddle based costume. Clearly, I was the only one! We jokingly called it the “I Scream Cone” and it’s a baby book classic! The sprinkles were made by rolling strips of felt and hot gluing the end closed and then hand sewing them individually onto the onesie. I fashioned the cone swaddle out of tan felt and stitched the waffle cone pattern with embroidery thread. To make the “scoop” tutu, I followed a no-sew tutorial similar to this one.

Materials: White onesie, felt, embroidery thread, tulle, large red pompom, glue gun, green pipe cleaner, nylon headband

I hope you enjoyed this walk through my girls DIY Halloween costumes and trip down memory lane with me! Let me know which costume was your favorite below in the comments! Any guesses (or wishes) as to what we might be next?!