25 Easy DIY Halloween Costumes You Can Make at Home

The best DIY Halloween costumes start with something you already own and add one or two clever details. A good homemade costume is recognisable from across the room, comfortable enough to wear all evening, and finished in a weekend, often in an hour. Here are 25 ideas, grouped by what you need to start.

Costumes from your closet

1. Classic witch: black dress or black clothes, a pointed hat, a broom and green or purple tights.
2. Black cat: black outfit, felt ears on a headband, eyeliner whiskers and a tail from a rolled-up black sock stuffed with tissue.
3. Lumberjack: flannel shirt, jeans, boots, a knit hat and a cardboard axe.
4. 1950s greaser: white T-shirt, rolled jeans, a leather or denim jacket and slicked-back hair.
5. Mime: striped shirt, black trousers, white gloves, white face paint and a beret.
6. Tourist: loud shirt, shorts, socks with sandals, a camera and a map.
7. Scarecrow: flannel shirt, straw hat, patches sewn or glued on jeans and a little raffia at the cuffs.

More ideas built from one ordinary item are on our home page, under "Raid your closet".

Cardboard costumes

8. Robot: a box for the body, a smaller one for the head, dryer duct for arms and bottle caps for buttons.
9. Vending machine or arcade game: a tall box with clear plastic, real snack wrappers or a hand-drawn screen.
10. Race car: a box with the top and bottom cut out, shoulder straps from ribbon and paper-plate wheels.
11. Building block: a box painted in one bright colour with cups glued on top for studs.
12. Dice: a white box with black felt dots; great for two people.

Tips for cardboard: cut armholes larger than you think, pad the shoulders with foam or felt, and test that you can sit down and walk through a doorway.

Craft-aisle costumes

13. Bunch of grapes: purple balloons pinned to a purple shirt, with a green felt leaf hat.
14. Bag of jelly beans: a clear plastic bag with leg holes, filled with coloured balloons.
15. Crayon: one-colour clothes, a paper cone hat and a printed label across the chest.
16. Butterfly: wings from poster board or wire and tights, and a headband with pipe-cleaner antennae.
17. Ghost (safe version): instead of a sheet over the head, make a white poncho and paint the face, so vision is clear.
18. Superhero: a T-shirt with a felt emblem, a cape from fabric or a pillowcase, and a mask cut from felt.

Group and couple costumes

19. Salt and pepper: white and black outfits with paper "S" and "P" labels.
20. Peanut butter and jelly: two cardboard bread slices, one painted brown, one purple.
21. A box of crayons: one crayon per friend, in different colours.
22. The planets: one painted foam ball or paper sign per person.
23. Emoji faces: yellow paper plates with drawn expressions, worn on a stick or a headband.
24. Pirate crew: striped shirts, bandanas, a cardboard ship's wheel for the captain.
25. A deck of cards: poster-board cards worn front and back; four friends make a full suit.

How to make a homemade costume look finished

Detail	Why it matters
One strong colour	Reads clearly from a distance and in photos
Hair or a hat	Changes the silhouette more than anything else
A prop	A broom, axe, map or camera tells the story instantly
Makeup	Whiskers, a painted nose or rosy cheeks complete the look; see our guide to caring for costume wigs if you add one
Comfort	A costume you can sit, eat and walk in gets worn all night

Safety for kids' costumes

• Keep masks off or cut wide eyeholes; face paint is safer for vision.
• Add reflective tape to dark costumes for trick-or-treating.
• Keep hems above the ankle to avoid trips.
• Choose fabrics labelled flame-resistant when you can, and keep costumes away from candles.

Curious where the tradition of dressing up came from? Read our short history of Halloween costumes.