DIY Wicked Halloween Costumes You Can Easily Sew

I could have sworn we just enjoyed summer holidays and now all of a sudden Halloween is upon us. For most kids, Halloween means 2 things: costumes and lollies!

And when my kids think of costumes, what they really mean is “Mama’s GOTTA sew me one!!!”. 😉

Are your kids hankering for a really cool costume? That you are apparently going to make?!? If you are a #sewingnewbie perhaps you are feeling the pressure to come up with something great, while not necessarily knowing where to start. Even if Mama doesn’t think that Halloween is a really big deal, it’s a sure bet that the kids do!

Fear not! I would recommend you go grab yourself a hot beverage (coffee is my poison!), find a comfy chair because I’ve got a bunch of creative Halloween costume ideas just for you! They won’t break your budget, won’t take too long, but they will give you that satisfying feeling of a job well done.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning that I get a small commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you.

Do you remember Halloween from when you were a child? I’m guessing you made some effort to dress up. Whether it was just a little face paint, or a top-to-toe costume, the dressing up is a HUGE part of the fun.

When I was a kid growing up in Australia, a few of us from the neighbourhood scavenged up some old clothes from our parents, drew on some bad face makeup, scruffed up our hair with gel and put on a sneer and hey presto! We were transformed into punks! Like we had a clue… 😉.

We then wandered the neighbourhood hoping for lollies but more often than not had the door slammed in our faces by agitated oldies who muttered about Halloween being an “American thing”.

It’s true. Halloween IS an American thing. But it has spread to various degrees around the world and these days here in Germany (and back in Australia) it is pretty popular too. On the 31^st October you can be sure every kid in our neighbourhood here will either be dressed up and out trick-or-treating or waiting impatiently by their door to hand out lollies!

Thankfully my skills at home-made costumes have improved since my 1980s days as a Boy George wannabe *clears throat*. Since I started teaching myself to sew around 3 years ago, Halloween costumes for the kids have become a “must-do” in this household. After much head-scratching and online searching, each year I have been able to come up with some ideas and a costume that the kids (and I too, if I am to be honest 😊) are proud of.

So, just for you, here are some awesome, Halloween costumes for boys and girls that even beginner sewers can successfully negotiate! How do I know this? Because I have already tested them out for you! And if I have managed all of them (with maybe just one broken needle or 2, *ouch*) , then you can too.

Ready to play dress ups? Let’s go!

Dinosaur Tail and Hat

This was the first costume I ever made for my little guy. Actually, my first costume EVER. He was, and still is, a HUGE dinosaur fan (Hey, I’d never ever heard of a Quetzalcoatlus either until I got stuck into reading dino books to him).

The idea for the tail I got from a Running with Scissors pattern.  It was so much fun to make and my son wore it for hours at a time. I’m sure he would have slept with it on if we had let him.

All you need is cotton fabric and stuffing.

Note: For the spikes I bought some thick green felt that could be cut out and stand alone and need not be stuffed..

The hat doubled as a beanie throughout the colder months, but as part of the dinosaur outfit it was perfect! Fleece Fun has stack of cute costume and hat patterns, but obviously a dinosaur tail just needs a dinosaur hat to match 😉. Grab some fleece and a few pinches of that same stuffing you used for the tail and that’s it.

I will confess, it was a bit fiddly to get those spikes sewn into the hat, so be sure to pin them into place securely and really concentrate when sewing them in!

Little Devil

My daughter wasn’t into all those gruesome, typical Halloween things (or dinosaurs for that matter, LOL) so decided to be a devil instead. Obviously the headband and pitchfork were bought (I’m not clever enough to make those myself!) but the dress was a breeze.

You could find any simple, flowing dress pattern and sew it in a gorgeous, wicked red jersey fabric. I used a pattern from this KlimperKlein book (German language version, sorry!).

Cut the end of the sleeves and dress hem with some devilish-looking zig-zag spikes and you’re done. Unless your own little devil requests a length of fancy red lace to tie as an accessorising belt like mine did 😉. And after that, THEN you’re done!

If your little one doesn’t want a dress, you could simply sew a devilish red shirt and finish the sleeves and hem with those zig zag spikes and team it with black or red trousers. Heck, you don’t even need to sew if you can find and old or cheap red shirt and finish it off the same way. Hey presto! You’ve made the costume!

Harry Potter Hogwarts Robes (and Tie and Wand)

(Or in this case, Hermoine!)

So many kids get to a certain age and Abracadbra! They’re a Harry Potter fan. (Ok, sure, no one actually says “abracadra” in the Harry Potter books, but I’m sticking with it!) My eldest was no different and Halloween last year she just HAD to be Hermoine.

There are gazillions of ideas and tutorials to be found online. But if you want an easy way out (as I did during my pre-Halloween sewing frenzy last year) for a no pattern option you could try something like this.

I found some cheap velour in black and dark red which were perfect for a magical, flowing, shimmery Gryffindor robe. (The cloth patch I bought to sew on, obviously!)

The tie was a spontaneous, stopgap creation. But it’s a costume, right?!? It’s not for your next job interview 😉. Using leftover red velour fabric, I traced around one of Hubby’s ties for the shape and cut 2 pieces (of the velour, not Hubby’s tie! LOL!) just for the front part of the tie. I had some scraps of yellow cotton lying around, so cut them into thin strips and sewed them across one of the red pieces of the tie. Then the 2 pieces of the tie need to be sewn right sides together, leave the top open. Turn the tie right side out. You need to create a loop and attach it to the tie so that the tie has some way of hanging around your child’s neck. The fastest (if not most professional looking!) way is to sewing a ring of elastic (like you can see in the photo) or grab a strip of the red velour and sew on a patch of velcro to close it. Improvisation, that’s the name of the game sometimes!!

As for the magic wand… Have your child find a stick in the wished-for length. With a hot-glue gun, swizzle and twizzle any pattern you want along the length of the stick and allow to dry. Then paint over it in whichever shade of brown or black takes your fancy. Glam it up with a sprinkle of glitter if that’s what your child would love and leave to dry. Hocus pocus, you’ve got a wand! (Yeah yeah, ha ha, they don’t say “hocus pocus” either… 😉)

The Incredible Hulk

This Hulk costume is sure to get your little one looking, well, INCREDIBLE. You can actually find a really detailed description of how to put the costume together here that I posted a few months back!

The costume is made up of standard pieces of clothing (ie shirt, shorts and pyjama pants) which are as easy as usual to sew. The fiddliest parts of this costume are the padded muscles (nice abs, Hulk!) and the mask. Just be prepared with LOTS of green stretch fabric.

I discovered the menacing mask on Cutesy Crafts-. (She also has a stack of other superhero masks!)

The pyjama pants and “torn” purple shorts were variations of patterns from the KlimperKlein book I mentioned earlier, as was the shirt.

The super cool padded muscles, however, are from I’m Feelin’ Crafty . Lots of squashing and stuffing and pinning involved. But I think you’ll agree, the end result is amazing. Nay, INCREDIBLE 😉.

There you have it! The most up-to-date Halloween costumes this hobby sewer here can inspire you with. This year’s costumes are still a work in progress but be sure to check back in next week for some absolute last minute inspiration!

I will say one thing: for the effort involved in sewing these costumes each Halloween, the appreciation from our 3 kids is immense. And as an added bonus, they usually get a second life as a costume for Karneval the following spring. Ha! Now that’s #reducewaste and #reuse! I LOVE seeing my projects get a second life 😊.

Are you sewing a costume for Halloween this year? Wanna share it with us below? 😉 We’d love to see your creative work!!