Welcome to day 4 of Homemade Costume week. This bumblebee Halloween costume looks great in person, and could not be simpler to make. A black shirt, yellow duct tape, some pipe cleaners, and a pair of dollar store wings. You can make this no-sew bee costume in about 15 minutes.

Project Estimate:

• Black hooded sweatshirt, on hand
• Yellow duct tape, $3
• 2 yellow chenille stems, on hand
• 2 yellow pom-poms, on hand
• 1/4″ elastic, $1
• Hot glue gun and hot glue stick
• Pair of bee wings from dollar store, $1

Total: $5

To make a no-sew bee costume:

I originally made this costume for Kaboose.com, a site that closed down several years ago, and unfortunately, there is no longer an internet archive of the instructions, and my version of the instructions are long-lost on my old defunct computer.

Basically, add yellow duct tape stripes to a hoodie, then hot glue pom-poms to a couple of chenille stems, then duct tape them to the inside of the hood. Curl the stems around a pencil.

Add a pair of yellow dollar store fairy wings to complete the look.

My Design Process:

I don’t know if you folks care about seeing my sketches or not, but it amuses me, so I’ll just keep posting them. My original sketch was slightly more complicated than the costume ended up — I originally envisioned a black hoodie with a yellow t-shirt over it, but when I started making the costume, I eliminated the yellow t-shirt and just went with yellow duct tape stripes. I also called for the costume to be stuffed with grocery bags (to make it more round) but I decided the stuffing was unnecessary when I put it on my model (my 4 year-old).

My craft planning process is this:

• sketch the project and label what each part is
• think through the actual process of making it and what supplies I will need
• write down the process as I imagine it (so I have “instructions” to follow)
• then take a step back and see if there is anything I can eliminate in terms of supplies or extra work
• collect my supplies (from my stash, or shop for them)
• do the project and change something (usually!)
• make sure to photograph most of the steps so I can remember how I made it

How do you plan for your craft projects? Do you have a sketchbook?

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This was just too interesting of an idea not to give it a try, so Heather and I are both trying out a fun new subscription mail service called Bobcat in a Box.  Based on an XKCD comic strip, Bobcat in a Box is a bot that finds items on eBay and other ecommerce sites that cost $1 or less with free shipping, and sends you surprise packages in the mail.  You can choose to get completely random packages, or you can provide a list of keywords for the bot to use when it is searching for items to buy.  We both chose craft-related keywords, hoping to get some interesting supplies that we could use to make various projects.

We have also been documenting our Bobcat in a Box adventures on our YouTube channels!  So far we’ve both received some pretty neat stuff, including lots of beads and other little embellishments.  Want to see what we’ve gotten?

Watch all of Heather’s Bobcat in a Box videos:

Watch all of Rhonda’s Bobcat in a Box videos:

Stay tuned for lots more Bobcat in a Box fun to come!

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I love making costumes with felt! This candy corn costume was so quick and easy to make, and it looks so cute. I was so excited to share it with you, that I just snapped a photo of my two year-old wearing it over his jammies. He’s a huge fan of candy corn, and wanted to dress as one for his Halloween costume from the beginning. Candy corn is an adorable costume: it’s instantly recognizable and of course, it’s easy! It’s also comfortable and easy to move around in, and you can remove it in a jiffy if necessary (perfect for a school or work costume!)

I made this costume out of felt yardage (the kind you get on the bolt at the fabric store, as opposed to the small sheets of craft felt). Felt is inexpensive, easy to work with, and you don’t have to finish it by hemming. Perfect for a one-time-use costume. These instructions are for a sewn costume, but check the bottom of the post for no-sew instructions.

Project Materials:

• 1/4 yard each of white, orange, and yellow felt, $3.59 per yard
• Ribbon, on hand
• Sewing machine & thread OR Hot glue gun & glue

Total: $2.69

This costume was very simple to construct and took me less than an hour to sew. You can also construct it with a hot glue gun if you don’t like sewing. It’s basically a very simple shift dress or smock made out of felt.

I made this for my son who wears a 3T. This amount of fabric will be fine for up to a 6x. For a larger costume, get wider cuts of fabric. You might want to get a wider swath of orange, since most candy corn has a large orange section.

To Make:

1. Sew 1/4 yard strips of felt together, making sure seams are on the same side. I got the color order wrong, so if you want to be 100% authentic candy corn, sew white to orange, and orange to yellow!

Alternately, hot glue the felt strips together.

2. Cut two pieces of the striped fabric, about 24″ wide. Fold in half, and cut a diagonal. The bottom should be the full width, and the top should be about 8″ wide when folded in half (16″ wide total). Use a tape measure to keep your line straight, or eyeball it. Repeat for 2nd piece of striped fabric. You will probably have some striped fabric leftover, too.

When you unfold the fabric, it will be a trapezoid that looks like this. I cut about 4″ off the top of my trapezoid because I wanted it to be shorter on my son. Adjust the length as desired.

3. Put the trapezoids right sides together. Sew shoulder seams as shown here, leaving 6″ unsewn in the middle. This will be the neck.

Alternately, hot glue together.

4. Sew up the sides, leaving about 6-8″ at the top unsewn. This will be the sleeve.

Alternately, hot glue sides together and remember to leave sleeve holes.

5. Fold over bottom, and sew a hem. You can skip this part, but I like it because of the stiffness it gives the hem, so the corn is nice and round.

Alternately, hot glue the hem.

6. If you want, you can fold the sleeves over and hem them too, but you don’t have to.

Alternately, hot glue the hem.

7. Cut a scoop in the front for the neck. Cut a straight line down the back about 6″ to make the hole big enough for little noggins to get through.

8. Cut two pieces of ribbon, about 12″ long. Singe the ends with a flame to keep them from unraveling. Fold over top hem of back of costume. Sandwich ribbons in the end and sew or hot glue to secure.

To make a hat: Cut a rectangle of white, and wrap around head in a cone shape. Hot glue or sew seam. I didn’t like the white peaked hat look, so I folded the peak inside about 3″ to make a blunt peak.

What to wear underneath: Black, white, yellow, or orange shirt and pants, skirt, tights, or leggings.

Other Candy Corn costumes and treat bags:

• Ruffled Candy Corn Tee at Positively Splendid
• Candy Corn costume, hat, and treat bag at Chica and Jo
• Candy corn treat bags at The Purl Bee
• Oversized hands-free candy corn treat bag at A Lemon Squeezy Home by No Big Dill (who also had a candy corn week!)
• Another very cute girl’s candy corn costume at No Big Dill
• Everything candy corn (so many fun ideas) at One Pretty Thing

Other quick and easy halloween costume ideas:

• Pizza costume
• Last minute no-sew costumes
• Greatest Costume Hits
• Homemade Costume Week

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My four year-old son had a few ideas for his Halloween costume this year, but he finally settled on dressing as a piece of pizza. You probably already have your Halloween costume figured out, but I’m going to share how to make a pizza costume with you anyway, just in case! A piece of pizza is a great costume: it’s funny, instantly recognizable, you can customize it, and of course, it’s easy! It’s also comfortable and easy to move around in, and you can remove it in a jiffy if necessary (perfect for a school or work costume!)

I made this costume out of felt yardage (the kind you get on the bolt at the fabric store, as opposed to the small sheets of craft felt). I love making costumes out of felt! It’s inexpensive, easy to work with, and you don’t have to finish it by hemming. Perfect for a one-time-use costume.

These instructions are for a sewn costume, but check the bottom of the post for no-sew instructions.

Project Materials:

• 1 yard each of cream-colored and tan felt (72″ wide), $3.59 per yard
• 1/4 yard of dark red felt, $.90
• 1 sheet each of black, brown, green craft felt, on hand or $.25 each
• A piece of batting, 24×24″, on hand or $4.95 (I bought a bag of crib-sized batting at Wal-mart)
• Sewing machine & thread
• Hot glue gun & glue
• Velcro, on hand

Total: I spent $13.98, but you could make it for about $8 (if you have batting on hand, or if you skip the batting)

A note about materials: Usually, I would have the felt sheets and batting on hand, but I am out of batting, and I wanted to make sure I had the right colors of felt. Your felt purchase may vary, depending on the desired pizza toppings. One yard of felt will be fine for any size of pizza costume, including an adult costume, because it is 72″ wide. You will have leftover felt if you make a pizza costume for a preschooler, like I did.

Construction notes: Hot glue toppings on AFTER you sew the pizza slice together!! I learned this the hard way. This costume should have taken me about 15 minutes to sew together, but the hot glue gummed up the needle and I had to re-thread about 12 times. It ended up taking an hour of frustration to finish!

The costume is basically a giant pizza-shaped bib.

1. Cut two triangles out of felt – one tan, one cream-colored; cut one triangle out of batting. My triangles were 18″ wide and about 20″ long. Adjust measurements to fit your costume wearer.

2. Use a bowl to make a neck hole about 3″ below the top of the pizza (ignore the fact that my bowl doesn’t match the circle I drew!). You will cut a line straight down from the edge of the pizza and cut the hole out. The resulting tabs are the place where the bib will fasten.

Sewing Instructions: (click here for no-sew instructions)

3. Sandwich batting and felt in the following order: batting on bottom, then tan crust piece face up, then cream-colored top piece face down.  Sew around perimeter, leaving a 6″ hole on the side of the pizza for turning.

4. Turn right-side out, being sure to fully turn the bib pieces. Use a pencil to push corners out, if necessary. Fold 6″ unsewn hole under, and topstitch closed. Topstitch around perimeter, if desired, and quilt across the pizza a couple lines if you want.

5. Sew Velcro to bib tabs, with scratchy piece facing up on the right tab, and fuzzy piece facing down on the left tab.

6. Now for the fun part! Toppings! Cut out your desired toppings. Our pizza was combo-style with pepperoni and veggies.

• Pepperoni: I traced a large bowl onto dark red felt for pepperoni.

• Olives: I traced a small saucer and a ramekin with chalk onto black felt to make olives.

• Mushrooms: I folded brown squares of felt in half and cut out mushroom shapes.
• Green Pepper: I went for diced green pepper and just cut squares of green felt.

7. Hot glue toppings on. I glued the pepperoni first, then the olives, the mushrooms, and finally the green pepper.

Gluing tip: I placed the pepperoni down on the cream-colored side to get a placement I liked. The best way to glue the pepperoni was by folding half of it up, covering the folded half with hot glue, placing it on the surface, then folding the second side up and gluing it. Trim any overhanging pepperoni (just like on a real slice of pizza!)

Wearing the costume: Wear black pants and a shirt or sweatshirt, or put the pizza costume over any street clothes. If desired, make a themed hat and treat bag.

No Sew Instructions:

Skip the sewing, and the turning inside out (Steps 3 &4). Instead, sandwich the tan piece, the batting (trimmed 1″ shorter around the edges), and the cream piece and hot glue around the edges. Press to seal. Hot glue velcro on as instructed in Step 5. Put toppings on as instructed in steps 6 and 7.

For more quick and easy costume ideas:

• Last minute no-sew costumes
• Greatest Costume Hits
• Homemade Costume Week

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No-Sew Candy Costume: $5

Fun fact: This was one of the first tutorials I wrote for Dollar Store Crafts, in October 2008.

Easy Tutu Pattern for Little Ballerinas: $3

I drew this tutorial based on a halloween costume my mom made for me when I was a little girl (back when legwarmers were cool – the first time around).

Last-Minute Firefighter Costume (No Sew): $7

I made a couple of these for my boys last year. Using duct tape is a great way to make a custom costume in a hurry!

Max from Where the Wild Things Are Costume (Dollar Store Version): $6

Jess from Mad in Crafts made this great costume out of jammies and some dollar store items.

Gift Bag Robot Costumes: $1

I love this idea from Lindsey at Filth Wizardry. She used metallic gift bags to make these fun robot costumes. Fab idea for a last-minute costume.

Additional Resources:

• Last Minute Halloween Ideas including a fantastic costume inspired by the Hitchcock movie “The Birds”
• Last Minute Halloween Costumes for Kids at Woo Jr

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Welcome to day 5 of Homemade Costume Week with our last quick and easy no-sew costume: the Rapunzel costume complete with long braid and tall tower. This Halloween costume is the one in the group that I wasn’t sure I could pull off, but I was excited by the concept and wanted to give it a try. There were two unknown components: the long braid (turned out just like I imagined) and the wearable tower (totally different than I planned). Find out how to make this costume over at my post at Kaboose: [how to make a Rapunzel princess halloween costume]

Project Estimate:

• 2 yards of plain cotton fabric, $5
• Duct tape, on hand
• 2 sheets of foam core board, $2
• 2 yardsticks, $2
• 1/4″ elastic, $1
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Total: $10

The original concept called for a box with a window cut out in the front, and arm holes in the sides. When I tried it out, the box was awkward and unbalanced on the child and it just didn’t work. I wanted to make sure the costume construction was uncomplicated, so the box idea wasn’t good enough. It could have worked with a tall, narrow box, but those aren’t easy to find and it wasn’t a practical solution.

I ended up using two pieces of foam core board attached sturdily together with yardsticks in the back to brace them together and add enough substance for the child to wear them without being afraid the foam core would disintegrate.

What are your big Halloween costume plans this year?

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Welcome to Day 3 of Homemade Costume Week at Dollar Store Crafts! This week, I’m bringing you several costume ideas that are simple, no-sew, and frugal. Today’s featured costume is the no-sew Octopus costume. I used several pairs of striped knee socks to create the octopus legs. You can find knee socks at the dollar store, or shop at Target or Wal-mart for more selection. [get instructions for making the Octopus costume at my Kaboose post]

I originally imagined this costume slightly different, with the sock legs coming out of the chest and the child’s arms as one pair of legs. I decided to make the legs more like a skirt coming off of the sweatshirt and add the face to the chest of the sweatshirt instead of the hood.

Project Estimate:

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It’s Day 2 of Homemade Costume Week at Dollar Store Crafts! This week, I’m bringing you several costume ideas that are simple, no-sew, and frugal, of course! Today’s featured costume is the no-sew Spider costume. I used dollar store socks to create the spider’s spooky extra legs. I couldn’t find a stocking cap at the dollar store when I was working on the costume (high summer), so I used a long sleeve from an old shirt and tied it at the top to create the eight-eyed hat. [get instructions for making the Spider costume at my Kaboose post]

This costume turned out just like the sketch too, but I had to omit the gloves because I couldn’t find them in stores in August. I think it would be fun to use white gloves and a bow-tie to make a formal spider. Or, wear a black and red tutu, add a red hourglass on the shirt, and a fancy cocktail hat for a Black Widow costume.

Project Estimate:

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I recently made a few no-sew costumes for Kaboose.com, so I wanted to show them off to you. I’ll post one a day for the next several days: Homemade Costume Week. These costumes are simple, no-sew, and frugal, of course! My favorite idea was this one: a Paper Doll costume. I loved playing with paper dolls as a kid, and so the idea of dressing up like a paper doll made me smile. The best part? It’s easy to make, even if you don’t think you can draw.  Oh, and it’s super cheap, too! [how to make a paper doll costume]

Another thing I love about this costume is that it turned out just like the sketch I drew when I had the idea. I love it when everything works out just like I imagined!

Project Estimate:

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