You don’t have to sew to make a cute Halloween costume. Make a quick and easy no-sew pumpkin costume out of an orange t-shirt and a few common craft supplies. This jack-o’-lantern Halloween costume works well for adults or kids, and can be made in just a few minutes, so it’s a great option for a last-minute handmade costume.

You might be able to find an orange t-shirt at the dollar store, but it’s not a guarantee. You will always find plain orange t-shirts at your local craft store, though, and they are usually $5 or less. I recommend using self-stick craft foam if you have it. You will be able to remove it after Halloween and keep the shirt for further everyday use. If you don’t have self-stick foam, plain craft foam or felt will work. Just stick the pieces on with craft glue or hot glue.

I worked on this costume with my four year-old last year. Here’s a video tutorial (and also, a really accurate depiction of crafting with kids and blogging with them, too! Check out the photo shoot at the end of the video).

Project Materials:

• Orange t-shirt, $1 and up
• 1 sheet each black and green felt, on hand or about $1
• 1 sheet self-stick craft foam, on hand or about $1
• 1/4″ elastic, on hand or $1
• 1 green pipe cleaner, on hand
• 1 green pom-pom, on hand
• Scissors
• Safety pin
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks (adults only) OR craft glue
• Recycled sturdy cardboard (6×6″ piece)
• Recycled plastic grocery bags (optional)

Total: $1 and up

How to Make:

T-shirt

1. Cut eyes, nose, and mouth shapes out of black felt or foam. Make your jack-o’-lantern facial features any shape you like! I cut two triangles for eyes and a triangle for the nose, and a half-moon shape for the mouth, with a rectangle cut out of  the flat side of the half moon for a tooth.

2. Cut green collar pieces: four or five triangles cut out of self-stick craft foam.

3. Attach the green triangles around the collar of the t-shirt.

4. Attach the facial features on the front of the shirt, just below the green triangles.

5. Cut a small slit in the inside layer of the waistband. Attach the end of the 1/4″ elastic to a safety pin, and thread the elastic through the waistband until it goes all the way around and comes out through the slit.

Cinch the elastic so the waistband is slightly gathered, but not uncomfortable. Tie the ends of the elastic together and clip excess. Tuck the knot inside the waistband.

6. Gather the sleeve the same way you did the waistband, but cut two slits, one on either side of the seam  on the bottom of the sleeve. Thread elastic into one hole and out the other, and tie knot over seam. Repeat for second sleeve.

7. If a rounder pumpkin shape is desired, stuff with recycled plastic grocery bags when child puts it on. Avoid this step for younger children and babies.

Hat

1. Cut 6″ circle out of recycled corrugated cardboard (I used a bulk cereal box). Use an old CD or plastic lid for a template, if desired.

2. Cut larger circle out of green felt. Use a bowl for a template, if desired. Note: this circle doesn’t have to be perfect, because the edges will be hidden.

3. Put a line of hot glue around the outside of the cardboard circle, close to the edge. Fold felt over around the entire edge.

4. Measure a piece of 1/4″ elastic around child’s head and under chin. Cut so elastic is snug but not too tight (ours was about 20″). Glue raw edges of elastic flat to middle of cardboard circle.

5. Cut circle of felt slightly smaller than the cardboard disc (about 5″). Hot glue over exposed cardboard and elastic.

6. Wrap green pipe cleaner around a pen to make it curly. Hot glue pipe cleaner curl to top of hat. Hot glue pom-pom over the center of the pipe cleaner.

No-Sew Pumpkin Costume Tips

Reusable Shirt: If you want to reuse the orange shirt, skip the felt and hot glue, and just use self-stick craft foam for all the facial features. Remove elastic and craft foam pieces after costume use.

What to wear underneath: wear neutral pants or leggings (black, green, or white) or tights (black, white, green, or striped) and black shoes. If your weather is cold, wear a black, white, orange or green turtleneck, long-sleeved shirt, or hooded sweatshirt underneath pumpkin shirt.

Baby Pumpkin: This costume will work well for infants or toddlers, just adjust t-shirt size (use toddler t-shirts) and avoid plastic bag stuffing.

The post Tutorial: Halloween Costume: No Sew Jack-o’-Lantern appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

This appears to have been a child’s costume that they used on their small dog [photo via theCHIVE]

I give the owners and the dog big props on this one. I wonder if the poor thing could move?! [photo via Geekologie]

If you watched Harry Potter, you’ll know what this is supposed to be. Read more. [photo via Geek Stir]

Find out about how the owner of this dog in a wheelchair didn’t let its disability keep him from celebrating Halloween! [Photo via Make and Build Dog Stuff]

This isn’t a dog, but I literally laughed out loud when I saw it. The costume is “Pork and Beans.” That therapy pig sure does put up with a lot! [photo by tlcpiggy via Martha Stewart]

Last year, I went as candy corn, and our rottweiler, Kona, went as a candy corn princess. Everything she’s wearing was from the Dollar Tree, or was something I printed out!

But at our house, we don’t just dress her up on Halloween. Any day is an excuse to dress her up. Here are a few of her best shots!

Links:

Be sure to visit Martha Stewart’s site for user-submitted photos of their doggies dressed up for the holiday!

OMIDOG also has a page with doggie costume ideas.

Niqqi has four easy costume ideas with instructions in English and Spanish.

Squidoo has a whole page dedicated to dog costumes that includes pictures, links to how-tos, costumes for you and your pet and ready-made costumes you can buy.

The post Make Your Dog a Halloween Costume: 6 Doggone Funny Ideas appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

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

The post Make a Candy Corn Costume for $2.69 appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.