Huge List of DIY Costume Tutorials

I love making costumes, and tend to find reasons to create costumes year-round. Costumes do not have to be limited to Halloween but are also great for other holidays, school spirit days, community performances and themed parties! I hope you find inspiration and resources here that help with your costume creation.

I've actually created a huge costume resource with all my DIY costumes sorted by categories like DIY costumes for boys, Pixar costumes. funny costumes, etc.

Or just scroll down and see all my DIY Halloween costumes published on the blog.

Potterwookiee Costume

byKaren•October 16, 2016

I love to make costumes, sometimes I make fun ones that I love and the boys just indulge me in wearing. I really love when they ask for a specific costume, though, one I know they will definitely appreciate. So I was pretty excited when Quinn asked for a Potterwookiee costume. The Creature from My Closet is currently his favorite book series so I knew he’d love the costume!

Out of all the crazy mixed up characters from Rob’s closet, Potterwookiee is my favorite. How can you top Harry Potter mixed with Chewbacca? Plus the DIY portion of the costume is pretty simple.

Potterwookiee Costume Materials:

Chewbacca PJ set
Chewbacca Mask
Grey Robe
Grey Socks
Wand
Duct Tape: Gold, Maroon, and Black
Gryffindor Scarf
Dark Grey Felt

The starting point of the costume is a pair of Chewbacca pajamas. The Disney Store sells kids jammies up to size 10, and I’m pretty sure Target sells adult-sized Chewbacca Onesies during the fall. I know because my brother David bought one for his Chewbacca costume last year, he looked awesome and ridiculous at the same time. 😉

Potterwookie Costume Mask

My brother also bought one of those awesome talking Chewbacca masks for his costume, so we just borrowed it for our Potterwookiee costume. It’s the super fun one that talks, you know the one the Chewbacca lady made famous. A talking Chewbacca mask isn’t necessary, though, a regular Chewbacca mask will work just fine.

You can permanently alter the mask for Potterwookiee with a black marker or paint. We opted to fashion his glasses and lightening scar out of black duct tape since we were borrowing the mask. Remember it’s easier to cut duct tape when it’s attached to parchment paper.

Potterwookiee Costume Robe

I thrifted a gray cardigan (instead of a robe), it was the perfect color gray and long enough to be a robe on Quinn. I cut it down the middle because Potterwookiee only wears 1/2 of a robe. I added a dark gray patch of fleece to the pocket. Fusion tape or a hot glue gun are my favorite no-sew costume options.

I also added a patch of gold and maroon duct tape. The patch in the picture is fairly nondescript but wanting to be as authentic as possible, I blew up a copy of the book cover and printed it out. I used the template to trace the patch design as close as possible. You could DIY a patch with felt too, I just like working with duct tape.

We cut off the extra sleeve (from the discarded half of the robe) at the elbow for him to wear on his left arm. Then he wore tall gray socks on this legs.

Add a Gryffindor scarf and wand and you are all set. We had a wand from our visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios earlier this year. It looks pretty easy to DIY a wand, though.

If you have a Creature From My Closet fan at home too, don’t miss my DIY Potterwookiee shirt! Stay tuned for Elliot’s Lord in the Hat costume, also a crazy creature from the same book series!

Easy Cat Burglar Costume

byKaren•October 10, 2016

I’m partnering with Snazaroo today to share an adorable Halloween costume that is easy to put together and features Snazaroo face paint. I don’t wear a lot of makeup, so I wasn’t sure how well it would turn out. It was my first experience with using face paint and I’m happy to report that it turned out super cute. Check out our easy DIY cat burglar costume.

The costume itself is so easy to put together with items we already owned. Elliot already had a black shirt, black pants, and black shoes in his closet. We also had a cat costume accessory kit with the cat ears and tail in our dress up box. I only had to buy the black knit cap and a burlap runner that I turned into his loot bag.

Painting his face with a cat nose, cat whiskers and burglar mask using Snazaroo’s black face paint was super easy. I started with a black nose and whiskers. I used the paint brush that came with our kit and a little water to moisten the black paint.

Then I drew a mask outline around his eyes and filled it in. I kept the mask on the smaller side, just around his eyes so that it didn’t interfere in his cat face. Check out the Snazaroo website for more elaborate face painting tutorials and ideas. I love the pumpkin mask idea!

Snazaroo has a wide range of colors, glitters, and stencils that parents can use to easily recreate a spooky look for Halloween or a more fun look for birthday parties or playdates. It’s easy to “Paint a Smile” this Halloween.

Snazaroo Face Paint is washable which means I could use a wet cotton swab to correct any slight mistakes I made as I created the cat burglar face. While the paint cleaned up easily, I was surprised how well it stayed on too. Elliot opted to wear his costume and face paint after our photo shoot last weekend, and it lasted all day. Then it easily washed off in the shower that night with a wet washcloth. I was honestly surprised how easy it was to work with and clean off afterwards. I wouldn’t hesitate to us it again on for another costume design.

Snazaroo’s Non-Toxic Face Paint Kit is recommended for kids 3+ and is available on Amazon. Their face paint is made in the UK with FDA approved ingredients. It’s suitable for sensitive skin because it’s paraben and fragrance-free, and it’s fully compliant with US and EU toy and cosmetic regulations.

Follow Snazaroo Online | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

BFG Costume

byKaren•July 20, 2016

Who’s ready for another fun costume? As soon as we started watching The BFG in the theater last month, I knew I wanted to make a Big Friendly Giant costume. The BFG costume is my favorite kind of costume because that can be pulled together inexpensively depending upon what you have on hand or can borrow.

Big Friendly Giant Costume Essentials

White or cream shirt
Brown leather vest
Green pants
Big ears
Dream catching net

BFG Costume Shirt

For the BFG’s shirt, I wanted to find a rough peasant style/linen shirt. I love this baby muslin shirt but it wouldn’t work for us since I was making the costume for Quinn. For adults or older kids, this cotton shirt is a pretty good match. I ended up finding a thin button-up shirt at a thrift store that I made work. It was $4 so a total win for me.

The shirt already had a Mandarin style collar. I removed the buttons and added velcro using a glue gun like I did for the Prince Charming costume shirt. The BFG shirt was actually easier since I didn’t need to add any decorative buttons to the front. I left about 2 inches at the top velcro free so the shirt would stay open near the neck.

Our shirt also had a front pocket which isn’t ideal but the vest ends up covering most of it up. Roll the sleeves up the elbow and you’re done!

BFG Costume Vest

The big friendly giant wears a distressed brown leather vest. We had no one to borrow a brown vest from so I ended up making one out of duct tape. You could get lucky and find something at a thrift store or splurge on something like this leather vest online.

To make the vest I decided to cover a safety vest from the dollar store in brown duct tape. Last year when I made the Inside Out Fear costume, I attempted a vest template which worked ok but I figured just covering an existing vest would be easier.

The safety vest was a one-size fits a very big adult, so I had to modify it a little first. I had Quinn try on the vest and then I folded and taped it in place to make it fit better. Once I had the vest sized down, I started covering the entire vest, front and back in strips of duct tape. I ended up using 1 1/2 rolls of brown duct tape.

I added an oversized tan button to the front of the vest with a hot glue gun and then put a strip of brown duct tape on it to mimic the button on the BFG’s vest.

Big Friendly Giant Costume Pants

Quinn already owned a pair of green cargo/khaki style pants that worked well. I did roll the legs up a bit but that was all I had to modify.

Big Friendly Giant Dream Catching Net

The fishing net we borrowed had a short handle, so I attached a stick to it to make it a little longer.

Big Friendly Giant Ears

The BFG ears were rather easy to make using this awesome tutorial I found. All you need is flesh colored felt, a headband, and a hot glue gun. You could also just buy a set of large costume ears.

Additional BFG Costume Ideas

If you want to portray the BFG as he roams London, you could also wear a hooded robe and carry a long trumpet. You can also skip all the DIY work and just buy a premade kid costume.

Don’t miss these other fun BFG ideas:

Finding Dory Costume: Hank the Octopus

byKaren•June 11, 2016

Everyone loves Nemo and Dory but I am super excited to meet some of their new friends in Finding Dory. Hank, their octopus friend caught my eye in the previews. I couldn’t wait to create a Finding Dory costume, a Hank the octopus costume.

Note Hank is actually a septopus because lots one of his tentacles along the way. You could totally drop one of his arms in this costume for authenticity if you like. 😉

This octopus costume is another hoodie costume. I find sweatshirt hoodie costumes really easy to make because I get a solid color base and a hood to create the upper details like a hat, hair or face. I happen to find the perfect red hoodie for this project at a local thrift store. It’s perfect because it was an XL women’s sweatshirt, this costume requires an oversized sweatshirt because of its design. It also didn’t have a front pocket which is unusual. In fact I can’t even find one like it on Amazon to suggest, as an alternative I think a red hoodie with side pockets would be a decent alternative.

Hank the Octopus Finding Dory Costume Materials

Red hoodie – at least a few sizes larger than the costume wearer
Black, light blue and white felt
White duct tape
Stuffing material

An octopus has 8 arms, the sweatshirt arms will become 2 of them. We need to create 6 more arms with the rest of the sweatshirt. Start by cutting along the side hem, stopping an inch short of the armpit on each side. Now cut the front section into three even strips and the back section into three even strips.

These 6 strips will be sewn into tubes to create the rest of the octopus arms. Fold each strip in half and sew up the side to create a tube. Stuff each tube with pillow stuffing and then sew up the tops. I did this all by hand, if you have access to a sewing machine, this would be a super quick step.

I used white duct tape to create my suction cups. Draw template circles onto parchment paper and tape a strip of white duct tape to one side. The parchment paper allows you to 1) Use a template for your duct tape design, 2) Easily cut through the duct tape and 3) The duct tape peels off the parchment paper easily.

Stick the white circles onto the back of each arm. They stuck fairly well for me but you could make them more permanent by hot gluing the on.

I created Hank’s eyes out of felt. I hot glued the eyes together but then sewed the eyes onto the hood. I wasn’t sure about the final placement, so I didn’t want to use hot glue for the final step. I think either method works well for this part of the process.

It’s definitely a silly costume but those are my favorite kind.

I love that it turned out pretty cute and it didn’t require much money or skill.

Who is your favorite Finding Dory character?

Easy DIY Snow White Prince Costume

byKaren•February 1, 2016

After the success of our DIY Prince Charming costume last year, I was itching to try another royal creation. I almost recreated my Prince Charming costume in blue and silver, like the prince in the new Cinderella movie. Instead, I opted to make a totally different prince costume, an Easy DIY Snow White prince costume just in time for the release of Snow White on Blu-ray. Who says princesses have all the fun?!?

Looking for a prince costume alternative to Prince Charming? How about an easy DIY Snow White Prince costume!

This is another costume that utilized a lot of material/pieces we already had on hand. In fact, just like our Jake & the Neverland Pirate costumes, I upcycled a blue Amazon gift bag for part of this costume. If you don’t hoard weird things like me, then you’ll have to substitute navy blue material of some sort.

Easy DIY Snow White Prince Costume Materials

Royal blue pants
White button down shirt
1 yard of dark red fleece
Brown/gold cord or ribbon
2 small button pins
Navy blue material (I upcycled an Amazon gift bag for this part)
Gold duct tape
Brown leather belt
Short “knightly” sword
Boots

With a base of blue pants, a white shirt, a brown belt and boots, there are only 2 key pieces you need to make: the red cloak and blue tunic with gold trim.

**Want to download a printable copy of this tutorial? Check out my costume ebooks.**

No-Sew Tunic for Snow White Prince Costume

I turned the extra large, blue Amazon gift bag into the Snow White Prince tunic. I didn’t have a pattern so I just used one of Elliot’s vest, to roughly cut out the shape. Make sure you fold your fabric, so you only have to cut out the shape once. After having him try it on, I trimmed it to the right length.

Gold trim on blue sheath for Snow White Prince costume

I finished the edges of the tunic with gold duct tape. I tried to keep the width of the trim consistent as I went along the edge. The curved edges will require smaller sections of gold tape as you try and angle the tape to match the curve.

No-Sew Cloak for Snow White Prince Costume

Snow White’s prince wears a red cloak, not a cape which to me is a much fuller garment. My satiny no-sew superhero cape wouldn’t really look right so I hunted around online for another idea. I found this awesome video with an easy technique for creating a no-sew cloak out of fleece. Basically, once you have the fleece cut to length you fold over the top edge about a inch or so and cut small slits along the edge every 1 inch. Then weave your cord through the slits and the material will gather at the neck when you pull the cord.

Cloak detail for Snow White Prince Costume

The prince has a pendant of sorts on his cloak, I tried to mimic it using a couple of button pins I had and gold duct tape. I started by covering two old buttons with gold duct tape. After determining a good length to leave the cloak cord, I knotted the cord to the pin of one button. I placed the other button on the back side, sandwiching the end of the cord inside. A thin strip of gold tape then finished off the edge of the pendant.

That’s it! After snapping a few ~~hundred~~ pictures, 😉 Elliot asked if he could play outside in the costume. That defines a win for me, an adorable costume that he also wants to play in!

Go ahead and Pin this now, you know you want to! 🙂

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Printable BB-8 Costume For Your Elf

byKaren•December 6, 2015

This post should come as no surprise to my regular readers, we love BB-8 and costumes. It just makes sense to combine the two and make our elf his own BB-8 costume. I thought about making it similar to E’s BB-8 Halloween costume but wasn’t sure I wanted to commit a lot of time to an elf costume right now.

Lucky for me Disney just sent over an awesome packet of Star Wars: The Force Awakens coloring pages and activities. I was able to utilize the BB-8 Bookmark page to create this fun BB-8 costume for our elf, Honey Pickle.

Print BB-8 costume template at 80% to fit the Chistopher Popinkins Elf. You might need to adjust the size for the creepy more popular elf on the shelf. 😉 Then just cut around the BB-8 shape and use a toothpick or craft knife to create two small holes on the side for the string. I had orange and white baker’s twine that worked great, I left it a little long and just wrapped it around the elf’s arms to attach the costume.

Are you ready for your own BB-8 Elf Costume? Download the printable below:

Click here to download your own elf BB-8 Costume!

Don’t miss the Baymax elf costume from last year!

DIY Star Wars Costume Ideas

byKaren•November 23, 2015

We’ve done the Star Wars Halloween theme before but we couldn’t help repeating it this year with the much-anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens arriving in theaters next month. Everything Star Wars has been in Hyperdrive for months and fun Halloween ideas is no exception. The highlight of our party is always the costumes, this year was no exception. Check out our Star Wars Costume Ideas. I’ve included links for your convenience, but most of the costumes are DIY or semi-homemade with just a few purchased accessories.

Han Solo and Chewbacca are definitely two of my favorite Star Wars characters. My sister-in-law borrowed some of my DIY Han Solo Costume, she wasn’t running a race so she opted for dark blue jeans and also remade my gun belt using felt (I used craft foam). The jeans were a great choice but I’d recommend sticking to craft foam for the gun belt because the felt on her belt kept stretching out as she wore it. Check out my Han Solo Costume Tutorial for all the details including the perfect Han Solo shirt I found on Amazon!

My brother went with an easy Chewbacca look, with a Chewbacca Union Suit and a fun talking Chewbacca mask.

Easy Ewok Costume

My other sister-in-law came up with a super cute, and easy Ewok costume. I think most people think brown and orange for Ewoks but they really were a wide variety of neutral color combinations. Her gray and black ears are actually from a racoon costume kit and worked well with clothes she already had in her closet. Her hood is actually an infinity scarf which worked really well over her ears. They scored a big stick while landscaping her yard!

DIY Yoda Costume

My brother had already invested in a cool Yoda mask years ago. He finished his costume with neutral clothes including a large terrycloth bathrobe and Yoda hands. His walking stick is another one from their yard.

Boba Fett Costume

Peter wanted an easy costume this year, so we bought a Boba Fett costume shirt and paired it with a Boba Fett helmet the boys already had in their costume box. I wanted to make DIY jetpack for him to wear, but I ran out of time.

Darth Vader Costume

Quinn’s costume Darth Vader costume was the easiest, we just added a light saber, and black gloves to to deluxe (but reasonably priced) Darth Vader costume we found online. We also picked up a fun Darth Vader sound effects device, just push a button and it sounds like Darth Vader breathing!

Our Emporer only wore the Emperor mask with a black t-shirt and jeans. I’d suggest all black clothes, black robe and a staff to complete the look. Creepy old hands would also be a fun touch.

My mom loves dressing up to scare the boys, so she asked Elliot who he was most scared of in Star Wars. The “yeti” was his response… also known as the Wampa. She didn’t scare them as much as her Joker costume a few years ago, but Elliot refused to get any closer to her in this picture. 😉

DIY Star Wars Wampa Costume

Wampa knit hat (We bought ours at Star Traders in Disneyland)
White fur coat (An amazing thrift store find)
White jumpsuit (My mom bought a Princess Leia jammie suit and we covered up the few silver details with white duct tape)
Black press on nails for claws (dollar store find)
White face paint
Red solo cup and red duct tape to recreate the bloody limb (after Luke chops off one arm while escaping his ice cave)

DIY Jawa Costume

These Jawa costumes are super impressive, and all DIY! The robes are made from flat brown sheets and a glue gun using a pattern online (I’ll add a link if I can). The glowing eye masks were amazing. They started with hockey masks and covered them with black felt. Then they drilled small holes under their eyes and inserted tea lights. The gun was a just cardboard and a black marker. She used an overhead projector to accurately create it from an image she found online. One of the bandoliers was just a belt they already owned, the other one was made using butcher paper, cardboard, glue and a marker! The easy route would be this Jawa costume but honestly, I LOVE the homemade nature and frugalness of these Jawa costumes!!

Obi-Wan is a neutral clothes paired with a Jedi robe and Light Saber. Easy Peasy! I went as Princess Leia on Hoth again. However, I think this version is much better. The base of the costume is pretty easy to pull off, just off-white pants, shirt and vest. I went ahead and created the patch (using duct tape) for the vest. My hair is pretty long right now, so I was able to make two braids and pin it up similar to how Leia wears it on Hoth. The easy Leia look is the Leia wig though.

It’s no surprise that my favorite costume of the night is our adorable BB-8 droid. It turned out way better than I expected. Sometimes I get these hairbrained ideas and they actually work out ok. Shocking!! Check out the full BB-8 costume tutorial for details but it’s basically it’s duct tape, a colander, and a paper lantern.

I can’t wait to see the new Star Wars movie next month. How many fun new costume ideas will Star Wars: The Force Awakens generate?!?

Charlie Brown Costume

byKaren•October 12, 2015

I’m sharing a super easy costume today, perfect for any Peanuts gang fan. A Charlie Brown costume made from a sweatshirt would make an easy Halloween costume or fun hoodie to wear when the new Peanuts Movie opens in theaters next month!

All you need is a yellow hoodie and black felt. I printed out a Charlie Brown shirt pattern I found online. There are tons available and you could even draw your own template fairly easily.

I used stich witch and ironed the black felt on to the front of the sweatshirt. You could also hot glue or stich it on.

In fact, I did sew “hair” to the top of the hood. The stitch witch material was wider than the hair so stitching just made sense. Hot glue would also work here. I didn’t use a template for Charlie Brown’s “hair,” I just freehanded the design following a picture of Charlie Brown I found online. I’m pretty happy with the result and given my lack of scissor skills, I am pretty sure anyone can duplicate this design.

Hmm now, do I have time to make Elliot a Snoopy one too?? 😉

More Sweatshirt Costume Ideas:

DIY Star Wars BB-8 Costume

byKaren•October 8, 2015

I’ve been brainstorming for months on how to create a Star Wars BB-8 Costume. Don’t know who he is? He’s the adorable new droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It’s ok if you don’t know who he is yet, the movie doesn’t open in theaters until December.

BB-8 is a droid that rolls, so the biggest challenge was creating his sphere shaped body. Our Baymax paper lantern caught my eye a few weeks ago and I decided a round paper lantern might be perfect for a BB-8 Costume. Even though I had moments of doubt while making it, I think BB-8 turned out much better than I anticipated.

Ideally a Chinese lantern made from fabric would be sturdier but they are harder to find and much pricier. I settled on a 24″ White Chinese Lantern from Amazon for under $8. We have a 12″ paper lantern in the boys bedroom so I used it to help estimated how big of a lantern I needed. For reference, this costume is for my 5 1/2-year-old (he’s ~43″ tall).

I started by cutting the top and bottom openings slightly larger so that my son could fit into the lantern. I used wire snippers to cut the wire frame and scissors to cut out one or two rings of paper from around the openings. To the keep it top and bottom from ripping, I reinforced the openings with white duct tape.

Paper lanterns are usually held open with a metal or plastic frame, but that won’t work if you want to fit someone inside the lantern too. My solution was to coat the inside of the paper lantern with white duct tape. The duct tape actually serves two purposes, it helps hold the paper lantern open and also makes the overall costume more durable. I went through 2 rolls of white duct tape!

You can take a peek at the process in this time-lapse video!

Once the sphere was prepped, it was time to cut out my BB-8 designs. Finding nice clean pictures to use was actually pretty hard. Hopefully better images will be released as we get closer to release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I found using images from the Sphero BB-8 Droid to be the best bet since it’s a very popular toy right now.

I enlarged 4 images as consistently as possible (i.e. making them similarly sized). Then I cut out each piece of the design and traced it onto parchment paper. Using the appropriate duct tape color, I covered each design completely before cutting the shape out. Scissors will easily cut through the parchment paper and then the duct tape design will slide right off the parchment paper, ready to be applied to the paper lantern.

I created straps using a long piece of white duct tape folded in half length wise. After Elliot tried it on a few times, I attached the straps to the BB-8 sphere using safety pins. Then I covered the pins with white duct tape.

BB-8 Costume Sphere Materials

24 ” white paper lantern
white duct tape
silver duct tape
orange duct tape
4 safety pins
parchment paper

The base of the BB-8 hat is a white colander from the 99 Cents Only store. I wrapped the entire thing in white duct tape to create a more solid and consistent base. I painted on the BB-8 designs using gray, orange, and black paint if I did it again I might try duct tape instead, but the paint worked well. I created the droids two “eyes” by cutting 2 craft foam balls in 1/2 (one large and one small) and covering both with black duct tape before using a glue gun to attach them to the hat.

BB-8 Hat Materials

Dollar store colander
wood dowels
white duct tape
black duct tape
white duct tape
grey, orange and black paint
foam or bubble wrap
foam spheres

Buy this Star Wars BB-8 Bike Helmet already made. 😉

I used wood dowels to create the BB-8 antennas, covering them first in duct tape. Using the colander as the hat base made it easy to attach the dowels. I used a pair of scissors to drill/widen two holes in the top, then I was able to push the dowels snuggly into the top. I added bubble wrap to line the inside of the helmet to help it fit more snuggly to Elliot’s head, similar to foam in a bike helmet. A white t-shirt completes the look.

I love this costume, it turned out so much better than I thought possible. I might doubt myself a bit. 😉 It’s light weight because of the paper lantern base but durable because it’s lined with white duct tape. To me it totally screams homemade Halloween costume in a really fun way.

Paper lanterns not your thing? Check out these other BB-8 costume ideas one from Mom Endeavors and one from All for the Boys.

More Star Wars Fun:

Inside Out Bing Bong Costume

byKaren•September 25, 2015

Don’t laugh. Promise you won’t laugh…Bing Bong is heartwarming ridiculous as Riley’s imaginary friend. My Inside Out Bing Bong costume is just as ridiculous. 😉

How To Make a Bing Bong Costume

That’s ok because Halloween is supposed to be silly and fun, right? Check out how I pieced my Bing Bong costume together. Most of my costume was homemade from resale shops or the dollar store! I have included a few amazon affiliate links to make things easier for you if you want to try and recreate it.

Bing Bong Dress & Jacket

Bing Bong is arguably the most loved character from Inside Out. My kids definitely thought he was awesome and so did I. Originally I thought the costume would be too hard to pull off but I honestly brainstorm costume ideas 24-7 most of the time. I just couldn’t shake the idea of a Bing Bong costume.

The project was a go after finding the perfect pink dress at a local resale shop. I needed a dress or a skirt in order to showcase his amazing striped legs. The dress was the right color, fairly comfortable and had pockets. It was perfect! I also found a short brown jacket at a resale shop. Bing Bong wears more of a sports coat but that would be way too hot to pull off in Arizona or for Mickey’s Halloween Party in California which is where I plan on wearing my costume.

Bing Bong Socks

In my attempt to be frugal and also get the “perfect” Bing Bong socks, I tried to make them. It was kind of a fail. Ok, a big fail. 😉 FYI – Fabric paint doesn’t apply or adhere well to tights.

My back up plan was these awesome striped socks from Amazon. They were my biggest splurge for the costume and totally worth it. I spent quite a bit of time searching for the right color combination and I think these socks are perfect!

Bing Bong Flower Pin

I shared my DIY Flower Lapel Pin last month before I committed to making a complete Bing Bong costume. I figured it would be a fun craft project for any Inside Out fan! It just takes an old button and some craft foam! It’s also a perfect addition to my Bing Bong Costume!

Bing Bong Bow Tie

I think my Bing Bong bow tie is the coolest part of the costume. Originally I searched and searched online for the perfect Bing Bong bow tie. Amazon has a big selection of purple polka dot bow ties. I almost bought one online but I found these amazing purple leggings with pink polka dots at the 99 Cents Only store. I figured I could make my own bow tie for much cheaper with them and I was right. Of course, much cheaper is relative and this DIY is also dependent upon finding the right materials. I definitely got lucky with this find.

You can find lots basic bow tie tutorials online but the gist of it is folding up a rectangular piece of material and then wrapping a strip of material around the middle to secure it together. I hand sewed my bow tie but a glue gun could work too. I also found a fabric headband that was the same shade of pink as my polka dots. I decided to make it a bow tie “necklace” by attaching the bow tie to the headband. This made my bow tie so much easier to make and also easy to wear, simply stretching the headband over my head. Both the leggings and headband were only $1 each!

Bing Bong Hat

I found tiny hats (with hair clips attached) in the costume section at the 99 Cents Only store. They had several colors but no brown so I made do with a black one. I took off the fancy embellishment and added a blue ribbon and green feather with a glue gun. It’s not perfect but I thought super cute for under $2! This brown one on amazon is also super cute.

Bing Bong Gloves

I already owned a pair of fingerless knit gloves. They aren’t perfect but I dig ‘free’ any day of the week. I think these gloves on amazon are perfect but buying a pair of $1 knit gloves and cutting off the fingertips would be cheaper!

I ALMOST attempted a purple raccoon tail but decided it wasn’t a necessary costume accessory. I didn’t find any purple tails online but you might be able to dye the light stripes of this raccoon tail and make it work. Instead, my tennis shoes bring in a pop of purple to the costume.

DIY Bing Bong Costume Costs

In total, my Bing Bong costume cost about $35 to make. A little pricer than I would have liked but half the items were actually purchased using credit at a resale shop, so really it was under $20 cash.

Dress $9 – Resale shop
Jacket $8 – Resale shop
Socks – $12 – Amazon
Hat – $2 – Dollar store supplies
Flower Pin $2 – Dollar store supplies
Bow Tie $2 – Dollar store supplies
Fingerless Gloves – Mine (because I am that awesome 😉 )
Purple Tennis Shoes – Mine

More Inside Out Costume Ideas:

Have you picked out a Halloween costume yet?

Bing Bong Costume Flower Pin

byKaren•August 20, 2015

I’m on an Inside Out roll after creating homemade Anger and Fear costumes. The boys next request is for Bing Bong. Riley’s imaginary friend, Bing Bong is definitely my favorite character from the movie. I MIGHT be creating a Bing Bong Costume but his crazy colorful attire scares me a little, what if I can’t pull it off?!?

So I’m starting with a simple project, something you would need for a Bing Bong Costume or even for a Bing Bong disneybound. Bing Bong’s flower lapel pin is super easy to make with just a few inexpensive supplies.

Bing Bong Flower Pin Supplies

Small button pin
Foam craft sheets: dark green, light green, yellow, orange, red, pink and light blue
Glue gun
Scissors
Pencil

I started by pulling up an image of Bing Bong on my computer and and zooming in until the flower was the size of the flower pin I wanted to create. Then I created a petal template using the image. Once I had a petal shape I liked, I used it to cut a petal out of each color except dark green. Cut a circle out of the dark green foam for the center of the flower.

Arrange the petals on the pin first, to make sure you like the design before you start hot gluing them on. Note the color order of Bing Bong’s pin as well.

The last step is to hot glue the green circle on the center of the pin.

That’s it. I made two of them in under 10 minutes.

The pin was easy enough to make. Should I try and make a Bing Bong costume? Do you think I am up to the challenge?!?

DIY Fear from Inside Out Costume

byKaren•July 24, 2015

You knew it was coming. I couldn’t make Quinn a new costume and not make one for Elliot. Quinn’s Anger Inside Out costume turned out awesome but I think I might like the Fear Inside Out costume a tiny bit more. And don’t miss my crazy Bing Bong costume.

I love that both costumes only require simple materials, some of which you may have on hand but all should be easy to find. My only struggle for the Fear costume was the purple knit cap. Finding a beanie in Arizona in the summer is almost ridiculous. 😉 So I ordered it on Amazon (I included affiliate links below for your convenience). I bought the duct tape at Michael’s with 40% off coupons and we already had the shorts and felt at home. I found a Carters blue and white striped shirt at a thrift store, it was fate and only $2.99! Bonus is that it’s a nice shirt that he can use for school pictures this year.

DIY Fear from Inside Out Costume Materials

Purple knit cap
black, white and purple felt
Houndstooth duct tape
Maroon/Merlot duct tape
purple sparkly pipe cleaner
ribbon
hair clip
blue and white striped button down shirt
blue pants or shorts
glue gun
hole punch
Fear template

Fear Hat

Start by printing out a copy of the Fear template. I printed it at 165%, to make the eyes exaggerated like in the film.

Start with the eyes and cut out using the white felt. I like using double-sided tape to keep the template secure to the felt when cutting it out. Then work inwards, cutting out the purple eye balls, black pupils and black eyebrows. Then hot glue it all together.

I actually pinned the eyes on the hat first to adjust the placement before hot gluing it in place. The final touch is adding the purple pipe cleaner through the top of the hat. I covered the end of the pipe cleaner with a piece of duct tape so it wouldn’t poke Elliot’s head.

Fear Vest & Bow Tie

Now technically you could buy a tie and vest. I saw a few houndstooth vest options for adults on amazon but they are pretty pricey and I needed a kid sized one for Elliot. I did find a cute maroon bow tie at a reasonable price but I figured if I had to make a duct tape vest, I could make a duct tape bow tie too.

I started by making a vest template out of newspaper. If you own a vest already, you could just use that as a template instead. Adjust the sides and size until it fits good.

Now make yourself some duct tape fabric. Basically you layer strips of duct tape, slightly overlapping each one until you get the size you need. Then repeat the process in a perpendicular pattern on top, so that you have double-sided duct tape fabric.

I ended up running short on my houndstooth duct tape and because I was crafting in the mountains, far away from a craft store I opted to make the back of the vest with the merlot duct tape I bought for the bow tie. Once you cut out your vest pieces from the “fabric” using your template, tape it together with extra tape.

At this point you will want to adjust the vest with tape and scissors to make it fit properly. This vest opens in the back rather than in the front, I wanted to match the look of the character’s vest but keep it easy for Elliot to put on. The vest was stiff enough to stay on by itself but to be safe I punched two holes on either side of the back and used ribbon to keep it tied together.

To make the bow tie, make another piece of duct tape fabric out of maroon/merlot colored duct tape. Fan fold the duct tape fabric like an accordion then taped the center of it to create the bow tie shape. I used a small piece of duct tape to attach a simple hair clip on the back.

I think it turned out pretty cute, don’t you?

And the best part it was a really inexpensive project. I spent $6 on two rolls of duct tape (remember I used 40% off coupons) + $3 on the long sleeved shirt at a thrift store + $5 for the knit cap. We already had the colored felt, pipe cleaner and shorts, so the entire project was only $14. I think that’s quite a deal on a super cute costume!

Ok Anger and Fear are done… I’m tempted to make one for myself. Maybe Inside Out should our family costume theme for Mickey’s Halloween Party!