Most of these creative costume ideas can be put together with things you have on hand. If you don’t have all the items you need, head to the local thrift store that sells clothing. You can usually find just about anything you need for a costume at the fraction of the new cost. Long dresses, funky pants, hats, gloves, weird patterns, stuff you wouldn’t normally wear; lots of things to put together creative costumes. Don’t forget garage sales and toy departments are great places to look for items for a great outfit.
Pirates
Always popular, a pirate costume is easy to put together with things you have around the house.
- White Shirts (although any color works)
- Pants, dark colored or old jeans. These can be tight or baggy, rolled up or cuffed to the knee or even cut up with ragged edges.
- Long skirts. Black is good but, again, any color will do.
- Vests make a good addition to a pirate costume. If you have a traditional vest in your closet, you can make it look more pirate-like by taking off the buttons. Red or black or gray vests look best.
- Boots always enhance a pirate’s look and you can use just about any brown, black or even hiking boots for the outfit.
- Bandanas or Hats. Red or black bandanas can be tied on your head and worn without a hat. Inexpensive pirate hats are easy to find.
- Sashes and Belts can be tied around your waist. Any silky or colored material, especially red or black, works well. Stripes are nice. Or a big brown or black belt.
- Eye patches can be purchased very inexpensively.
Witch Costume
One of the easiest outfits to make, witches are always popular for adults and children. The pointed hat is traditional, but not always necessary.
- Good makeup and hair, accomplished with some creative eye shadow (blue works well) and dark red lips can turn you into a good or bad witch. Tease the hair by back-combing and add hair spray for a witchy effect.
- Capes can be bought or made with dark colored fabric, even a table cloth can turn into a witch-cape in a pinch, dark green or blue works well. A plastic black table cloth is good too.
- Long or knee-length dress or skirt and top in black or dark blue is great. Even a long black t-shirt
- Plastic witch hats are available very cheap if you want to add one. These can be decorated with ribbon or cloth or sparkles.
- A wand can be made from just about anything, like a painted stick or ruler decorated with glitter
- A spooky necklace with a plastic spider ring tied to a ribbon or a piece of cardboard cut out in any shape (star, moon, cat) and painted or glittered and worn on a ribbon or string.
- Add your house broom if you like.
Cat Costume
- A leotard (black or any color) and tights for a girl or black pants and shirt for a boy
- Add a pair of store bought-ears and you have a cat.
- Use inexpensive eye pencil to color the tip of the nose and draw whiskers. If you want to add a tail, that’s fine too but not necessary.
- For little ones, carrying a stuff mouse adds to the effect.
Devil Costume
- A black or red leotard for a girl, black shirt and pants for a boy.
- Add an inexpensive tail; devil horns can be added for a quick , throw-together costume.
- Dark red lips, heavy eye makeup, even a "red face" can be painted on.
Vampire Costume
With the popularity of Twilight and other vampire movies, vampire costumes are big. Even if you don't want to sparkle, a few tried and true vampire pieces make short work of this idea.
- Black cape
- White fang teeth (available at any major retailer or super-store)
- Lipstick and eyeliner
If you have time and wear contact lenses (or even if you don't), it is possible to wear special effect contact lenses like the ones in movies like Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse.
Get creative! Look through your closet for things that aren’t worn any more and you might be surprised what you can come up with. Or with just a few purchased items, you can create some unique costumes that don’t cost very much at all.
Elizabeth Richards - Elizabeth Richards has published almost 200 articles for Suite101 since 2007 as a Contributing and Feature Writer.
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