Halloween is almost upon us and if you haven’t got your outfit sorted don’t panic. These 4 DIY costumes are easy to make and perfect for a Halloween full of thrills and chills. 

• Ghost
• Skeleton
• Strawberry
• Zombie bride

Ghost

Let’s start easy. A ghost costume is incredibly easy to achieve, very comfortable, and requires limited supplies. 

To make a ghost costume you will need…

• A white sheet
• Scissors 
• Light coloured hat
• Pen or pencil
• Safety pins 
• Black marker 

To begin making your ghost costume place your light coloured hat on your head. If your hat has a brim you must either cut it off or wear your hat backwards so that it doesn’t get in the way. 

Next, drape your white sheet over your head so that it’s laying evenly over your body. If your sheet is slightly too long, get a friend to use a pen to mark the excess fabric to a comfortable length. Whilst you are still wearing the sheet, get your friend to mark where the top of your head is, and use your fingers to demonstrate where your eyes are, marking them as well. 

Once the appropriate areas have been marked, take your sheet off. Use one safety pin to attach your hat to your sheet using the mark in the centre of the head. Use your remaining safety pins to make sure that the hat is secured to the sheet. 

With your scissors cut eye holes where they were marked. Once you have cut your eye holes, use your black marker to draw around them, making them more defined. You can also use your black maker to draw a nose and mouth if you wish. 

Finally, use your scissors to cut the excess fabric at the bottom of the sheet. For a more ghoulishly looking ghost, cut your fabric in a haphazard manner rather than in a straight line. You are now ready to put your costume on and enjoy a day of tricks and lots of treats. 

Skeleton 

If you are looking for a costume with a bit more body to it, why not go as a skeleton? 

To make a skeleton costume you will need… 

• White masking tape 
• Black clothing to cover your top and bottom half

To begin making your skeleton costume lay out your black clothing on a flat surface. Make sure that your clothes are adequately spread out so that you can see the whole garment. 

Create your skeleton by tearing off strips of masking tape of various lengths and sticking them to your black clothes. Your skeleton doesn’t have to be accurate, so don’t worry too much about getting the lengths and placement of the tape right. Make sure that you have covered the general areas, such as your arms, legs, and torso, before putting your costume on. 

To add to your slinky skeleton look you can paint your face to look like a skeleton using black and white face paint. Alternatively, you can print out a mask of a skeleton for an equally frightening look. 

Strawberry

Halloween costumes don’t always have to be scary. Go as something sweeter, and easy to make, like a strawberry. 

To make a strawberry costume you will need… 

• Red clothing, ideally a dress
• White felt
• Long cylinder can (a crisp can will do)
• Green cardboard
• Pencil
• A stretchy headband
• Scissors 
• Hot glue gun 

To begin making your strawberry costume, use your scissors to cut out lots of small teardrop shapes from your white felt. To make this step faster, layer 2 or 3 sheets of felt and cut through them at the same time. These teardrop shapes will be the seeds of your strawberry. 

Once you have finished cutting out your shapes, lay out your red clothing on a flat surface, making sure that you can see the whole garment. Using a hot glue gun, glue your felt shapes to your red clothing in a random pattern, making sure that your whole garment is covered. Once you have glued your white felt down, set your red clothing to one side to dry. 

Whilst your clothing is drying, you can make your leafy headpiece. To begin creating your headpiece use a pencil to trace the shape of 2 different sized leaves on your green cardboard. Ideally you want 4 large leaves and 5 or 6 slightly smaller leaves. Once you have drawn all of your leaves, use your scissors to cut them out. To make your strawberry leaves look more realistic, use your fingers to gently pinch the base of each leaf and slide your fingers up to the tip. This will create a gentle curl. 

Your can will be the base of your hat, so make sure that it is a comfortable height to place on your head. Use your glue gun to glue the biggest leaves around the can. Next, use the second biggest leaves to fill in the gaps in between the big leaves, making sure that you can no longer see the can. To finish off your headpiece, stick your headband to your can by making a line of hot glue at the base of your can.

Once your headband is secured you can shimmy your strawberry outfit on, and top it off with your leafy headpiece for more of a treat than a trick. 

Zombie bride

We’ve all heard of bridezilla, well this costume is bridezilla if she were dead. Luckily, this outfit is a lot easier to put together than a wedding, so hopefully there won’t be any meltdowns. 

To make a zombie bride costume you will need… 

• A white dress 
• White veil (not essential but a nice touch)
• Moisturiser
• Light shade of foundation
• White powder
• Light blue eyeshadow
• Smokey eye eyeshadow palette
• Black pencil eyeliner
• Black mascara

A zombie bride look is less about the outfit and more about the makeup. That being said, to achieve the bridal look you will need a white dress and a veil. To make your zombie look really come to life, cover your dress in black makeup or any product that will make it look dirty. You may also want to tear the bottom of your dress to zombiefy it. 

To make your zombie bride come alive, begin by smoothing moisturiser into your face. Add the lightest shade of foundation that you can find on top of your moisturiser, blending it in until smooth. Once smooth, add white powder to your face, giving yourself a very pale complexion. To add to the undead look, blend a light blue eyeshadow into your makeup, giving your skin a blueish grey tone.  

Next, use a smokey eye eyeshadow palette to add colour to your eyes, cheeks, and forehead. Use a combination of purple, pink, red, and black eyeshadow underneath your eyes to make dark circles, making sure to blend the colours together with a brush. Use a black eyeshadow to highlight your cheekbones and wrinkles on your forehead, blending the lines slightly to give you a more dead-like look. 

With a black pencil eyeliner, heavily line the lids of your eyes, using your fingers to smudge the eyeliner into your skin. For added effect, use the eyeliner on your lashline, smudging that as well. This will create the effect of sunken eyes.  

Finally, finish the look by applying a heavy amount of mascara to your bottom lashes. Use your mascara brush to clump some of your lashes together, in a messy, haphazard way. 

With your dress on and makeup done, you are ready to head out into the world to find your groom… dead or alive. 

At Laundryheap there are no tricks, only treats. Whilst you have fun creating mischief on Halloween, we will pick-up, launder, and redeliver your clothing to you. Simply head to the Laundryheap website or download the free Laundryheap app to book your order today.