Easy DIY Halloween Costumes for Kids From Stuff You Own

The easiest Halloween costumes for kids start in the wardrobe, not the shop: find the colour your child owns most of, then pick the character that colour already is. All-black clothes are a cat, a bat or a spider. White is a ghost or a mummy. Orange is a pumpkin. Add one prop made from a cereal box, a hairband or face paint and you are done in twenty minutes for next to nothing. The one thing a homemade outfit needs that a shop one doesn’t is flame sense, because ordinary clothes aren’t tested the way costumes are.

Same trick as World Book Day, easier colours

If you have survived a World Book Day, you already know the method: you don’t choose the costume and then go shopping, you look in the drawers and then choose the character they contain. My no-sew World Book Day costumes run on exactly that rule. Halloween is easier: three colours, characters recognisable from one silhouette and one prop, and nobody at the door asking which book you’re from.

The kit: a cereal box, a plain hairband, safety pins, tape, a black marker, face paint made for skin, and a torch.

Start with the black drawer

1. Black cat. Two card triangles taped to a hairband, whiskers and a nose in face paint. For the tail, stuff one leg of old black tights with odd socks and safety-pin it to the back of the waistband, short enough that it doesn’t drag. The single most reliable costume on this list.

2. Bat. Cut two scalloped wings from a flattened cereal box, colour them black, and safety-pin the top edge along the underside of each sleeve of a black hoodie, so they open when the arms go out. Small card ears on a hairband.

3. Spider. Black top and leggings, then two pairs of old black tights stuffed with socks and pinned down each side as the extra legs. Draw a few extra eyes on the forehead in face paint.

4. Witch or wizard. Any dark dressing gown is a cloak — same trick as the World Book Day wizard. Roll a card cone for the hat and tape it closed. Garden twigs tied to a short stick beat carrying the real broom round the estate.

5. Vampire. Dark trousers, the white school shirt, and a dark dressing gown with a stand-up card collar pinned inside the neck. Pale face paint and two small fangs painted just under the bottom lip. No plastic teeth, so they can still eat the sweets.

Then the white drawer

6. Sheet ghost. The classic, with two rules. Cut the hem above the ankles, because a ghost that trips on a front step ends the night early. And mark the eye holes with the sheet on — a finger on each eye, then cut generous holes — rather than guessing flat on the floor. For under-fives, a white hoodie with the hood up and a painted ghost face is the version that stays on.

7. Skeleton. Black top and leggings, with bones cut from white card (or card coloured white) and safety-pinned on — a spine, four ribs a side, one bone per arm and leg section. Pin rather than stick: tape on fabric leaves a residue you’ll be scrubbing in November.

8. Mummy. Tear an old white pillowcase into strips and pin them flat in spirals over white or grey clothes. Every loose end gets pinned down. Trailing strips are the part that snags on railings and, worse, reaches the pumpkin.

Orange, green, and whatever is clean

9. Pumpkin. Any orange top, a curly green card stalk on a hairband, and a face of black card triangles pinned on the tummy. Not frightening at all, which is why toddlers keep it on.

10. Frankenstein’s monster. Green top if you have one, an oversized coat (yours works), green face paint, and two card “bolts” taped either side of a hairband.

11. Scarecrow. Checked shirt, jeans, card patches pinned on the knees, painted freckles and a sunhat. Skip the loose straw. Dry straw is about the last thing I’d pin to a child who’ll be standing next to lit pumpkins.

12. Zombie. Clothes already in the charity-shop bag, scuffed and creased on purpose, with grey face paint and dark shadows under the eyes.

13. Zombie version of last year’s World Book Day costume. Wally, a pirate or a Dalmatian all become their undead selves with grey face paint and messy hair, and the costume is already made.

14. A glow-stick skeleton for trick-or-treating. Dark clothes with glow sticks taped along the arms and legs in bone shapes. Useful on a dark street.

For toddlers: not scary, not fiddly

In my house, small children react to faces before anything else, which is why my not-scary Halloween crafts keep the faces friendly even when the shapes are spooky. Costumes work the same way: a black cat is fine, their own face painted as a grey zombie in the mirror can end the evening. Skip masks entirely — they cut down what a child can see, and toddlers pull them off inside two minutes anyway. Plan for twenty minutes of wear, not the whole evening.

The safety bit: homemade needs more flame sense, not less

The London Fire Brigade put it plainly in its 2025 costume warning, quoting the British Toy and Hobby Association: “unlike normal clothing, children’s costumes must meet toy flammability requirements.” So a costume made from everyday clothes has never been tested the way a shop costume has, and RoSPA’s fancy-dress advice warns that homemade costumes “may ignite easily and burn quicker”.

That doesn’t make buying automatically safer. The same Brigade page says the Office for Product Safety and Standards tested 128 children’s costumes bought from online marketplaces in 2024, and just over 20 per cent failed the flammability standards. If you do buy, RoSPA says to check for a UKCA or UKNI mark on the label, and the Brigade adds: check who the actual seller is.

Either way, the fix is the same, and it is about the flames rather than the fabric:

• Battery tealights in the pumpkins. RoSPA says not to carry pumpkins with lit candles inside and to consider battery-operated candles instead. The Brigade suggests flameless LED candles or glow sticks, and says a child in costume shouldn’t carry candles or sparklers.
• Nothing trailing, nothing below the ankle. Tails, capes and mummy strips are pinned short.
• Be seen. RoSPA suggests something reflective, such as a reflective strip, plus a torch. An all-black cat on an unlit street needs this more than anyone.

What it costs, honestly

If you own the base clothes, close to nothing. The spend is a hairband, safety pins and face paint, and I would much rather put the money into decent face paint than a polyester outfit worn for two hours. Whatever’s left in the budget goes on the evening: my Halloween party food post does a spread from the normal food shop, and if you fancy picking the pumpkins yourselves, my guide to pumpkin patches near London has the real costs. When the costumes are on and the party needs filling, Betteroo has a long list of Halloween party games that need nothing but the living room.

FAQ

What is the easiest Halloween costume for a child?

A black cat. Black clothes they already own, card ears on a hairband, painted whiskers and a sock-stuffed tights tail. Ten minutes, and it works from toddler to about ten.

How do I make a Halloween costume without sewing?

Safety pins, cereal-box card and a hairband do all of it. Pin card wings, bones or patches onto clothes rather than gluing or taping them, so the clothes go back in the drawer on 1 November undamaged.

Are homemade Halloween costumes safe?

They are as safe as the flames you keep away from them: battery tealights in pumpkins, anything trailing pinned short, and no candles or sparklers for a child in costume.

What Halloween costumes work for toddlers?

Pumpkin, black cat, bat or a hoodie ghost: easy to put on, nothing over the face, nothing frightening in the mirror.

Can my child reuse their World Book Day costume for Halloween?

Yes — grey face paint and messy hair turn almost any character into its zombie version.