Anyone else look forward to Halloween all year long? It’s just one of those holidays that can be a blast when you dive into all the festive themes and activities. The best part of Halloween, in my opinion, is the costumes.
Dog costumes? Amazing. Child costumes? Adorable. Adult costumes? So gooood. I have always loved dressing up for Halloween, but even more so, creating homemade costumes. I’m all about the DIY ideas, because anyone can go out there and buy a costume. When you put forth the creativity to not only think of a great costume, but also turn that vision into a reality? It just has so much more of an impact.
I’ve shared a collection of my Costumes of Halloweens Past, but if you’re like me, a lot of your costume research is for ideas specifically for the work setting. Most of my other costumes would translate fine at my office job, but I’ve just always wanted a different vibe for my work costume. Plus, Matt and I like to do a theme together every year, and a couple’s costume doesn’t really work well when you’re missing half the couple.
In case anyone else needs some ideas for how to dress up for work on Halloween this year, I’m sharing all of the DIY costumes I’ve made over the past 6 years. Whether your job does a costume contest or you just want to go all out for fun, I hope this helps inspire you! Disclaimer: these are mostly Halloween costumes for women, but some could translate well for men, too.
Starbucks Siren/Mermaid Costume
This simple costume to mimic the Starbucks logo was surprisingly time-consuming. I used construction paper for the green circle and letters, and then poster board for the big circle. To help it keep its shape and not fall over, I used a bunch of craft sticks crisscrossed over the back. In hindsight, thick poster board would have completely solved that problem. This was six years ago, but I think I tied for second place at my work’s costume contest for this one. So I guess my plan to appeal to the caffeine addict in everyone worked!
Dinosaur Onesie Costume
This is the only Halloween costume I’ve ever bought as an adult. The motivation to be a dinosaur was actually because it was part of a couple’s costume with Matt (he was John Hammond from Jurassic Park). This was kind of fun to wear to work, though, because it was so comfy. Onesies in general, though, make great work costumes. Shout-out to Target for always having a fun collection.
Carmen Sandiego
This costume was really easy to put together because I already had the red coat. All I had to buy was a red hat. This was actually a red cowboy hat from Party City. I just bent it to look flat. Then all I had to do was find some black pants, boots, and gloves in my closet, plus some red lipstick to complete the look. That map was just sitting in my car, so I figured it could work as an easy prop.
Cotton Candy
A lot of the costume ideas I come up with are actually inspired by baby or child costumes. They’re adorable on kids, but if you reimagine the costume on an adult, it’s absolutely ridiculousโwhich is kind of the vibe I love going for, such as with this cotton candy costume. I bought some pillow/stuffed animal stuffing from Michaels this year, dyed it pink, then legit sewed it to a pink t-shirt I bought. (I made a cone hat with a piece of paper, securing it on top of a bunch of pink stuffing with a ribbon.) Needless to say, this was way more work than it looks like. I DID win 2nd place in our work’s Halloween costume for this, though! I’m telling you guys… the bigger the DIY costume, the bigger the impression.
Pineapple
I actually created this costume super last minute, because my original plan of making myself into a burrito did not work out well. (Now I have a tortilla blanket, though, which would have made things much easier.) I wish I had a full-length picture of this so you could see the full green headpiece I made, but you get the idea from this. I used black electrical tape on a yellow shirt to create a crisscross pineapple-esque pattern (it didn’t stick the best, but it got the job done). Then with green craft paper, I hot glued a tall “crown” together, which was ultimately attached to a headband. (Pro tip: get a headband that fits tightly, because this loose one made the top-heavy crown fall off easily.)
Mary Poppins
Dressing as Mary Poppins just felt right. It was comfortable and more dressy/conservative, which would work well if you have a highly professional and dressy work environment. I already had the whole outfit, except for the hat (which I glued pom-poms and fake flower petals onto), the bow-tie (just red felt glued together and safety-pinned on), and the bird head for the umbrella. The bird head was the hardest part because it was so difficult to cut strategically and hot glue together. (I burned off a lot of skin from my fingers doing this. Apparently hot glue is hot. It was disgusting. I’ll spare you the details.) P.S. the hat was from Party City; it was kind of big but worked well anyways. P.P.S. I ended up winning 3rd place at my work costume contest for this one.
As you can probably tell from this list, I really love making Halloween costumes. Every year I tend to spend hours creating them because of my love for DIY projects (which I don’t do very often anymore).
Since this list is pretty short, I wanted to share some honorable mentions from coworkers over the years that I absolutely loved:
- Piรฑata (big box covered in streamers; drop candy from below as people “hit” you)
- Working from home (wear pajamas and carry around a coffee cup)
- Blow-up dinosaur (these are always so ridiculous; even though it’s not DIY, it definitely sticks out)
- Inflatable tube man costume (I almost did this one year for a regular, non-work costume; someone at work made one, though, and she most definitely won 1st place)
- A fellow coworker (if you have a coworker with a very specific style, and this won’t offend them, mimicking their look is hilarious and unexpected… especially if they don’t dress up and end up wearing their go-to “look” so you match)
- Rosie the Riveter (this costume is a legit option, even though it’s done a lot; all you really need is a red bandana, chambray shirt, and maybe some pinup-style makeup/hair)
Do you have any DIY Halloween costumes that you’re particularly proud of?
Any costume ideas you’ve seen and really loved?
