How to make a tulle skirt for Halloween and dance costumes

A completed tutu in a variety of colors is available for purchase online at Amazon.com, but it is very easy and inexpensive to create your own. 

Whether you are making a tulle skirt for a Halloween costume, or a tutu for a dance costume, the supplies needed include:

- Scissors
- 3 yards of ¼” Braided Elastic
- 1 roll of 25 yard tulle in color of your choice
- Hot glue

To begin, measure the waist of the individual to size the amount of elastic needed to fit. Cut the elastic to fit the individual’s waist. Tie the ends of the elastic together forming a complete circle. Fit the elastic over any item (chair, thigh) for ease when securing the tulle. Then, cut strips of tulle approximately 30” long. As strips are cut, tie the tulle in a knot around the elastic waistband. For a fuller tutu, tie multiple strips of tulle at once around the elastic waistband. Continue cutting tulle and tying it on the elastic until the skirt looks “full”. For extra security, hot glue the tied knot of the elastic to ensure it will not come untied. Step into the skirt and place it around waist.

A tutu is easy and fun to make. One can quickly create an Elmo, Cookie Monster or Dr.Seuss Thing 1 & 2 Halloween Costume, then add a colored skirt to match. See How to Make an Elmo Halloween Costume.

How to make a feathered chicken Halloween costume

A feathered chicken costume will be something to crow about. Simply add a feather boa (or two) to a white sweatshirt and a knit cap, or purchase a complete chicken costume online at Amazon.com. Supplies need to make this feathered friend costume include:

6' white feather boas
6' golden yellow feather boa
white knit cap
adult or child white sweatshirt and t-shirt
golden yellow sweatpants or shorts & tights
dishwashing gloves
2" styrofoam balls
2 large googly eyes
golden yellow foam
hot glue sticks & glue gun
polyfill
red felt
safety pins
old newspaper
gold spray paint
white stretch gloves
KFC bucket

Create the chicken head:
Cut out the chicken's comb using a template onto a white piece of paper. Using the paper template, cut two of these from red felt. Pin the felt pieces together and stuff with polyfill. Hand stitch the two red pieces of felt together around the polyfill. Using big stitches, hand stitch the red comb to the very top of the white cap, near the seam. Pin white feather boas around the knit cap, starting at the comb and moving down the hat. Cut a chicken beak out of golden yellow foam, and glue it to the underside of the feathered cap. Glue big, googly eyes to each Styrofoam ball. Glue the Styrofoam balls to the center front of the feather cap, above the beak.

Create the body:
Pin the bottom of the t-shirt to the inside middle of the sweatshirt using safety pins. Add stuffing between the t-shirt and sweatshirt to make the chicken's body fluffy.

Pin the gold or yellow feather boa up and down the middle-front of the sweatshirt twice. Pin the white feather boas to the sweatshirt so they surround the yellow boa on the front. Pin white feather boas up and down the back of the sweatshirt until it is completely covered. Then, pin white feather boas up and down each sleeve.
Gather any fallen feathers from the boas and glue them to the back of the white stretch gloves.

Create the chicken feet:
Stuff a pair of rubber dishwashing gloves with newspaper, carefully filling each finger. Spray paint each stuffed glove a golden-yellow color. Let the paint dry.
Loosely pin the stuffed, painted dishwashing gloves to each shoe using one to two safety pins. For a more secure fit, cut a slit in the back bottom of the glove to allow the child's foot to fit through the glove and into the shoe. Wrap a rubber band around the child's leg to hold the top of the rubber glove in place.

Dress up as a chicken:
Dress up in the stuffed feather sweatshirt, feathered gloves, cap and shoes. For the pants, one can wear gold sweatpants or shorts and tights. As an added accessory, carry a KFC bucket as a trick or treat pail.

How to make an ipod Halloween costume

Popular Halloween costumes include those related to technology: iPhone,iPod, Facebook app, etc. To make an iPod costume for boys, girls and adults, the supplies needed include:

- 2 black foam board pieces
- Black fleece to cover the foam board (I usually overbuy and bout 5 yards)
- Gray fleece to create the apple logo on the back
- Colored felt sheets in the colors of the apps you want to create (red, yellow, aqua, white, blue, lime green)
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks
- Scissors
- Ruler
- black sweatpants and shirt
- Staple gun or heavy duty shipping tape
- velcro

To create the front of the iPod:

1. Cover one piece of the foam board with fleece.

2. Secure the fleece to the foam board with a staple gun or even heavy duty Scotch shipping tape will work.
3. Cut 9 squares measuring 5” x 5” for each app
4. Search the internet for images of the apps and print to a size that will fit in each square.
5. cut out the images and trace / cut out of felt
6. Assemble each app square and attach using hot glue
7. Cut a circle out of black fleece to resemble the “button” at the bottom of the iPod. I used a large can of soup to make the circle perfectly round. Attach the circle

Create the back of the Apple iPod costume:

1. Secure the fleece to the foam board with a staple gun or even heavy duty Scotch shipping tape will work.

2. Search the internet to find an Apple logo and iPod. Zoom and print the images to fit the size of the board.
3. Trace and cut the images out of gray fleece
4. Attach the Apple and iPod logos using hot glue

How to wear the costume:

1. Cut 4 pieces of fleece material and staple one to each corner of the board.
2. Tie the straps at the shoulders so the board hangs just below the chin
3. Dress child in a black sweatsuit
4. Attach Velcro to sweatsuit and the other piece to the back of the foam board. This will keep the board from moving around so much.
5. Carry an iPod that loudly plays Halloween music

How to make a Hillary Clinton presidential candidate costume

With the 2016 Presidential election in full swing, popular Halloween costume ideas for the next couple of years will include those of the democrat and republican presidential candidates. Specifically, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump costumes and accessories will soon be highly sought after and hard to find. Other presidential hopefuls will make great Halloween costumes as well: Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee,

Women and even men can dress up as the democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, for Halloween. To dress as the former First Lady, supplies and accessories needed include:

Hillary Clinton hairRed blazer
Pant suit
Hillary Clinton campaign button
3 pack Clinton campaign buttons
Hillary Clinton mask

Adults and children alike can dress as a group for Halloween, by purchasing a Bill Clinton mask or Donald Trump hair. Visit How to make a President Donald Trump Halloween costume. The possibilities are endless when it comes to patriotic themed costumes: Statue of Liberty, Uncle Sam, Captain America, George Washington, Barak Obama, etc. 

Click here to view the variety of costumes available on Amazon.com.

Hillary Clinton Red Blazer from debate #1

How to make a Sesame Street Elmo Halloween costume

Popular Halloween costumes for children and adults alike include those from the popular educational PBS television program, Sesame Street. Sesame Street characters include: Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch. To make a one-of-kind Elmo costume, supplies needed include:

- 6' long feather boa
- Red hoodie sweatshirt
- 2 foam balls
- Black and orange felt
- Safety pins
- Hot glue sticks & glue gun
- Black or gray sweatpants
- Black shoes
- Elmo character t-shirt
- Scissors
- Soup can for circular tracing

To save money on the supplies, search your own closet or local thrift stores for the character T-Shirt, shoes, sweatpants and hooded sweatshirt. For those less crafty folks, complete Sesame Street character costumes are available on Amazon.com.

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To create the Elmo character, start by laying the red feather boa across the top of the hood. Then, carefully pin the boa to the outside of the hood, concealing the safety pin under the boa and poking the pin through the rope of the boa. Pin liberally, especially around the face to keep the feathers from falling in front the face. Pin the entire boa to the outside of the hood. Use a circular shape from a soup can or bottle to trace two circles on to black felt. Cut out the circles and glue them on to the foam balls. Glue the foam balls to the top of the hood (do not glue to feathers). Cut an oval shape out of orange felt and glue to top of hood (do not glue to feathers).

Dress in black sweatpants, black shoes, and character tee. Put on hooded jacket and lift hood up. To accessorize the costume even more, one can write “Tickle Me” on the back of the hooded sweatshirt or carry a trick or treat candy bag with the saying on it.

How to decorate pumpkins like an ice cream cone

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Make it a triple scoop this Halloween by decorating not one, but three pumpkins as an ice cream cone in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors. Supplies needed to create this tasty treat that will turn heads this Halloween include:

·         3 round pumpkins in big, bigger, biggest size

·         3 cans of Great Stuff foam insulation

·         rubber gloves

·         Pink, off-white and brown acrylic spray paint

·         6” – 8” clay pot

·         pot sox to cover the clay pot

·         hacksaw

·         foam board

·         foam squares

·         Hot glue sticks and hot glue gun

·         large apple

To begin, clean the pumpkins removing any dirt. There is no need to clean out the inside of the pumpkins unless one is concerned about how heavy they may become. We chose to not clean out the pumpkins as an uncut pumpkin will not rot as quickly. Using the hacksaw, cut off the pumpkin stems.
   

Subscribe to my YouTube channel: Piece Of Scrap for more easy DIY Halloween costume ideas for children and adults.

Carefully spray paint each pumpkin a different color and let dry. Once the pumpkins are dry, place each pumpkin on a white foam board and trace a circle larger than the pumpkin. Cut out the circles with a sharp knife or scissors. This foam circle will be used as the bottom of each scoop and will hold the foam insulation.

WEAR RUBBER GLOVES, as the Great Stuff foam insulation is nasty and will NOT come off of one’s skin if it makes contact. Carefully spray the foam insulation just underneath the pumpkin to hold the pumpkin to the board. Then, spray the foam around the circular shape and up the sides of the pumpkin. On the top scoop, spray more foam around the stem as this will be the “cool whip” on top of the cone. Let the foam insulation dry.

Once the foam is dry, spray paint the foam to match the attached pumpkin. Let dry. Using hot glue, attach an apple to the dried foam insulation on the top scoop. This is the cherry on top. For added decoration, put a few sprinkles on the cone by cutting strips of foam squares into rectangles and attaching them to the pumpkins.

Cover the clay pot in the basket weave pot sox. Then, carefully stack the pumpkins one on top of the other.