While for some Halloween is as easy as picking up a costume from the store, for others, it’s a time to flex their creative muscles. With October 31 quickly approaching, we tapped Remezcla readers who have mastered the art of Halloween dressing. Their homemade (or semi homemade) costumes will inspire you to create your own one-of-a-kind looks this year.
These interviews have been condensed and lightly edited.
Morticia and Pubert Addams
It was definitely a DIY project my mother and I put together. We purchased most of the elements separately in different places. I dressed up with my son Sebastian Enrique, who is 9 months old. After searching for ideas of a mother-son Halloween costume theme, I posted the question on my Facebook page, and most people suggested Morticia Addams and Pubert.
We searched online to check out the details of the baby Addams characters. Then, the search was on. We found the gray onesie. then, the jacket was the toughest part. We had to buy stuff at a craft store an cut and sew away until we got it. My costume involved an old black costume dress, wig, and an hour of makeup. Sebastian’s makeup was placed on while he napped.
Peopled loved it. A baby with a mustache seems to be a win.
-Jessica Reyes
Elliott and ET
My costume was homemade, and I got everything together in about a day. The ET head is just a cardstock cutout. I asked Kinkos to make a large print on high-quality paper. From there, I took ribbon and taped one piece to each side, blew up a balloon and tied his face to it. His body was made out of another blown-up red balloon with a glow stick inside to simulate his heart. I taped both balloons together and threw a bed sheet over him. Using a balloon as his head made it so he moved when I walked.
I chose the costume because I like to think of creative/funny costumes over sexy ones, and E.T. has always been a favorite movie of mine. I searched every clothing rack in every Value Village I knew of until I found the perfect red hoodie for “Elliot.” I was comfortable wearing jeans and a pair of New Balances to complete the old-school look. The bike basket was made from a grocery store basket I “borrowed” (yes, yes, it’s back in the store now!) and a belt I wove through the loops and attached at my waist. I then zip-tied bike handles and plopped my ET figure inside. It cost all of $12 to make.
Everyone loved the costume and could easily tell I was Elliott with ET. It was fun to see how many people, like me, think so fondly of that movie. I also won a contest without knowing I was competing.
-Marcella Marie Pérez
La Croix
It took my boyfriend, Pedro, and I about 12 hours combined to make both costumes. We had to invest in a hot glue gun, so much paint, brushes, ribbons, and hula hoops. We ended up watching a whole season of Top Chef while we worked; that’s how long it took.
We chose this costume because we live the La Croix lifestyle, and especially favor the tropical flavors. To create the costume, first we flattened a La Croix box package for reference. The design is so abstract, so we did our best to replicate the streak of color onto the fabric. The most difficult part was the letters. We carefully eyeballed each letter to recreate the signature La Croix handwriting. After it was dry, we folded the edges around the edge of a hula hoop. We held it together by hot glue gunning the fabric and the straps onto the hula hoop.
I’ve never handmade a costume before! And we ended up winning a company Halloween contest. We wore it to the grocery store on Halloween. We wore it everywhere we could and it definitely got some giggles. The best response was from La Croix telling us that we won free for our work.
-Celeny Adriane Benitez
Chinese Takeout Container
The costume was not homemade, but the elements were bought separately. I chose something that reflects my personal interest – my appreciation for takeout. The costume was also simple and relatively inexpensive to complete. It didn’t require too many extra add-ons. The take-out box body was bought, and I styled it with a silver bodysuit and gloves to simulate the handle of a take-out box. I topped it off with an orange wig to complement the faux carrots adorning the top of the box. It was easy to execute, roomy (it hid my post-candy buffet belly) and a crowd favorite.
The staff at my local Chinese restaurant asked if I could stand outside handing out fortune cookies for them. They were big fans. I’d accessorize with a bag of cookies next time – for the fans.
-Giselle Muñoz
Las Dos Fridas
I dressed up with my coworker, Suki. We saw something similar on Pinterest, and that’s how we came up with the idea. We won the best Halloween costume at work. We received a lot of compliments. A lot of coworkers took pictures. The costume was for the most part home made – the hearts, the skeleton piece, the flower crowns. The heart was made out of newspapers, glue, and we hand painted them.
-Claudia Placencia
Las Dos Fridas
As two artists of color, my mom, Rachel Laureano, and I find so much inspiration in Frida’s life and work, so we settled on Las Dos Fridas as both an homage and a challenge to bring her self-portrait to life.
My mom found perfect pieces for her dress almost immediately, so when she layered them and did some alterations, her half of the portrait was ready to go. I ended up using a white dress, a table cloth, and two different shirts – one for the collar and another for the shoulder ruffles – to create my half. We sewed whatever we needed to by hand, including attaching the hearts to our costumes, wrapped ourselves in parachute string for the exposed veins, and filled in our eyebrows before we headed out for the night.
The heart was definitely the most difficult part of this costume, simply because my mom and I didn’t just want to buy two bloody hearts from a halloween store and call it a day. So when we happened upon a red papier-mâché skull that looked like an actual heart from the side, we split it in half and fashioned it the way we each wanted our heart to look before attaching it to our dresses.
-Taylor Dalton
Pelon Pelo Rico
I chose my costume after seeing most of my family members eat the pelones from the candy bags. It’s their favorite, as people as many other people’s favorite. My costume was homemade. I searched various stores to get white bottoms and a green top. The rest just took time making it. I used a cloth to pain the Pelón, and then I hot glued it to the green turtleneck I bought at a thrift store. I also made the candy top by gluing red fabric onto a shaped Styrofoam and then hot gluing it to a headband. It was my best Halloween costume because I got so many compliments. Many people smiled or laughed at my costume idea.
My costume was homemade. I used a cloth to paint the Pelón logo and then I hot gun glued it to the green turtleneck I booth at a thrift store. I also made the candy top by gluing red fabric onto a shaped styrofoam and then hot gluing it to a headband.
-Yvette Parra
The Grady Twins
Stanley Kubrick is one of my favorite directors, and I love The Shining. I’ve been searching for years for someone to do this costume with me. When my now roommate, Sara Morrow, and I met, we realized that we had both, before knowing each other, dressed up as Alex from A Clockwork Orange. I knew then I had found my long-lost Grady twin.
This was my best Halloween costume ever because I was proud that we put the costumes together by hand and that we got pretty close to the original twins. Plus, I was able to dance all night with an ax sticking out of my abdomen.
Sara is an amazing costume designer and seamstress, and she worked out an ingenious plan to saw off the end of the plastic axes and sew them to ACE bandages around our torsos and slipped the dresses over the axes so that they stuck out of the holes to make it looks like we had really been axed.
Putting fake blood on the blue dresses was the best part of costume making. We had already cut holes in them for the axes, so there was no salvaging them. We went into the garage of a friend’s apartment complex and threw blood on each other until we looked sufficiently murdered. I still have fake blood on my seatbelt from driving to the party later that night.
-Amanda Daniela Cortez
