Halloween is almost here! DIY Disney costumes are my absolute favorite to play around with. My enthusiasm for my kids’ or family’s costumes varies by year, and while I am certainly not against buying new-in-box costumes, a lot of times we do DIY costumes or find them through thrift stores and consignment shops. However, if you aren’t careful, you can end up spending way more on a DIY costume than on a pre-made one! So before we start, here are a few tips on thrifting and DIY Halloween costumes.
5 Tips for Thrifty DIY Disney Costumes
1. Start with your closet. What can you use from your own closet or dress up box? Put out asks to your friends too (if you aren’t planning on bedazzling it, maybe you could borrow it!)
2. Check out the local thrift stores, FB Marketplace and consignment sales. You might be able to find pieces or even a full costume pre-made for a fraction of the price. (If I’m looking for a bright green shirt to cut into a Peter Pan shirt, I’m not going to buy it new. I’m going to go find a neon green shirt from an old 5K race at a thrift store for $1-$2. Then I’ll turn it inside out and cut it up.)
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3. Brainstorm a few alternative costume options. If you are set on a character, think of as many costume options as you can before you shop. If you aren’t set on a character, think of what you have after raiding your closet and/or dress-up bin, and see if you can brainstorm a couple of different options. You’re not guaranteed to find what you are looking for while you’re thrifting, so having options is your best bet for success.
4. Check the clearance racks first. I’ve found some gems, especially in craft store clearances at this time of year. If you need to add things to your costume, try to find craft stuff at the end of those sale aisles.
5. Start NOW. The earlier you start gathering and piecing together costumes, the less stressful it is. And this year there are product shortages everywhere. A lot of stores like Costco are already out of most of their costumes. Start thrifting and gathering now.
- Bonus Tip: The after-Halloween clearance at both big box stores and thrift stores is THE best time to find reasonable dress-up costumes for imaginary fun for the rest of the year!
8 Easy DIY Disney Costumes for Halloween
1. DIY Raya and the Last Dragon Costume
DIY Raya costume: I got the $5 necklace at Target because I would have spent too much time and money trying to make it myself. This costume started with a neutral infinity scarf around one of her old shirts and I cut a vest out of an old pillowcase (An inside-out pirate or adventure vest from the toy box would have worked just as well.) Green sweatpants would work for this, but we went with green leggings that we decorated the front of.
DIY Raya Family Costume Ideas: Tuk Tuk can be done with brown clothes, tape, and a brown/tan pillowcase for a shell. Sisu could be done with an oversized robe and a blue wig. Namaari could be done with a tank top and big belt, and Boun could be done with a simple vest and sweat pants.
2. DIY Winnie the Pooh Costumes
DIY Pooh & Christopher Robin Costumes: There are a lot of infant Pooh costumes around. For older kids, vintage Mickey ears like these or a bear beanie dyed yellow works great for the head. Or a yellow sweatshirt with felt ears! Then a cut off red shirt. Check out this cute Christopher Robin outfit, too. What really sells it are the long socks!
DIY Winnie the Pooh Family Costumes: Almost any of these characters can be done with plain or inside out sweatshirts! Eeyore can be done with a blue sweatshirt, long felt ears, and a tuft of hair on top. Piglet can be done with some pink tape and pointy ears. And Tigger can be done with black tape and little round ears.
3. DIY Star Wars Costumes
DIY Rey from Star Wars Costume: The great thing about Star Wars costumes is that many of them can be done with robes or cut-up sheets. Rey is one of the easier ones! Split a tan twin sheet up into pieces for the robe and belt. Grab a lightsaber from your- or friends- dress-up bin and you are set!
DIY Star Wars Family Costumes: Any bear costume can be turned into an Ewok costume with an orange or tan scarf. Grab a few large robes to make other Jedi costumes. The other characters are a little tougher, but it’s possible to find a bunch of pieces secondhand!
4. DIY Princess and the Frog Costumes
DIY Tiana and Charlotte Costumes: Green and pink princess dresses are all you need here. A tiara doesn’t hurt, either! If you can’t find a princess dress, you can make your own tutus. Add some leaves to Tiana’s like in the picture above to complete the look! Each Disney princess has a pretty distinctive color and there are hundreds of cosplay costume ideas for each of them.
DIY Princess and the Frog Family Costume: Is there anything cuter than that baby frog?! You could also have someone be a shooting star with some foam board and silver tulle. This group costume was finished out by Louis the alligator. It’s not difficult or expensive to find a dino or alligator hat that works for this character. The baby frog crown is my favorite part of this group ensemble. You can grab a gold crown on Amazon that also doubles as a first birthday accessory!
5. DIY Minnie & Mickey Mouse (& Gang!) DIY Disney Costumes
DIY Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Pluto & Goofy Costumes: For Goofy OR Pluto, you can thrift a yellow or orange sweatshirt and attach some long floppy felt ears! Mickey and Minnie both need black shirts and red bottoms. A red tutu is a fun DIY, just be careful you’re not spending more on tulle than you would a pre-made skirt. And Minnie and Mickey ears can be easily thrifted, or there are also several DIY tutorials out there, like this one from Inside the Magic.
DIY Minnie & Mickey Mouse Family Costumes: We’ve been over Minnie, Mickey, Pluto and Goofy. The other two most popular Mickey and friends characters are Donald and Daisy Duck. You can grab a duckbill mask or make your own. Daisy is pretty easy with a purple sweatshirt, white poofy skirt, and purple bow. Donald is a little harder with a sailor cap and blue sailor shirt; you could use a blue shirt with a red bow tie.
6. DIY Nightmare Before Christmas Costumes
DIY Jack Skellington Costume: You can usually find these suits when thrift stores first put out their Halloween selections. If you miss that, you can absolutely make your own. Or use a t-shirt that looks like a suit with some black sweat or dress pants. The bow tie can be made with thick, light, felt and puff fabric paint.
DIY Nightmare Before Christmas Family Costumes: If you are handy with patching fabric together, you can make a Sally costume yourself, otherwise I would suggest going pre-made with that one. The leggings and wig you can do yourself with any base wig and blue yarn, a marker, and some grey leggings. Zero can be made with cardboard and a white sheet. The Mayor could also be made out of a light cardboard box that you could paint to match the cartoon face; the outfit could be done with a suit or shirt that looks like a suit.
7. DIY Peter Pan Costumes
DIY Disney Costumes for Peter Pan: Grab some green or brown pants for Peter. You can use a collared, plain, or inside-out t-shirt. Just cut triangles out of the bottom and sleeves. The hat can be glued together with felt and a red feather. For hat inspiration, I would look at an origami boat.
DIY Peter Pan Family Costumes: Wendy and Peter are very basic. For Wendy, you just need a light blue dress and some red temporary hair dye (if you don’t already have red hair!) plus a matching blue bow. Hook is a little more difficult; you’ll need a military-looking red jacket, black pirate hat, and a hook! Tinkerbell can be done with a green tank top and tutu, plus some wings! If you find wings that are a different color, you can spray paint them green. For John or Michael Darling, you just need an oversized white dress shirt! Add a top hat and teddy bear for some extra flair if you can.
8. DIY Jungle Cruise Costumes
DIY Jungle Cruise Costumes: These are super easy! Some button-up shirts, khaki pants, and suspenders make the outfits. Plus two red bandanas.
DIY Jungle Cruise Family Costumes: The human characters, outside of the conquistadors, are pretty easy to make work with things you could find in your or a friend’s closet. And you can include the kids with animal costumes. Jungle cats, snakes, and bees were big parts of this movie!
5 Other Easy Disney Family Costume Ideas:
– The Incredibles! It’s been done a lot because it’s a greatttt family costume! So you might be able to find some pre-made Incredibles costumes.
– Toy Story: Some of the toys would be harder, but Woody and Bo-peep seem to be simple looks.
– The Avengers: If your kids (or friends with kids!) already have a couple of Avengers costumes, grab a couple of capes and assemble!
– Cars: This takes some time and patience, but you can paint those big delivery boxes to look like the Cars characters. Put ropes through the boxes so you can wear them comfortably from your shoulders.
– Pirates of the Caribbean: You can thrift a costume or just use a button-up shirt from the closet. Pirates of the Caribbean is one of the easier Disney movies to base a family costume on!
Looking for family-friendly Halloween movies to stream? Check out this guide
Check Out These Other TV- & Movie-Inspired DIY Costume Ideas!
