How to Make a Simple Halloween Costume

By Grandma Sandy | September 28, 2022

Years ago, driving to work one Halloween, I noticed a pumpkin walking down the street. It was a simple halloween costume–orange sweatshirt with a cap of green leaves.

Jack-o-lantern is a simple Halloween costume made with an orange sweatshirt and a green felt leaf cap. — **Little N models the simple Halloween jack-o-lantern costume.**

What a clever, no-fuss idea, I thought. With Halloween on my mind, I made up my version over the weekend.

This costume is perfect for a toddler, a very young child, or an adult. At Little N’s age, they prefer to dress up as specific characters, such as from Star Wars or Pokemon. Still, Little N, good sport that he is, modeled my costume for this post.

Without adding the jack-o-lantern face, this costume is a Halloween pumpkin. — **The costume without the jack-o-lantern face is just a pumpkin–and is even quicker to make.**

What you Need

Materials

Scrap paper to make a pattern
Image of pumpkin leaves for reference
Green felt
Headband, such as this one I had leftover from making fascinators
Heavy-duty florist wire
Brown florist tape (or masking tape and brown marking pen to color the tape)
Heavy-duty thread or dental floss
Brown felt
Polyester fiberfill or cotton balls
Orange sweatshirt–a little oversized is best
Black felt (for jack-o-lantern version)

Tools

Pencil
Sharp scissors for cutting felt
Black permanent marker with thick nub (Super Sharpie)
Sewing machine (ideal; but you could hand-sew)

First, Make the Leaves

Start by drawing a pumpkin leaf pattern using an online illustration as a guide. — **Using an illustration as a guide, draw your own pumpkin leaf shape.**

I found illustrations of pumpkin leaves online to get me started and I drew an approximate shape on scrap copy paper. My large leaf was about 5 1/2 inches square. Mark a few veins on the leaf of your pattern for reference, so you’ll know where to draw them on felt later.

Cut out the paper pattern and pin onto green felt. Cut felt. Using a black marker, draw the leaf veins on the felt leaf. Then trace along the outside of the leaf with the black marker so the leaf shapes pop. Now make additional leaves–you’ll need three or four.

Trace the pattern on felt and cut out. Use a think black marker to draw the veins of the leaves and to trace the outline of each leaf. — **Pin your leaf pattern, cut out, and mark veins with a black, thick-pointed marker pen.**

Make the Headband Base

Next you’re going to stitch a tube of green felt and thread it through the headband. The purpose of the felt tube is to make a base to anchor the leaves.

To do this, cut a strip of green felt about 6 inches long and slightly more than double the width of the headband, allowing for a 1/4-inch seam. Mine was 6 inches by 1 inch for a very narrow headband.

Cover a headband partially with green felt and stitch on pumpkin leaves. — **Felt tube on the headband will be the base for attaching leaves.**

Sew the tube with a 1/4-inch seam. Now thread the tube through the headband and center it.

Attaching the Leaves

Using a needle and strong thread, and with a running stitch, gather the base of the leaf tightly so the leaf forms a cup, creating dimension.

Use a running stitch at the base of each leaf and gather; stitch to the headband. — **Stitch the base of the leaf with a running stitch, gather tightly, and attach to the headband.**

Stitch the leaf to the headband, securing tightly. Repeat with remaining leaves.

Making the Vine

Wrap brown florist tape around the florist wire to cover completely. Coil the wire around a pencil to make a corkscrew. Slide the wire off the pencil and pull the coils apart gently to loosen and form a more open spiral.

Stitch the vine to the headband.

Making the Stem

Cut two strip of brown felt the size you want your stem to be, adding a 1/4-inch seam allowance along all sides. Stitch around two long sides and one short side. Turn stem inside out and stuff with fiberfill. Stitch the stem to the leaves, folding the seam allowance under, as you sew. My finished stem was 1 1/2 inches by 2 3/4 inches.

The finished leaf headdress with pumpkin vine and stem. — **The finished leaf headdress for the pumpkin costume.**

Decorating the Sweatshirt

If you want a pumpkin Halloween costume, your job is done. If you want a jack-o-lantern costume, cut out triangle eyes and a toothy smile from black felt. Hand-stitch to the sweatshirt.

The Halloween costume flattened out on a table. — **The pumpkin becomes a jack-o-lantern by adding a felt face.**

A Baby’s Halloween Costume

When Miss T was an infant, I made her a bee costume.

A baby's bee Halloween costumes starts with a black sleeper. — **Baby Miss T is propped-up bundle on the sofa in her Halloween costume.**

To make the costume, I started with a black sleeper, then hand-stitched strips of yellow felt across the chest. I made wings from some sheer white fabric. I purchased a headband with antennae at a variety store. To finish I stitched the stem of an artificial flower to the back of the costume so the bee would always be buzzing by a flower.

Stitch on yellow felt strips, add an antennae headband, and sheer wings. Stitch a flower to the back of the costume. — **Yellow felt stripes, antennae headband, sheer wings and a flower transform a black sleeper into a bee costume.**

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