55 No-Sew Halloween Costumes For Kids

With Halloween just around the corner, no doubt your kids are clamoring for their favorite characters, monsters and dress-ups. Quality costumes can be pricey, and inexpensive costumes can fall apart. If you’d like to try a handmade get-up for the young ones this year, but are short on time, there are plenty of no-sew options out there! For boys and girls, toddlers and tweens, here are the best tutorials that will teach you how to create the perfect no-sew Halloween costumes!

Animals

Snowy Owl – This enormously cute owl costume is quite detailed and takes a bit of time to construct, but it’s all no-sew and totally DIY-able.

Bats – These last minute bat costumes are easy and cute!

Butterfly – There are templates provided for the wings and mask shapes, so you can easily whip up a butterfly of your favorite color.

Shark – This great white shark is warm and cozy, but easy to make.

Lion – Make this fabulous lion mane in no time flat and pair it with tan sweats for a ridiculously easy animal costume.

Cow – This cute cow takes no time at all to glue together.

Turtle – Make an adorable little turtle with felt, polyfil, glue and felt!

Skunk – Grab some fake fur and a feather boa to create the tell-tale stripes in this super sweet skunk!

Snail – The main feature of this snail – the shell – is constructed out of brown kraft paper! It comes together with your little one’s normal tan clothing, so everything is easy-peasy and reusable.

Bee – Here’s a cute bee that’s great for a boy or a girl and is super easy to create. It’ll take just one afternoon to finish.

Dinosaur – The basis of this costume is an oversized sweatshirt. Glue on some awesome felt spikes and you’ve got a cute and super simple dino!

Unicorn – Bits of felt are pinned onto a sweatshirt for the mane and tail, while felt pieces are wound into a cone shape with ribbon.

Dragon – This how-to will give you the low down for creating a mask and wings, all entirely no-sew, for any color and type of dragon you want.

Food

Cotton Candy – Use polyfil for the body and poster-board for the cone hat and you’ve got some giant cotton candy straight from the circus.

Easy Mac – You’ll never believe what the noodles are made from in this ingenious costume. Toilet paper tubes!

French Fries – Use a long foam cushion to create the fries in this cardboard fry box you can easily strap on.

Popcorn – Tape or pin yellow or white balloons in bunches around your chest and head for popcorn. Update an existing white dress with taped on red construction paper stripes. Easy, cute and creative!

Hamburger – This hamburger (complete with sesame seeds!) is made from fabric but entirely no-sew. All the layers are glued and held over your shoulders with straps. The pickle hat really completes the look!

Donut – There couldn’t be anything cuter than a baby donut with sprinkles! Basically, you just make a small donut pillow out of felt, stuff it and glue it together!

Birthday Cake – Who doesn’t love birthday cake?! Create the triangle shape out of cardboard, and with it strapped around your child’s shoulders, they become the candle with the paper flame headband!

Cupcake – Based on a Pottery Barn Kids costume, this cupcake suit it adorable. There’s a cherry hat as well, just to top it all off!

Pineapple and Strawberry – With just one strategic cut and a few lines drawn with black marker, these felt ponchos are the perfect fruit duo. Add some little caps and you’ve got a pineapple and strawberry that can be worn over very warm clothing – perfect!

From the Movies

Prince Charming – Use a white button down shirt to create this very charming look!

Superheroes – Any superhero at all can be created with felt and glue! These vests can be worn over normal clothing or sweatsuits. They’ll double as dress-ups after Halloween is over.

Buzz Lightyear – It looks incredibly detailed and well done, but don’t be deceived. This costume is totally no-sew, created with paints, regular clothing, cardboard and few other everyday supplies.

Minions – There’s almost nothing you can say about these amazing minions. They’re somewhat elaborate in their construction so they take some time to create, but they’re made from easy to find materials and aren’t difficult to reproduce.

Sleeping Beauty – While this particular tutorial is for Sleeping Beauty, you could easily adapt this for most any Disney princess just by changing the colors.

Pocahontas – Designed around an existing tan dress, the details on this costume are perfect.

Elsa – Using a t-shirt and fabric paint (along with tulle and sequins), you can create a princess dress (Elsa, or anyone else!) that can be worn even after Halloween is over.

Olaf – This cute little Olaf costume is super easy to throw together and all you need to start is a white sweatsuit and a white winter hat!

Charlie Brown – Draw the tell-tale black zig zag on a yellow t-shirt and add one black curl on the forehead with eyeliner and your bald baby makes the perfect Charlie Brown.

Mickey Mouse – Simple regular clothes can be easily turned into Mickey Mouse – use yellow shoe covers or even shower caps glued over shoes, and make some ears on a headband to complete the look. If you’ve got a Minnie Mouse fan, swap the red shorts for a red skirt and tape on white paper dots!

Princess Leia – The robe for this Leia costume is made using fabric tape, but you could glue it together as well.

Jedi Knight Robes – With felt and some fabric belts you can do some creative cutting to make these Jedi robes. Bonus: There’s a how-to for Princess Leia bun headbands as well!

Audrey Hepburn – Turn your little girl into Audrey Hepburn a la Breakfast at Tiffany’s with some black tulle, sunglasses and pearls. Easy, classy and so adorable.

Miscellaneous Characters

Ninja – It takes no time at all (and very little cost) to cut this colored long-sleeved t-shirt into a ninja jacket. Paired with sweatpants and some super easy kid-friendly, DIY nunchucks this costume is sure to be a hit.

Sock Hop Girl – The 50’s are back – and if you can believe it, this cute poodle skirt is entirely no-sew! All you need is felt and ribbon!

Minecraft Guy – Use cardboard to create some Minecraft armor and your kid will think you’re pretty awesome.

Knight – These knight costumes are also made out of felt pieces glued together. Pair them with some inexpensive props to complete the look.

Mummy – Rip up some white fabric and grab some fabric glue to create this super cute little mummy. You don’t even need scissors!

Cowboy – All you need to do is cut and paste faux leather or suede to make chaps and a vest for your cowboy! Cut strategically to make some fringe and you’re good to go!

Construction Worker (Emmet) – If your kids still love The Lego Movie, you can turn this awesome construction t-shirt into Emmet, no problem! Otherwise, add a hard hat and a stop sign prop and you’ve got a great generic construction costume. The t-shirt is put together entirely with tape!

Monster – This baby beast is pretty adorable. Deck your kiddo out in head to toe faux fur, add some horns to a hat, and stuff some extra tights or socks to add more legs. Use a glue gun for quick work.

Random Things

Fluffy Cloud – With a bit of patience, you can turn papier mache into a wearable fluffy cloud by adding pillow stuffing or batting. For even more fun, make it a rain cloud by hanging paper raindrops with fishing line to the under side!

Hot Air Balloon – Grab a basket and connect it to a giant balloon with ribbons or rope for this super clever hot air balloon!

Crayon – There are tons of ways to create a simple crayon outfit for very inexpensive. Felt or tape, colored poster board and construction paper with a cone shaped hat in your choice of crayon color will do the trick!

Flower Pot – This adorable pot of flowers started out as a large plastic pot, a thrift store sweater, a dollar store hat and a bunch of silk flowers. Add a glue gun and some ribbon straps to hold it up and you’ve got the cutest little bunch of flowers on the block!

Cactus – This is a super easy idea and great for last minute costumers. All you need are solid green clothes – a dress is cute, but you could do cheap leggings and a t-shirt too. Then hot glue bits of knotted yarn all over for the prickers and make up some colorful pom poms for the flowers and you’ve got a great saguaro!

Tree – Here’s a cute idea to add interest to a tree costume! This shirt is cut into strips on the bottom, pulled to create fringe and then spotted with glued on felt leaves. Add a green tank underneath along with brown pants for the trunk and you’ve got a creative take on a tree!

Accessories and Extras

Super Hero Capes – If your super hero needs a cape, this is a great tutorial for making one out of felt that’s completely no-sew and very easy.

Hooded Cape – Little Red Riding Hood? Witch? Wizard? Princess? They all need hooded capes! Amazingly, you can create one with this great no-sew technique!

Bird Wings – These awesome bird wings can be created in any color felt for your choice of bird! They take a lot of cutting and gluing, but it’s easy to do (even if it’s not super fast…)

Felt Animal Masks – A cute mask can be the easiest costume there is when paired with the right colored clothes. You can make these using the free templates, some elastic and fabric glue!

Gnome Hat – Toddlers make great tiny gnomes, and here’s the easiest way to create a felt gnome hat in no time! Pair it with a fake white beard and long blue shirt with striped leggings and you’re good to go!

Title picture courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens. Get the no-sew Costume tutorial at the link, along with other easy ideas.

Kimberly Mueller is the “me” over at bugaboo, mini, mr & me, a blog that highlights her creative endeavors. She especially likes to share kid crafts, sewing attempts, recipes, upcycled projects, photography and free printable gift tags/cards. When she’s not enjoying being married to her best friend, chasing after the natives (AKA her three kids) and attempting to keep the house in one piece, you can find her with a glue gun in one hand and spray paint in the other. Aside from DIY pursuits, she also enjoys writing, reading, music, singing (mostly in the shower) and the color yellow. Kimberly recently published a craft book entitled Modern Mod Podge. You can also find her on Facebook, Pinterest,Bloglovin’ and Instagram. Email her at: bugabooblog(at)yahoo.com

Need more costume inspiration? You’ll love these!