My #1 DIY Halloween Costume—For Kids or Adults

Don’t get me wrong—I love autumn. But Halloween just isn’t really my thing. I can fake it til I make it for the sake of the kiddos, and my husband LOVES this holiday so it’s cool with me if he wants to take the lead spooking up the house a bit. I do enjoy coming up with costume ideas for the kiddos though. We’ve gone back and forth between DIYing them and purchasing. This year, my daughter is going to be Alice in Wonderland, wearing one of my old dance costumes from 1993! We haven’t decided what to put the little guy in.

Today I’m sharing my #1 DIY Halloween costume AND it could work for children or adults. Back in 2014, when Bean was just shy of a year, we went as M&Ms. It was quick, easy, inexpensive, and the most complimented costume we’ve done!

1. Assign colors!

Even at 11 months, Bean was already showing a preference for all things blue! We assigned her as the blue M&M. My husband went with red—always a classic—and I chose yellow because you can’t have red without yellow. (See: all M&M commercials basically ever.) Keep in mind that if you already favor a particular color in your everyday closet, you might not need to purchase as much to make this work.

2. Gather your gear!

If you want to keep it basic, all you need are t-shirts in your colors. (We bought ours at Hobby Lobby, but Amazon is a great option too.) Going to be outside? Add hats. Want to level up? Leggings, tutus and shoes.

3. Make Your Ms!

All that’s left is adding the standard “m” to the front of your shirts. I’ve seen plenty of printables online, but we made ours on our own using Arial font. I bought iron-on transfer paper, printed the “m” on regular paper, traced it to the transfer paper, cut it and ironed it on to each of our shirts. (Yes, I know you can print directly on transfer paper but I’m far from tech-savvy and rather than risking a paper jam and ruining all the fancy paper, I used this method.)

If you’re more artistic than I am, you could also freehand it onto white felt, or trace the pattern directly onto the shirt and fill it in using white fabric paint.

4. Celebrate Halloween!

It’s usually chilly on Halloween where we live, so you can see that we layered long-sleeve tees under our M&M shirts. We received a bunch of compliments on the family look though! Our daughter got to wear a cute little blue tutu, which she loved.

I love that this costume options works for all kinds of people. You can make it cutesy or comfy, and I guess if you want to be a sexy M&M you can do that too! M&Ms are appealing to a broad group of people and easily recognizable—and perfect for a holiday that’s all about the candy!

What’s your favorite DIY costume?

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