This is a blog about handmade costumes you can do cheaply and quickly.
How To Plan A Last Minute M&M Costume
Last year, it was all about the construction paper skeleton, but this year I think we’re going to have to step up our game. Because if Harpo Marx here didn’t go as a construction paper skeleton, I’d be shocked.
What to do? How about an M&M? I found instructions for how to make an M&M costume by duct taping plastic cups all over a sweatsuit, but that sounds like a pain in the ass. And when it comes to Halloween costumes, no one wants to be a pain in the ass.
Here’s how you can make an easy M&M costume–last minute–and still be kind of cool:
Get some red sweatpants (preferably heather gray), and a matching sweatshirt. Go to Target or something. (You could also get your sweatpants at Salvation Army.) Write “M” on them with fabric markers or paint pens or whatever you’ve got lying around. Then write “M” on plain colored t-shirts and long sleeve shirts in different colors and wear them under your sweatsuits, one at a time. Put on your normal
Okay, so you have a Halloween party to go to and you just realized you have no costume. You could stay home, but you didn’t want to seem like a loser. You could buy one, but that would cost money. What’s the solution? Make your own costume from things lying around your house!
This is the first in a series of posts about making costumes for yourself very cheaply and quickly. And in this post I’m going to make an M&M costume.
So the first thing I did was buy some green felt at my local fabric store. I used two pieces that measured 20″ x 30″. They cost me $1.09 each, but they had coupons in the paper today so it would have been less if I’d waited two more hours.
Then I took it home and laid out paper on the floor and traced my body onto it from a standing position.
Planning Your M&M Costume
This is an easy costume to pull off for both kids and adults. For the candy-coated look, you’ll need a plain white T-shirt with white fabric paint. At your local craft store, purchase plain white t-shirts and red fabric paint in a squeeze bottle.
The white t-shirt is the base of your M&M costume. To achieve the red “candy coating” look, hold the squeeze bottle at least three inches away from the shirt and squeeze out dollops of paint. Don’t try to make circles or other shapes – they won’t look right. Just focus on squeezing out little dots of paint on the shirt. Spread them out as much as you like – more = more coverage; less = less coverage. If you’re wearing pants, consider repeating this step on the legs for extra effect!
Once you’ve applied all of the paint, let it dry for 24 hours before putting on your M&M costume and going trick or treating!
This is the story of how I made my first M&M costume.
I wanted a costume that was creative, but low budget and something that could be made in a short amount of time.
In the end, it took me about $20 and 2-3 hours to make.
So, here’s how you can do it too:
I was asked to do a demonstration of my costume making skills at the local convention, Bricks Cascade. I decided to make an M&M costume. It’s a fun costume, and I could wear it in public after the convention. Here are my steps for making this costume last minute:
1) Get a pattern for the body and head. McCall’s makes one that is perfect for this project.
2) Buy fabric. I got white fleece, red felt, brown fur, and green fleece from JoAnn’s Fabric on their sale days with coupons.
3) Cut out the pieces from the pattern, adding seam allowance to all edges that will be sewn together. Remember that you need two of each piece (the inside and outside of the body). I added about 1/4 inch of seam allowance to my pieces.
4) Sew the white fleece pieces together using either a sewing machine or by hand with a back stitch. The sewing machine is faster but requires more experience than hand stitching. Start with all the straight lines as they are easiest- sew along the sides of both arms, legs, head and torso (right sides together then turn right side out). Leave a gap in the middle of the torso so you can put stuffing
If you’re reading this, you probably have a child who wants to go trick-or-treating as a giant M&M. Or maybe you’re like me and your child needed a costume for book character day at school. Either way, you’ve come to the right place.
This is not my own idea – I really wanted a costume for my daughter and ended up buying one off Etsy. But it was kind of expensive so I decided to make another one for my younger son, and figured out how to do it myself. Then I thought, why not help out all those other procrastinating parents by writing it down? So here goes:
You will need:
A cardboard box large enough that the wearer will fit inside with room to move around. You can buy just about anything online and get free shipping via Amazon Prime these days, so if you don’t have a box lying around you can probably order something small enough that it’ll still be cheaper than buying a costume.
Silver spray paint.
Red duct tape (you can also use red spray paint if you want to skip the tape).
A giant bag of M&Ms (or any other candy that is not the same color as your box).
That’s it!
Now, I know many of you are thinking: “Oh I can’t do that! I’m no artist!” Well, neither am I. But if you can trace a shape and cut it out with scissors, you can make this costume. And if you have a little more skill than that, you can do even better and make this a really cool costume without too much effort.
First, let’s talk about the supplies you’ll need. Most of them are just things I had around the house. The only things I purchased were the white paint and the red shirt.
The base of the costume is a long sleeve red shirt. You’ll also need white felt to make the M part, brown felt to make the chocolate part, and yellow foam to make the candy part. For tools, you will need a pencil (for tracing), scissors and white paint.