So You Need to DIY a Last Minute Halloween Costume!!

Did Halloween catch you off guard this year? Or maybe you need a costume for the SEVERAL different Halloween events your kids have to attend. There’s the school party, Trunk or Treat, dress as your favorite character day, a Halloween play date at the park! Etc. etc. Honestly, it can be so exhausting to keep up with all the costumes and most costumes don’t even make it through more than one event! Your kiddo could change their mind or a piece falls off and you’re making emergency repairs in the car. Either way, we are ALWAYS diving into our costume bin to piece a costume together at the last minute for an event. I am so sick of it!

This is why my FAVORITE place to source costumes is from Goodwill Southern California. For the entire month of October, there are costume racks where you can find tons of packaged costumes and pieces for costumes for a fraction of the price at your big box store. Then, there’s dozens of other racks, filled with all the pieces you can think of to put together a DIY costume. Here are just a few DIY looks that we’ve put together from pieces purchased at Goodwill Southern California.

Minion (Despicable Me)
All it takes is denim overalls and a yellow tee! In this case, the overalls were found months before I put this look together. However, she didn’t have a plain yellow tee. I went to my local Goodwill in search of one and scoured the kid’s section, but came up with nothing that would work. That’s when inspiration struck. I headed to the baby section where this plain, yellow Carters brand tee was waiting for me. It was a size 6 months old. However, all it took was some good scissors to snip the neckline off and it easily fit as a cropped tee on my 3 year old. It helps that she has glasses to complete the look, but a pair of goggles or costume glasses would go well here.

Wiccan & Speed (Marvel’s WandaVision)
These costumes took a few different trips to compile everything for. However, the results were perfect! I went to several Goodwills to get just the right color combination for Speed’s outfit to make sure it was as screen accurate as I could get. I even found the white Converse high tops and navy sneakers at Goodwill. I could have easily gotten everything in one trip if I wasn’t being so meticulous. We used some iron on vinyl that Ritchie cut freehand (no Cricut necessary!) for the lightning bolt. Wiccan’s cape and both boy’s gloves were pieces we had at home or ordered. 

Stu & Tatum (Scream)
I put these outfits together for our date night at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. Even though there are no Scream themed events there, it’s our favorite horror movie (90’s movies are simply the best and you cannot change my mind on this) and these looks felt perfect for our first Horror Night experience. I found Stu’s classic oversized sweater in the women’s section of Goodwill and rounded it out with some green pants for Ritchie (which I amateurly hemmed at home as they were excessively long). I purchased his puka shell necklace online and it completed the look. On the same trip, I also found a plain, grey cropped tee for Tatum, which I cut into a vneck and used iron on vinyl to put the numbers on it (10, which was itself an homage to A Nightmare on Elm Street). I had these red joggers already and they were close enough to Tatum’s red denim pants. 

Addams Family
Goodwill Southern California challenged us to put together Addam’s Family looks with pieces we found in one trip to their Atwater Village store (3150 N. San Fernando Road, Los Angeles, CA 90065) matched with things we already had at home. Click here to check out how we did! We put together looks for the entire family! It took some creativity- Vada’s Wednesday dress and Logan’s Gomez suit were both too big, but we fixed that with some clever pinning, while Wesley’s tee was too small but this still worked for Pugsley Addams.

DIY costumes don’t have to be hard- just head to your local Goodwill and start looking for the pieces you need! Or pull some inspiration from what you find on the racks. Good luck and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

This post was written in partnership with Goodwill Southern California.