This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Cincinnati chapter.
- Takes 30-45 min
- Cost: $15-$25 depending on what supplies you already have.
- For a couples costume have your partner be a vampire!
Let’s get started!
Supplies
- Head-to-toe black clothes (including a shirt with sleeves)
- White fake nails (optional): $5
- Denture glue (optional): $3-5
- Scissors
- Black round tablecloth or any black cloth: $5
- String, safety pins or black thread and needle
- Eyeliner & black lipstick (optional)
- Headband: $3-5
- Pipe cleaners: $2-5
- Glue/glue gun (optional)
The Wings
- Choose a black top, preferably one with fitted sleeves
- Find a fabric that you can cut into bat wings whether you buy some from a craft store or it’s an old t-shirt. I was able to find spider web table toppers at the grocery that looked exactly like bat wings when you fold them in half, but originally I was going to use the fabric pictured below.
- When your fabric looks relatively “wing-shaped,” you have to choose a way to attach them depending on how permanent you want them to be.
- Option 1 is to safety pin the fabric at to the armpit of your shirt, the middle, and the very end. To make the safety pins less visible, you can paint them with black nail polish.
- Option 2 is to cut holes in the fabric, or if it’s a lace or loosely woven fabric thread string through it and tie it around your arm. Again, tie at the armpit, the middle and your wrist.
- Option 3 if you can also cut holes in both the fabric and the sleeves of your shirt and thread string or even hair ties through if you have no string. The little rubber bands used for braids would work great.
- Option 4 is to sew the fabric to the sleeve of your shirt at the armpit, middle, and wrist.
- You can also use Bobby pins instead of safety pins.
- Last, try on your wings and make any adjustments!
The Ears
If you don’t have time to buy bat ears as I did, they’re still quick and easy to make!
- For a minimalist bat ear, all you have to do is bend two pipe cleaners in a triangle and wrap them around a headband a plastic one works best but the fabric was what I had. Glue them if you want them to be more secure.
- For a more elaborate ear attach the pipe cleaners as you would for the first option and then glue or sew triangles of black lace or any other black fabric on to or around the pipe cleaner
The Fangs
- Find white press on nails at a grocery store, pharmacy, or dollar store. If you can find “stiletto nails,” get those so that you don’t have to bother shaping them.
- Go through and find the best size nail for your fangs. The smaller the fangs the less of a lisp you’ll have, but make sure they still cover your teeth. If you’re not sure if two nails are the same size, there should be a number on the inside of the nail telling you the size.
- Cut and file two nails until they’re the desired pointy-ness.
- From here, all you have to do is use denture glue to glue them to your teeth. Make sure you hold the fangs on your teeth long enough for the glue to set or they’ll fall right off. For a more creepy look you can put red food coloring on the ends.
- Note: do not use any glue other than denture glue. Eating is not recommended but drinking should be fine if you’re careful. When you’re ready for the fangs to come off the denture glue will wash off when you brush your teeth.
Final Touches
- If you happen to have any black or other very dark lipstick on hand this is the perfect time to wear it! Otherwise, any “vampy” red colors will do just fine.
- If your eyeliner game is strong you can also attempt bat wing eyeliner by drawing bat wings or just doing 3 wings instead of the traditional one wing for cat eyes. I found that drawing the outline with pencil liner then filling it in with a liquid liner works best.
- A dark, smokey eye with purple or red is perfect as well
- You can also draw a bat nose on your own nose with eyeliner. You can draw it the way I did with two triangles or like the nose of a cat.
- Black, dark red, or dark purple nails go great with this costume and if you’d like you can wear long, pointy press-ons to simulate a bat’s talons.
Need More Ideas?
- If becoming a bat is not for you, here are some more options that would be easy to DIY:
- Poison ivy- just attach fake plants to yourself
- Harley Quinn- smeared lipstick and red and blue or red and black clothes
- Amelia Earhart- a bomber jacket, khakis, winter hat, and swim goggles as flying goggles
- Joan of Arc- add a cross to grey or metallic clothes
- Morticia Addams- red nails and a long dress with trumpet sleeves
- Daria (from the 90s tv show)- green military style coat, combat boots, round glasses
- Wednesday Addams- short cap black sleeve dress, 2 braids, a white collar made of scrap fabric
- Cheetah (because no last-minute Halloween costume list is complete without a cat)- anything cheetah print, cat ears, cat nose, and cat eyeliner