With Halloween just around the corner, picking out last-minute costumes is slowly becoming more stressful. Living in an expensive city like Toronto, it can be even more difficult to find affordable costumes that still look cute and well thought out. Here is a guide for cheap yet fun costumes for this year’s spooky season.
- Black Cat
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You can’t ever go wrong with a traditional black cat costume. It is the perfect way to use clothes you already have or shop for some basics at affordable stores like H&M or Ardene.
There’s nothing cuter than a black turtleneck with a black skirt or pants. Pair it with some black boots to further enhance the black cat.
The cat ears are the main event, which you can make yourself! A quick yet efficient DIY cat ear only needs four materials. Go to your local dollar or craft store to get a headband, some felt material, fabric and a hot glue gun. Once you have the materials, use the felt and fabric to cut out your cat ears. Then, use the glue gun to add the cat ear flaps to your headband to create the perfect cat ears to go with your costume!
- DIY Mr. or Ms. Incredible
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Who doesn’t love The Incredibles?
For this costume, all you need is a matching red and black outfit. A cute combination could be a red long-sleeve top with a black skirt and red leggings. Or a red top with black leggings. The only thing you may need to get outside your closet is a black eye mask, which you can order from Amazon.
If you’re missing red or black clothes, you can add them to your cart as well. For the logos on the shirt, you would need red, orange, yellow, black and white felt fabric and a cut-out Incredibles design. You can paste the logo to your shirt using a hot glue gun.
Following these simple steps, you can create a whole costume based on your favourite movie character without spending more than $50.
- Dalmatian
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Another movie-inspired costume, this DIY design is inspired by the Disney classic, One Hundred and One Dalmatians. The best part of this costume is that you can use basics in your wardrobe. The only colours you need are black and white!
You can wear a black top with a white bottom or vice versa. As long as you have a little bit of both colours, you will be the perfect Dalmatian. For the dots, you can buy black felt material from a craft store and cut out circles to hot glue them to your top. For the dog ears, either make them with a headband from the dollar store and felt fabric or purchase something pre-made.
- Pirate
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Another costume based on some basics!
The perfect pirate only requires five components. First, a black or white dress, or a combination of a black or white top with opposite-coloured bottoms. This can then be topped off with the second piece, a red bandana, that you can find on Amazon.
You can also purchase the third element, which is an eye patch, to further complete the look. To be a little extra, put on a black belt to encapsulate the pirate feeling. Finish it off with black boots, and you have made yourself the most affordable pirate costume.
- DIY devil
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There is nothing better than a cute devil costume. This can be created with a cute red dress or suit that can be found at H&M or Abercrombie for an affordable price.
Pair it with black boots to give a more devil-attired look. The next key steps are devil ears, a tail and a pitchfork. Bundles of these can be found on Amazon. If not, you can always go to the dollar store and see their available options or make your own using red fabric.
There is no need to overspend this Halloween! With easy DIY’s, using materials you already have and affordable shops, there is no reason to spend more than $50-$60 on a well-made Halloween costume. Happy Halloween!