Creating your own Halloween Costume

“Buying your costume is one thing, but actually making it from scratch and having it look pretty good — that’s pretty kick ass!”

How I did it:
Basically you have to have an idea from the start from where you can make your plan to create your costume. I came up with Kung Fu Panda.

Basic Tips on Creating a Halloween Costume:

1. Find a photo of what you’re trying to emulate.
2. Brainstorm ways you can use regular things to create the costume.
3. Go to the appropriate stores that are awesome for costume creation (i.e. Goodwill, JoAnn, etc.)
4. Learn how to sew or have a really good friend who who knows how to do that.
5. Construct the costume and bask in your glory.

Creating the Kung Fu Panda Costume:

1. Visited the Goodwill and bought, sweaters (black and white), khaki shorts, and black gloves.
2. Visited the JoAnn and bought red and yellow belts, glue gun, and black felt.
3. Visited the local Halloween shop and bought makeup (black and white) and nunchucks.
4. Visited my friend, Cheetos, to help with a crash course in sewing 101.
5. I cut the top half of the black sweater and the bottom have of the white hoodie. Also cut off the actual white hoodie.
6. Cheetos sewed the bottom bottom white sweater to the top black sweater to the white hoodie.
7. Cheetos also created panda ears by sewing felt over pieces of cardboard and sewing the creations to the white hoodie.
8. Super glued the red and yellow belts together they alternated.
9. Put the make up on and wore the clothing and I was good to go!

Lessons & tips:
Always prepare before you start buying and think cheap. If you do a bit of preparation, it’ll definitely save you a lot of money and time in the long run. Also, always have a vision and never try to veer away from that.

With a little effort, and some time — anyone can make a pretty sweet
costume and for pretty cheap too. My costume was under $30.

Resources:
There are a ton of great resources out there from regular thrift shops to craft stores. Here are some of the resources I used during this process:

• Goodwill
• JoAnn
• Party City (or any local Halloween shop)
• Google Images (to find photos)

It took me 14 days. It made me proud and satisfied.