Last Minute Halloween Outfits in Your Closet

Do you need to find quick easy last minute Halloween outfits in your closet? Then today I have several easy Halloween costume ideas that are super cute and super easy.

It is perfectly possible to make a last-minute Halloween costume from closet clothes. There are plenty of last-minute easy costumes with normal clothes to be made. So keep reading, as today I am going to show you some outfits that can be easily and cheaply made around a black dress.

*This post has been updated, it was first posted in October 2018.

Last Minute Halloween Outfits In Your Closet

I really don’t like to throw away costumes that can only be worn for one day. When your children are young, they grow so fast that a Halloween costume bought ffrom the shop one year rarely fits the next. This is so un-eco friendly! In light of this I much prefer to make Halloween costumes from wardrobe items we already have. 

Indeed, one of the first Halloween outfits I made for my little one was a Durable Witches Outfit. I used a plain black dress as the base for a witch costume, and so thus can reuse the black dress on other occasions.

However, even as an adult, I have a black dress in my own wardrobe. So I am going to show you how you can make several easy Halloween costumes from your closet using a black dress as the base. You too can be making Halloween costumes out of your closet!

My Halloween Costume Closet Dress

I made a simple black dress from a modified simplicity child dress sewing pattern for my daughter. This dress can be worn again and again, so it doesn’t have to just be made for one day! 

But I did make a small addition. If you look closely you can see this black dress has buttons attached to the shoulders. These are easily removed, but they also serve as the perfect way to attach accessories to make this dress the base for lots of other costumes.

Bat Costume

The first of the easy Halloween costumes from the closet is an outfit to become a bat!

You will need

• A roll of Black felt
• Several small pieces of white felt
• Scissors
• Black and white thread to sew pieces to dress
• A white dressmakers pencil

Firstly, I measured my daughter’s arm span with her hands stretched out to the side as wide as she could reach. Then I measured the length from her shoulders to her bottom, as this would be the length of the wings/cape.

On the large roll of black felt I drew a line with the dressmakers pencil that was as long as her arm-span. I marked the centre of this line and put marks about an inch above the line and marked below it to the length I’d measured earlier. Then as you can see in the images I drew a batwing shape between these marks using a curved ruler, but you could do it freehand.

I cut out this shape.

Then added button holes to correspond with the buttons on the shoulders of the dress

Finally I cut out 2 circles of white felt, 2  slightly smaller circles of black felt, and 2 white triangle and tacked these to the front of the dress. This way they are easily removed in order to use the plain black dress again. 

And you have a finished bat outfit!

Batgirl outfit

One of our favorite family Halloween costumes ideas is to all dress up as superheroes. This next one of my Halloween costumes in closet clothes is also perfect if you are looking for a group Halloween costume or couples costume idea. ( PS – bonus points if you get your pop culture details correct and don’t mix up DC and Marvel characters!)

The wings for the bat DIY costume will also double as a cape for a batgirl outfit.

• I sewed a thin belt of yellow satin fabric
• added a Batman embroidered motif (which you can find on eBay or Amazon  – 8cm wide) – again I sewed this on loosely so it can easily be removed.
• And made a batman mask by glueing some of the black felt to a piece of card and using a piece of thin elastic.

Why not make a felt hero mask?

And you have a finished batgirl outfit. My little girl loves being a superhero, she has already got a Wonder Woman costume!

Vampire outfit

Similarly, you can pair the dress together with a belt made from red satin fabric, and by tacking more of the red fabric to the independent of the witches cape from last week. By adding a white t-shirt or shirt, tights and a handkerchief at the neckline, in no time at all you have a great homemade vampire outfit. 

Just add some white face paint and fake blood and the job is done!

Cat outfit

Finally, and most simply of all, the last of our last-minute Halloween costumes from closet clothes is a cat outfit. This is one of the most easy costumes in your closet, you just wear the black dress with a cat mask or cat headband and add whiskers drawn on with a eyebrow pencil to make a cat outfit.

There are lots of possible Halloween costume ideas in your closet and outfits made around a simple black dress to be made. These easy costumes from your closet are very quick to make. And at least this means that the black dress may get lots of wears over the coming few months before my little girl grows out of it.

Have you enjoyed this post about Cheap and Easy Costume Ideas For Adults and Children?

I have lots of DIY Halloween decorations and the odd craft tutorial too! Plus I love to see what you have made. Do you have any favourite Halloween costumes you can make from your closet? Comment below, or why not find me on my social media channels?

And why not pin this post for later?