DIY Costumes in Under 15 Minutes
It’s amazing what you can find during a quick trip to Goodwill! Accordingly, this week’s blog focuses on costumes from Goodwill that can be put together in 15 minutes or less! For this challenge, my goal was to find entire costumes with minimal to no alteration in a single short trip. The costumes I was able to find are Jason from the Friday the 13th franchise, Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie from the classic Ducktales television show.
Jason in the Friday the 13th Franchise has several different clothing options, so you are able to take your pick of any of his costumes to draw inspiration from. I took inspiration from several of his outfits to make mine. I found a black t-shirt, a green jacket, a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of black shoes. I was also able to find the mask in my local Goodwill. I decided to paint the mask a bit for some weathering and detail work with acrylic paint, but this is an optional step. This additional step took less than 5 minutes to complete. All together, the costume is pretty recognizable and very easy to put together.
The second costume inspiration I had was Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. Elle Woods is known for her iconic pink outfits. I found a pink dress in the dress section of my Goodwill and chose to add a pink blazer for an additional touch. Then, I added a pair of black heels to my ensemble. While this is what I found for my costume, you can make your costume from pretty much any pink clothing items and as long as you add your blonde wig to the costume it will be recognizable. These components work for Elle Woods, but will also work for Barbie or the Plastics from Mean Girls, so the main way to distinguish an Elle Woods costume from those is to add a little dog and a pink purse. I found a stuffed puppy in the toy section and a pink purse in the purse section. Adding all these components together, you have your Elle Woods costume ready to strut the halls of Harvard Law!
Our final set of costumes is actually a group costume inspired by the classic Ducktales series! We’ll start by breaking down the costume components for the triplets. The color scheme for the three boys are red (Huey), blue (Dewey), and green (Louie). In the classic series, the boys wear coordinating red turtleneck shirts with matching hats in their respective color schemes. I found the three hats in the hat bin at Goodwill and three turtlenecks in red, blue and green. Since the boys don’t technically wear pants, you can go with any type of bottom you want. Perhaps wear white to emulate the feathers or orange to emulate the legs. I chose white shorts as a part of my ensemble. The final piece of course is the shoes. I found a pair of yellow loafers to complete the outfit and wore a pair of yellow tights underneath to bridge the shoes and shorts (a pair of yellow socks will also work).
A few minutes at Goodwill is all you need to find an easily recognizable costume this Halloween season! Whether it is for you, your loved one, your child, or for a group costume, simply strolling the aisles of Goodwill can produce amazing results! I hope this got the creative juices flowing for the spooky season!
