Make Your Own Witch Costume

Witch costumes are one of the most popular Halloween garbs. There are lots of stores selling or renting out witch costumes, but if you want to get creative or if you are on a budget, you can easily make your own witch outfit. All you need is some easy-to-find materials and a little time.

A typical witch’s costume consists of the following: a long black dress, a pointed hat, a broom, cape, and black shoes. Makeup and other accessories will complete the whole look.

Things you will need:

• Black cloth
• Red cloth
• Needle and thread
• Sewing machine
• Hot iron
• Black cardboard
• Stapler
• Silver marker or glow-in-the-dark stickers

For the dress, the easier way to make one is to find an old, black dress and have it altered to fit your measurements. Of course, the dress would not be complete without a cape, which you can make yourself. For this, you will need black and red cloth. The red cloth is for the lining. As much as possible, buy shiny, man-made fabrics that will make the costume stand out and will make you comfortable at the same time. Since witch's costumes are meant to be loose, make sure you buy lots of black fabric.

Step 1: Seam all the edges of the fabric using needle and thread, making the seam at least an inch wide.

Step 2: When you're done with the seaming, press the folds using a hot iron, then secure in place by running it through a sewing machine. Make sure to sew all four sides of the cloth.

Step 3: Press the cloth with the iron again to smoothen the cloth out.

Step 4: Now get the red cloth which you will use as the lining for the cape. Cut the red cloth to match the size of the black cloth, pin them together and sew. If you don't have a sewing machine, you can simply hand-sew the cape, although this can take a lot longer. You can use a simple black or red neck tie to secure the cape around your neck.

Step 5: Now it's time to make the hat. All you need is a flexible black cardboard, which you will form into a round, pointed shape. Just roll the cardboard up and secure the edges using a stapler.

Step 6: Get more creative and add patterns using a silver marker or make the hat more striking by putting glow-in-the-dark stickers.

Of course, you can't possibly leave your face unmade once you put on your witch's costume. A greenish face is a must, so invest on green face paint to give you that pale, ghoulish pallor. Put on dark red or black lipstick to accentuate your pale face. You can make your face look more witch-like by buying one of those fake long noses sold in specialty and toy shops then attach it on top of your real nose.

If you're really a wiz at makeup or if you know somebody from the theater department who does makeup, you can have your face painted with warts, wrinkles and moles for a more ancient look.

Complete the outfit with a broom. Any kind of broom will do, but if you can find an old-fashioned broom with long handles, then you should definitely look the part.