The Easiest DIY Unicorn Costume

I can't stress this enough... Halloween costumes around here are usually VERY LOW EFFORT. They are usually last-minute, too. Now, this is not entirely my fault. I have been asking my children for weeks what they would like to dress up as. I either get an "I don't knooooooow" answer or ever-changing, impossible answers. Some of them also think that they are "too old" for costumes, but I bet that some of them change their minds on October 30 around 9pm. I also refuse to spend a lot of money on costumes. Have you seen the price tags on some of them! Ouch! I can't do it. My youngest daughter LOVES unicorns. She saw a cute unicorn costume last year at Target for $30 and it was white. We also don't do white costumes. We live in the country and the kids sneak in their candy. It is just a bad idea. She had a gray shirt and leggings, so she was a gray unicorn. I just made a headband and tail to complete the costume. She was still thrilled!

If you want to be a cheap slacker mom like me, here is how I did it...

First, I made a headband for the ears and horn. I started with a wide, glittery headband from the dollar bins near the check-out at Joann. The horn is made of a pencil wrapped in scraps of felt I had leftover from other costumes. I sewed a triangle of fancy metallic fabric to slip over the top, stuffed more, folded the ends under, and hot glued it in place. (Minus the pencil, which might be dangerous even if we haven't had any problems, the closest tutorial and pattern I can find is HERE.) I also used elastic hair ties to divide the horn on angles.

The ears are made from felt.  I cut pink ears a little smaller for the inside and the gray extends straight down for a few inches to wrap around. I also pinched the center of the ears and glued it together near the base to give them a little more dimension.

Next came the tail. I sewed some wide elastic together in a loop the same size as her waist. If you are a no-sew kinda gal you could hot glue it, too. Or, you could use ribbon and tie it on. Whatever works for you. I had some strips of tulle in various colors left over from the ninja turtle costumes. I added some pink and lilac, too. The strips are 6" wide and varying lengths. (Just double the length you want!) Then, all I did was hold them all together and loop them over the elastic. Just like latch hooking. 80s skills comin' in handy! Woohoo!

For one last detail, I used hair chalks from Five Below ($3) to make streaks in her hair/mane that coordinated with the tail colors.

She wears her unicorn headband pretty often, so that was another nice feature about going this route. One of her many ideas for Halloween is a gray cat. I wonder if I could get away with another headband and tail... Sweet!

You may also like these easy costume ideas:

Fleece Peacock with Tutu

Felt Deer Mask

Girls' Ninja Turtle Tutus

Mermaid Tail Tutorial

Felt Penguin Dress-Up Busy Bag

A few weeks ago I was talking to my sister about how to keep the kids occupied when you are trying to get something accomplished that requires a little more concentration and brain power- like taxes. One thing that I like to do is to keep certain toys and activities out of reach so that they have that novelty factor when I do pull them out. It can be puzzles, play-doh, or a box of toys with tiny pieces that I do not like cleaning up. Sometimes I also look for busy bag ideas on Pinterest. I found a cute felt penguin idea HERE so I decided to make my own. Of course, I over-achieved a little bit and made the accessories more detailed. All it took was some felt scraps, hot glue, and a few googly eyes.

It is fun to mix and match, but it can also be used for color sorting.

Everything fit inside a regular sandwich bag, so I just keep it in a drawer to pull out on special occasions when I need a few minutes.

If you want to pin this one to save it for later...

If you are super ambitious, I have lots of quiet books I have made that you can see HERE.

If you are looking for some easier ideas, try these...

Felt Taco Earbud Holder

We recently sent my brother a Mexican themed care package because he was hungry for Mexican food. Of course, as soon as we assembled a package he went all healthy on us and probably won't eat any of it. Just so you know, it took 5 lbs of animal crackers to be able to make a small dish of chocolate-covered-burros!

Anyway, at the last minute, I threw in something non-edible and just plain fun. it is a felt taco earbud holder. I found a you-tube video with directions HERE. I sewed on velcro instead of snaps, used hot glue instead of liquid glue, and punched holes of fun foam instead of plastic to make the eyes.

I don't expect him to actually use this, but it was a fun gag gift. That little taco face makes me smile anyway. :)