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!

Super easy unicorn costume that anyone can make!

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

Simple unicorn headband and tail for a last minute costume

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.

This unicorn headband looks so easy to make!

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!

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