If you follow me on social media, you would have seen that I rated some of my past Halloween costumes a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to do the same in a full blog post so I could provide more justification for some of my responses! (And provide links to tutorials/full blog posts where relevant.) Not all of these looks are technically Halloween costumes, but they all could be worn for Halloween. I’m just a sucker for a good DIY costume and will take any excuse to play dress up.

Wednesday Addams (2025)

Rating: 5/10

Last year I had the idea to do a “Halloween Costumes Already in my Closet” series on Instagram, which is what inspired this classic look. I actually still haven’t watched the show “Wednesday,” and I’ve never seen The Addams Family, for that matter. I only gave this costume a 5 because even though the dress was perfect for it, it’s such a simple and uncreative costume.

Reel: Shopping my Closet for a Wednesday Addams Costume

Holly Golightly (2018)

Rating: 10/10

This will forever be one of my favorite Halloween costumes. It was my freshman year of college when my roommate and I decided to dress up as Marilyn Monroe and Holly Golightly and wear these costumes to class (crazy in hindsight). This was what I was wearing when my professor offered me a job as his research assistant, HA! We nailed the photo recreations, and this supposedly haunted old building on campus was the perfect backdrop.

Blog Post: Hey Classy Lady: An Audrey Hepburn Halloween Costume

Shadow Sae and Akechi (2023)

Rating: 7/10

Not technically a Halloween costume but this was what my boyfriend and I wore to the local anime convention in 2023. We’re characters from the video game Persona. I’m not really an anime/video game person, but my boyfriend and his friends go to this con every year—so I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I made the dress myself by chopping up a thrifted black t-shirt dress and adding a panel from a mesh blouse. I did buy the hat and stockings for this cosplay. I rated this look highly because I think I nailed the inspo pic, but I’m docking points because this costume is pretty niche (and I don’t even know the character myself).

Chappell Roan (2025)

Rating: 8/10

I thought this teal Betsey Johnson dress that I thrifted for $1 would make the perfect base to recreate Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” album cover. The most time-consuming part was obviously the makeup. It’s white face paint that I have used in several of these costumes—which made my face look so dry and flaky, but at least it only looked bad up close! The photos didn’t turn out that great but I absolutely love the transition Reel I created.

Creation Reel: Shopping my Closet for a Chappell Roan Costume

Transition Reel: My Kink is Karma

Barbie and Ken (2023)

Rating: 5/10

Another non-Halloween costume—my boyfriend and I thrifted these outfits for the great Barbenheimer double-showing of summer 2023 (yes, we wore these outfits to the movie theater!). They’re obviously not an exact replica of the roller-skating Barbie and Ken from the movie, but considering that we either already had these items or found them all at the same Goodwill, these outfits are pretty impressive. I only gave the costumes a 5 though because they were so low-effort and unoriginal, but a couple of people commented on Instagram that I should have rated them higher.

Blog Post: Rollerblading Barbie and Ken

Billy the Puppet (2019)

Rating: 8/10

I put this costume together in my dorm room on a random afternoon my sophomore year of college. I love the movie Saw and thought this Billy the Puppet costume was so easy to recreate, yet still fairly original. The outfit is all pieces from my closet (I turned a red fabric belt into a bowtie), and then I relied on my trusty face paint again.

Blog Post: Billy the Puppet Halloween Costume

Van Gogh and Starry Night (2022)

Rating: 10/10

I think I always end up loving the “pretty” costumes a little more. I thrifted this black dress and spent weeks painting it while I was dog and house sitting for my aunt. It was such a good activity to pass the time. Cole’s costume was pretty easy, only needing a pipe, hat, and some gauze. I love this dress and still wear it to this day for non-costume events. Next time I wear this costume I think I will try to do more thematic makeup, like making my eyes look like the sky!

Blog Post: Starry Night and Van Gogh Couples Halloween Costume

Skeleton Makeup (2021)

Rating: 6/10

I wore this outfit on Halloween in 2021 to go trick-or-treating with my cousin. I can’t believe I didn’t put together a real costume! I guess I must have been busy with school? Anyway, I’m rating this a 6 because the makeup turned out really well, but it’s not really a “costume.”

Blog Post: October 2021 Month in Review

Flapper Girl (2019)

Rating: 9/10

I put this outfit together for New Year’s Eve blog photos in 2019 before entering the new “Roaring 20s” (and then Covid happened—some roaring 20s it’s been…). I never got to wear this outfit out but I know some day I’ll have to attend a 20s-themed event. This fringe dress is too perfect for the look, and the Audrey Hepburn gloves came in handy yet again. I love how fun these photos turned out, with lots of pics of me trying to do the Charleston and embracing the flapper dance moves!

Blog Post: Roaring Into the 20s

Monsignor Pruitt and Bev Keane (2023)

Rating: 8/10

This is the first “gruesome” Halloween costume I’ve ever done—dressing as characters from the horror show “Midnight Mass.” Cole didn’t have to buy anything for his outfit, but I purchased a white choir robe and some fake blood to look like the hateful Bev Keane. I love this show, but last time I watched it I had nightmares for months… So I don’t think I can rewatch it anymore. I’m docking two points because as good as these costumes are, nobody really knew who we were (and the fake blood was incredibly messy).

Blog Post: Midnight Mass Halloween Costumes: Bev Keane and Father Paul

Pirate (2025)

Rating: 4/10

This was part of my “Costumes Already in my Closet” series last year and probably the lamest one. I do think the lace-up top and pleather pants are perfect for a pirate, and I liked the purple theme with the scarves. But it’s such a boring and overdone costume.

Creation Reel: Shopping my Closet for a Pirate Costume

Transition Reel: Captain Jack Sparrow Transition

Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker (2020)

Rating: 10/10

This photo kills me! During quarantine in 2020, my parents and I tried to do one fun thing every day in the month of May, so our activity for May 4^th was dressing up as Star Wars characters using items we found around the house. I’m wearing a bedsheet and the chef’s jacket my brother wore when he was a child. My dad is wearing my mom’s cardigan and belt and holding a squirt gun (peep the Ace bandages around his shins). And my mom’s “weapon” is a vacuum hose. Pure gold.

Blog Post: May the Fourth Be with You

Princess Fiona (2025)

Rating: 4/10

I created this outfit by safety-pinning some gold trim my boyfriend had for one of his costumes to a green bridesmaid dress I already had in my closet (the same one I wore for the Renaissance Faire this year). The dress was perfect for Princess Fiona, but my ears and makeup fell a little flat. If I ever wear this again I will definitely paint my face green!

Creation Reel: Shopping my Closet for a Princess Fiona Costume

Transition Reel: Princess Fiona Costume Reveal

Survivor and Love is Blind Contestants (2025)

Rating: 5/10

This was a very last-minute Halloween costume that we wore to a party last year. The “Love is Blind” costume was clever (not my idea, I saw it online) but nobody at the party understood who I was. To be fair, the party was mostly guys. It was particularly timely because the Denver season was airing last fall. It’s funny because I tried to put on a ton of makeup and make it look really gawdy, since that’s how most of the women on the show look, but looking back it was hardly any makeup at all! It just felt like a lot to me since I wear it so rarely. I feel like I just ended up looking pretty instead of tacky like I was going for, ha.

Merryweather the Fairy (2026)

Rating: 6/10

I made this costume over the summer for a cosplay event which ended up being super lame. I wanted to make a costume using this teal dress because I hadn’t worn it yet this year (in hindsight, I’m not sure why I didn’t just do the Chappell Roan costume again). Merryweather from Sleeping Beauty was the only character I could think of, and I tried to lean into the silhouette of the costume rather than an exact color match. I made the hat from cardboard and poster board (this was my second attempt after the first version looked like a crayon), and I sewed the cape out of leftover fabric from the curtains I made earlier in the year. All in all, it was a fun costume to make but not really the right colors for the character. One person did recognize me while I was out, so at least I have that!

Creation Reels: DIY Costume Making Part 1, DIY Costume Making Part 2

Transition Reel: Not Pink, Make It Blue!

Frankenstein’s Monster and the Bride of Frankenstein (2025)

Rating: 8/10

This was last year’s Halloween costume! We were inspired to do this classic look because we had just watched Guillermo del Toro’s newly released Frankenstein. This was a fun costume for me because I completely shopped my closet for it, pinning up the white dress (which I hadn’t worn yet that year) and pairing it with the fishnet stockings from my Sae cosplay. The black gloves have gotten a lot of play over the years.

The hair was a piece of work and even harder to undo. I’m docking two points because I’m not sure how Cole left the house in those light colored shoes (they seem so glaring in this photo), and I wish I had somehow made the streaks in my hair a bright white (I used silver hairspray instead because I already had it on hand). Still, I was impressed with the height I was able to achieve with my coif.

Creation Reel: Shopping my Closet for a Bride of Frankenstein Costume

Transition TikTok: The Bride of Frankenstein

Some King (2016)

Rating: 10/10

This costume gets a 10 out of 10 because it never ceases to crack me up. I didn’t even wear this for Halloween; I threw this look together with items laying around the house to get extra credit in my sophomore year history class (yes, I wore this to high school). The lace top, beaded kitten heels, and white hair bow (clipped on at the neck) were all my mom’s. The gold pants were from a childhood Aladdin Halloween costume, paired with white soccer socks. I made the powder wig by gluing cotton balls and rolls of toilet paper to cardboard and affixing it to a headband. I think this was where my love of homemade costumes really began. Sadly this was before I started my blog (can you tell I had no hobbies?) so this crappy phone pic is the only thing I have to remember this outfit by. I’m pretty sure I ended with 103% in my history class.

Slutty Pumpkin and Hanging Chad (2024)

Rating: 9/10

My boyfriend and I were watching “How I Met Your Mother” at the time, which is what inspired our Slutty Pumpkin (played by Katie Holmes) and Hanging Chad (worn by Ted Mosby) couples costume. Cole shopped his closet for the outfit, and I made the hanging Chad out of poster paper (backed with cardboard) a few hours before our Halloween party. The pumpkin costume was made from a thrifted orange maxi dress and black and green t-shirts. This was before I had my sewing machine in Denver, so I hand-stitched everything, which took forever!

I’m not sure when or how we got this idea, but from the very beginning we knew we wanted the costumes to be interchangeable. I made a tutorial video for this look, and then we also did the “I just flipped the switch” trend, which got me my first (and only) million-view viral video. So funny!! I’m only docking a point because the pumpkin costume didn’t fit me as well as it could have—since Cole is so much taller than me, I had to “carve” the pumpkin in slightly different places in order to fit both of us. Worth it though.

Creation Reel: DIY Slutty Pumpkin and Hanging Chad Couples Costume

Transition Reel: I Just Flipped the Switch

Which costume is your favorite?? And what are you dressing as this year? I’ve been so busy lately that I really let the month of October get away from me. I have two costume ideas but haven’t actually tried either on yet—we’ll see if they come together!

 

Miles of smiles,
Grace