10 Easy Costumes From Your Kitchen Slideshow
Carmen Miranda
This is all about the little basket of fruit on your head, and paired with a frilly dress or blouse and peasant skirt, this costume could be a real showstopper (or an awesome choice for a guy in drag). You'll need a small basket; scarf or bandanna; small fruits like grapes, limes, lemons, a banana, cherries, etc.; and a glue gun.
Glue the fruit into the basket. Then fold the bandanna into a triangle, wrap it securely around your head, and tie in the back (like a 'do rag). Attempt to balance the basket on your head in order to locate where it is best to glue it.
Island Girl
Making the top is an involved process, but at least you get to drink some fresh coconut milk. Here's a good step-by-step guide on how to make a coconut bra. Pair with a sarong, flip-flops, and a flower for your hair for one luscious costume.
Frat Boy
You'll need to imbibe before creating this costume, but not too much, or you won't be able to follow the instructions. Grab an old baseball cap, a couple of cans of beer, and some easy-to-find items like heavy-duty tape and some plastic tubing. Here's a video that shows everything you need to know about how to make a beer-can hat. Along with that, all you need is your favorite college sweatshirt and a pair of jeans.
Gunshot Victim
This costume requires a minimal amount of effort. All it takes is a white shirt that you drill (or rip) a small hole in, making sure the edges are jagged. Use a black marker to rim the hole so the edges look singed.
Round up some corn syrup, water, and red and yellow food coloring for this fake blood recipe, and then dribble it down the shirt underneath the hole. Extra points if you can use face makeup to make yourself look dead.
Modern Legend of Sleepy Hollow
You can be a 21st-century version of the villain from the classic Washington Irving story. Use a pumpkin that is big enough to fit around your head with extra space (often large pumpkins have a thick rind).
Cut a hole in the bottom big enough to fit over your head, leaving the top with the stem intact. Remove seeds and flesh and carve a jack-o'-lantern face into the pumpkin. Wear all black or a black suit.
Lady Gaga
Using the famous Lady Gaga meat dress from the 2010 VMAs as inspiration, stapling a bunch of steaks to a short dress is going to be a pretty impressive DIY costume.
The best cut to use would be a thin flank steak or top round. Find a short, tight dress that you feel OK tossing away after, and, using a heavy-duty staple gun, attach the meat to the dress. Pair with red heels. Caution: Beware of dogs while wearing the dress.
Pizza Delivery Person
The best part of this costume? You get to order a pizza and eat it. Save the box because this is the most important prop. Throw on a golf shirt and baseball cap, and you are ready for delivery.
Beer Pong Table
If you are heading to a party with a friend, this costume would be great along with the Frat Boy costume. All you need is a cardboard box, 20 red plastic cups, a glue gun, scissors, and a foot-long length of yarn or twine. Extra points if you use some chalk or a black marker to draw basketball court lines on the cardboard.
Cut down one seam of the box and unfold, then cut off the flaps. Glue the plastic cups onto either side of the cardboard box in a triangle shape. On one far end of the box, cut two small holes and thread the twine through then tie around your neck.
Chef
The chef's hat most of us think of is a frumpy one like the Muppets' Swedish Chef, but a chef's proper toque blanche is a tall, straight hat with pleats. Take a long piece of heavy white paper (about 12 inches wide works) and accordion-pleat it, staple the edges together, and then attach a 3-inch-wide length of white paper to go around the pleated paper as a headband. Wear a double-breasted white shirt or a white shirt with an apron over it, and grab some edibles like a bunch of carrots as your prop.
"White Trash"
This tongue-in-cheek costume might require some explaining at the Halloween party, but it's sure to be a conversation piece. Plus, it's easy and low-maintenance to create.
All you have to do is glue a bunch of white-colored trash items like an egg carton, a milk carton, carryout containers, etc. to the front and back of a white t-shirt. Extra points if you happen to have a mullet wig.