Homemade Kids' Halloween Costumes

With Halloween fast approaching, it's time to start thinking about costumes. We've gathered our favorite kids' costumes to inspire you and the little ones.

Colorful and beautifully crafted, hand-stitched felt wings can turn anyone into a bright butterfly. Combine them with a plain black top and pants, and a headband with pipe-cleaner antennae.

You don't need X-ray vision to see that when your kids create these speedy superhero costumes, they can mix and match their own amazingly awesome attributes. Each of these outfits starts with leggings and a long-sleeve T-shirt (which don't even have to match). Then come the accessories using our templates: head bands, eye masks, chest letters, capes, lightning bolts, and belts.

This space invader is ready to explore galaxies, thanks to his high-tech night-vision goggles, egg-carton space suit, and foam-cup helmet. His weapon -- a cookie press with a plastic-cup-and-cone insert -- protects him from alien encounters.

Make a blossoming disguise for your little one using crepe paper, floral tape, and wire.

Transform your young one into a magician with a drawn-on tie and collar, a fake carnation, and a cape made from black and red satin fabric.

Use crepe paper, streamers, and black construction paper to make this festive costume.

Beneath these majestic cloaks are ribbon sashes decorated with button-and-ribbon medals. The unlined capes don't require any sewing, just fabric glue to hold the rickrack in place. A fancy dress is the underpinning of a girl's costume. A boy's jacket, its collar turned up, is embellished with bright buttons and tacked-on rickrack at the cuffs. Tacked-on red ribbon runs down each trouser leg.

Earth-tone knit clothing is the foundation for an enchanted forest of walking, talking flora and fauna. The foliage on the sapling and big trees is made from felt and cotton fabric, floral wire, and floral tape.

Making your own Halloween costume is fun, but it can be time-consuming. This year, why not make a mask? Preserved leaves, flower petals, and feathers can be used to create masks that have the impact of a complete costume; they're playful enough for any trick-or-treater yet elegant enough for a Halloween ball. This mask is made from adorning a basic mask with inexpensive fabric roses.

These three little sheep can't wait to graze on candy. Their "fleece" is wool batting, gathered and sewn to a sleeveless leotard, which is worn over a black long-sleeved shirt and leggings. A cotton hat with floppy felt ears and a dot of face paint complete the costume. For children ages 3 and older.

Crepe paper is inexpensive and available in a rainbow of colors, and it can be tugged, stretched, and rolled into a multitude of shapes. But be careful: It is paper and can rip. Which is why we used it to create beguiling accessories -- hats, wings, garlands, and skirts -- instead of entire outfits. Here, we created a pair of wings to turn any trick-or-treater into the perfect butterfly.

What to bee? Annabelle, 5, will create a buzz as a bustling hive. Silk flowers, twigs, and bees all find home, sweet home atop her hair (made longer with twisted yarn). We made the bees with pipe cleaners; chenille bees are available at crafts stores. For this style, hair should be medium to long in length.

Make a sunny bundle of daisies, tulips, and sunflowers. These friends wear felt-petal collars and "pollen" headdresses topped with stickers. Velour dresses and bright tights bring it all together without a single stitch.

Why did this baby chicken cross the road? To get to the Halloween party, of course. Her costume is made from two tickley feather boas, ordinary kitchen gloves, yellow tights, and a pilot's cap that's crowned with a felt comb. Under the plumage, two leotards are stuffed with batting for extra plumpness. Appropriate for children ages 3 and older.

Howdy, pardner. To turn your kid into a charismatic cowboy, just rustle up some brown-paper grocery and trash-compactor bags.

A talking tomato; a walking pumpkin. Apparitions like these aren't so surprising at a children's costume party, but there is something unusual about these particular creatures: They owe their disguises to crepe paper.

The perfect apparel for ruling the arachnids is made simply from crepe paper and a bit of yarn.

This Halloween, turn your kid's mane into the main disguise. Nicholas, age 9, masquerades as one of nature's elements. His hair, groomed with spray-on dye, has sprouted into lush grass, a stomping ground for plastic critters. This costume is best for a child with hair that's short but not too cropped.

This simple but adorable pumpkin costume can be made using an ordinary pillowcase in about 1 1/2 hours.

This basic pair of wings can serve as the basis for dragonfly, bat, fairy, or butterfly costumes.

Styling a child as one of the elements, wind, is a breeze; in no time, you can create a costume that will blow everyone away.

This senorita sports the traditional matador's attire, complete with an easy-to-make basic cape.

Bring on the fans! This costume features gloriously gaudy gemstones, aqua lame, and pencil-drawn sideburns.

We copied the leaves of maple, oak, ginkgo, sassafras, and birch trees for this autumnal getup, but you can use any leaf shape you wish.

What's shaking? The Charleston is the sweetest dance in town when the flapper wears a dress of shimmying sugar packets.

A child clad in green is transformed into a lily of the valley flower when topped with a simple crepe-paper cap.

These girls were transformed into hula dancers in one afternoon. What's their secret? Their leis are made of vibrantly colored gift bows; their swinging skirts, fashioned from rope-style mop heads. The dancer on the left is even a ukulele player; her instrument is made out of recycled cardboard cereal boxes, a paper-towel tube, and rubber bands.

Glam up your young lady with a faux-fur wrap, flea-market brooches, grown-up attire and jewels, and an elegant hairdo.

These hoodie costumes are perfect for kids who love "scary" animals, such as sharks and bats.

An Elizabethan-style costume like this could get even Tinkerbell hooked on coffee.

To encourage hair-loom roses to bloom, Bryana, 7, sprinkled her head with hair glitter. Her updo, wrapped in a potted-plant fence, is ideal for tucking in silk roses. Wire keeps silk butterflies from flying away. More silk flowers grow on her shirt with the help of some hot glue.

Hip, hip, hooray! The crowd will go wild for this cheerleader and her very cheer-full ensemble. 

An easy-to-make red corduroy cape is all you'll need to transform a little girl into a favorite storybook heroine.

Make adorable frog prince and princess costumes from ordinary hooded sweatshirts.

Disguise your child as a stout pumpkin with this simple crepe-paper costume idea.

Elevate a surfer costume with a totally cool hairstyle.

Embrace the charm of classic storybook characters with these easy-to-make hoodie costumes.

What costume could be cooler than this? Hair spray froze 7-year-old Gabrielle's hair in place (and functioned as "glue" for the plastic crystals); white hair dye covered it in frost. Body crystals were attached to her face with eyelash glue.

Tra-la-la! The prettiest princesses must wear lots of lace, and we've found a way to use basic household items to make their lovely dresses.

A knight in shining...foil? A costume for a daring knight and an imposing little dragon are quite easy to make using basic kitchen supplies.

Our stark yet stylized bird costume is easily put together with just a few simple embellishments attached to an ordinary black hoodie.

The detective and his trusty hound follow the scent to the next crime scene. Their matching plaid capes (modeled after the attire of Sherlock Holmes) are sewn from inexpensive suiting fabric with a simple pattern.