No-Sew Scarecrow Costume

Earlier this week my son’s preschool hosted a Scarecrow Day. Parents were asked to keep it simple and dress children up as scarecrows using items from around the house. This is what I came up with:

Not too shabby, right? It didn’t take long to pull together. I didn’t have to buy any new items and I didn’t ruin any existing clothes either. So if you’re in a bind for a last-minute Halloween costume, here’s a quick and easy one that’s also cute as a button!

What you’ll need:

• plaid shirt
• overalls, jeans or brown pants
• bandana
• raffia or straw
• scrap fabric
• safety pins
• packaging tape
• brown paper bag

I started by adding a few patches to his shirt and pants by cutting squares out of scrap pieces of fabric. I had some canvas drop cloth left over from our pergola project, which looked cool with frayed edges. I hot-glued the pieces of the big patch on the pants together, and then secured them all with safety pins.

For the straw accents, I cut pieces of raffia and taped them across the tops with packaging tape. I then tucked the taped edges into the shirt and pants pockets and secured them with safety pins. I didn’t put any straw accents around the neck, wrists or ankles because my son would have complained, but that would be very cute, too!

I wanted a floppy hat to complete the look and so I cut open a brown paper bag and wrapped it around his head. While I held it in place, the Chief quickly taped it all the way around. I covered the tape with brown construction paper and added some more straw accents. I adorned it with flowers, but you could add more patches, too! It doesn’t fit like a ball cap and will certainly fly away with a strong wind, but it serves its purpose by gently resting on top.

I wish I had thought to paint his nose and some freckles, but he certainly helps to raise the cuteness factor for this costume.

What are you going to be for Halloween? — v.