Top 10 DIY Fancy Dress Ideas

Dec 23 2010

A true fancy dress aficionado will NEVER buy their outfit – where’s the fun in that?

For one thing, you risk rocking up at a party in the same costume as someone else; it’s hard to play along with the idea that you’re Superman if there are three others in the room. No, a true fancy dress connoisseur recognises that half the fun comes from imagining and creating a unique masterpiece.

Here are the top 10 ideas for creating something quite wonderful from Jackpot Party:

Bat Costume – this is several steps up from the common homemade cat costume and is guaranteed to impress. It’s easy to make and if, as any true DIY fancy dress fashionista will, you already have a load of skintight black clothes, the only extras you’ll need are a black zip up hoody and a black umbrella. The final creation will look fantastic, but you will need to dedicate a couple of hours to the build – there’s a fair but of cutting and reattaching involved! You can read the full instructions here

Jellyfish – A surprisingly spooky costume, but one that’s easy to make once you get hold of the right materials. Imagine a headdress with tentacles dropping to the floor and you’ve just about got the idea. There are many ways you can make the top part of the costume – an umbrella strapped to your back, an wide straw hat with some extra foam or a hula hoop fixed to your shoulders. For extra effect, use white material and lots of bubble wrap on the tentacles and conceal a UV flashlight somewhere about your person. Or, get hold of some glow-in-the-dark paints and go stand somewhere shady!

A photo of yourself – This one’s guaranteed to get some laughs. Just get a cardboard box and cut out a ‘frame’ for your head or body to appear through (the larger the box, the more of your body you can feature in the photo). Now’s the creative part: you’ll need to dress up to suit whatever it is you want a photo of you doing, and then create the rest of the ‘photo’ using the inside of the box as your backdrop. Here are a few ideas: an embarrassing yearbook snap, a photo of you with someone famous, or winning a Nobel prize, or wrestling a crocodile, or landing on the moon…

A Superhero – Dressing up as a superhero may not seem all that inventive, but who says you have to go as a conventional superhero?! Instead, choose an original superpower (the lamer the more amusing), and come as, for example, The Charmer, SuperFro or Dr Thumbwar. Get yourself a cape and a mask and then accessorize according to your power – in the above examples, that could mean a secret stash of chat up lines, a range of concealed hair styles to suit any conversation or a couple of papier-mâché oversized thumbs

Windblown Outfit – Another really original outfit that’s easy to make. The idea is that you spend the party looking as if you’re permanently standing in a gale force wind. Find some old clothes and thread thin wire through all the hems, or tape it on the inside of the garment and then shape it as if a gust of wind has blown it in one direction. Put some heavy duty hairspray in your hair, turn an umbrella inside out and attach a few random bits of windblown leaves, paper or plastic to your body, and you’re good to go!

Upside Down – Probably the easiest DIY fancy dress outfit on this list, an upside down outfit just requires you to wear a hoody on your bottom half and some pants on top! Put some gloves on your feet and a pair of trainers on your hands to finish off the outfit

Snake Meal – A simple idea that’s easy to pull off and looks great. Find a large stuffed toy snake, or, if you have the time and inclination, make one yourself. Wind it around and around your body from the waist up, and attach it to your clothes with safety pins. Leave the head until last and then attach the mouth to your hair. Dress in safari gear and make yourself look a bit short of breath by reddening your face for a really great outfit

Stick Man – This is similar to a skeleton outfit, but it’s a bit easier to make and a lot less common. First, you need to find that black skin-tight outfit again… now stick glowsticks along the ‘lines’ of you body. Second, cut out a paper circle that’s a bit bigger than your head and draw a stick man smiley face on it. Attach to your face and you’re ready to act out any comic strip that’s required

Levitating Genie – This one takes a bit of preparation, but you should have most of the required materials around the house and the effect is well worth the effort! Cut out a square of stiff cardboard and make a hole big enough to fit your hips in. Hang the piece of cardboard from your shoulders at hip height and then drape a black piece of material around it to conceal your lower half. Now find a pair of tights and stuff them to look like legs, then attach them to your hips and/or the piece of cardboard. Dress your top half like a genie and you can spend the evening calmly levitating around the room. Genius!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel! – This one works particularly well for tall, thin people… Find a cardboard box that will fit over your head and rest on your shoulders. Cut a ‘window’ to look out of and decorate the box to look like the outside of a tower. Now attach some tower-like fabric, brown or grey or patterned, around the bottom of the box to hide the rest of your body. Attach a long plait to your head and drape it out of the ‘window’. For extra comedy, attach a small action figure half way up the plait