Introduction: My 7 Yr Olds Scarecrow Costume for 2011

About: Full time Domestic Goddess! Wife & mother of 3 children, and 5 fur babies.
1st off...let me tell you I had NO clue what this scarecrow was. With lots of searching, well I got pics, but no real help. So I got my creative mind going! Off to the hospital, goodwill, Menards, Meijers.....you name it I was there looking around thinking, probably looking like a crazy woman. But I was a woman on a mission, to make the costume my 7 yr old wanted.

Mission: Make a kick a$$ Scarecrow costume for my son.


I apologize in advance if I missed a step, but I have lots of pics....I will add things as I see needed. If you have any question please ask, I will try to answer the best I can without actually showing you! :) Thanks for reading & Enjoy!

Step 1: Supplies Are Here, Time to Think!

Note to everyone out there on a budget. Dont buy fabric at the craft store, unless its something strange. You will find just about everything you need at goodwill!

Mission: Make costume out of these things...aahhhhhh, I hope I can do this!

*Brown sheet (I was REALLY surprised I actually found a brown sheet at goodwill) ~ any dark brown fabric would do!

*Find any kind of brown colors & fabric to make patches, preferably in VERY large sizes ~ I found girls leggings a couple sizes too big for my 7yr old, this costume called for baggy pants. A girls brown shirt size 10-12. Boys brown shirt 10-12. Ladies small long sleeve shirt in the lightest color I could find that was close to skin color. Ladies suit jacket in a burlap like color. Brown belt, nothing fancy.

* Cream colored yarn. (I only had white, but I used tea to stain it)

*Hardware store things ~ PVC that would fit over my sons hand. Clear tubing, small & 1in. Caps for the end of the 1in. tubing. Silver spay paint. Shoe glue & liquid nails.

*Meijer ~ Chrome duct tape. 6inch glow sticks. Food coloring. Cheap mask.

*Hospital ~ 4 Syringes just the plastic!

*Pepsi cans

*old ace bandage I cut into long scraps

Step 2: The Glove!

Oh boy this was hard for me to do, one I had to keep looking at pictures of what it was suppose to look like & I wanted it to be better....how can I do that? By making it glow!!! (but still being able to re-use the glove with more glow sticks!

The small tubing fit perfect over the syringe where the needle should be. Put some Shoe glue in the tubing and let it dry...perfect! Looks like needles to me & its very safe for a 7yr old.

Made some watery green food coloring (yes I know most are yellow or orange, it was 3 am when I did this and I messed up, dont judge! LOL) I filled each syringe about 1/2 full, pulled the black plug from the other part of the syringe, pushed it in very carefully and sealed that with liquid nails, sat them up in a cup to dry.

Liquid nailed smaller tubing to the side of each syringe and the other end goes to the arm part of the glove.

Used Chrome duct tape to cover where his finger are and around everything else to looks and to hold while the glue held.

Step 3: The Glove Part 2!

Now on to the arm part of the glove!

I covered the PVC with Chrome duct tape. (I use a lot of PVC, its like Lincoln logs for adults. :) No matter how much I would have sanded, then painted it, it would have chipped)

Cut the 1 inch tubing to length, (Glow stick and end cap) Glued tubes equally around the PVC (this was a pain, nothing wanted to stick! Shoe Glue and tape did the trick)

Covered the tops of the end caps with Chrome duct tape (they were gold...& sorry I dont remember what they were called, they are next to the tubes at the store)

Shoe glue & duct tape the other end of the small tubing to the end caps.

Put duct tape equally on each end of the tube where the glow stick will be in.

Added duct tape anywhere I saw fit, so that nothing fell apart.

The glow sticks fit perfectly!! And each night he used it we put new in......I love that part!

Step 4: Mask

I used the cheap mask I found and covered it with the ladies suit coat fabric that looked like burlap & added some scraps of fabric between the mask & fabric to make it for lifelike.

The fabric is one piece front he chin to over the back of his head. Then crunched it up to add yarn stitching on it.

I cut 2 pepsi cans in half. cut up towards the end to make tabs so I had something to glue to the mask, sanded them a little and spray painted then silver.

Added black yarn from the top lip to the bottom.

Step 5: Body/hood

Boy oh boy......Im sick of hand stitching!

Lots of yarn, stained all funky (as if anyone else noticed it but me) with tea.

The top brown part is a shirt I cut the neck & sleeves off, had him put it on then I cut it all jagged.

Cut scraps of different shapes hand sewn together, then stitched crazy with yarn.

You can go crazy, this is a costume that doesn't have to be perfect (I had to keep telling myself that)

The cream colored long sleeve shirt was worn to make it look like it was his skin, here in Illinois, Halloween is cold!!

The Pants I just off most of it from the crotch down ( I dont sew, I hate it, dont really know how and I am very impatient) then added my scraps and stitched with yarn.

One of the brown shirts I used for fabric, I saved the sleeves to use on the costume, and added (sewn & glued on) the belt.

Step 6: Finished......

AND he LOVES it.......it was worth all the sleepless nights, $ and stress!

Now off to the local costume contest...........YES he won 1st place, a snow sled! Hes happy he has the costume he wanted, & he won, Im happy hes happy! Life is good.

Now what will he think of for next year. ( I hope he gives me plenty of time to make it)

He was a mummy last year....I LOVED IT!

Step 7: Scarecrow & Mummy

Father and Son....what a family!

Also here are pictures of 2010's Mummy costume!



Thanks for reading this far!