How to Make a Leprechaun or Elf Costume

If you're like me and don't really like to spend a ton of money on Halloween costumes, making them yourself can be a huge money saver. This costume can easily be used as 2 different costumes with a few minor changes. You can be a leprechaun or an elf. Just follow the simple steps below and you will have the best costume at the party!

Things you will need:
Green clothing. Doesn't matter what the outfit is, just as long as it's completely green.
Red and/ or gold material: for collar and/ or belt
Santa Hat: (elf costume) (you can get this at a dollar store)
Black derby: (leprechaun)
Red booties or boots (elf)
Black or gold booties or boots (leprechaun)
Jingle bells
Red or gold yarn
Velcro strips

Step 1

You will need to start with an entirely green outfit. Your kids might have ready something already that might work. Just go through what they have before you buy anything you do not really need. If your child does not have what you need for the costume, buying something that you can use over and over again makes more sense than a typical store bought costume.

Step 2

The belt. You can use red or cold material depending on which costume you want to do. If you have a scarf or something you can use that to tie around the girl or boy's waste and use that as a belt instead of making one if you want.

If you want to make the belt, you just need to cut a rectangle piece of cloth that's long enough to go around the child's waist one time with about an inch to overlap. All you need to do is hem the sides and the ends of the cloth and attach the Velcro at the end to keep the belt on. You can also add jingle bells to the costume if you want to as well. It also comes in handy if you happen to lose your child, you can easily hear them in the distance.

Step 3

The collar is simple, all you need to do is use the fabric that you bought and you can make the collar any shape you want too. If you want to make a pointed collar, felt makes things 10 times easier because you don't need to do any hemming.

You can use the appropriately colored yard at the tips of the collar and add more Jingle bell's if you want too. If you want to be able to tie the collar to the child's neck, you can also sew it to the inner corners and tie it around the child's neck.

Step 4

All there is left to do is to simply use the appropriate hat and boots or booties and the outfit is done.