Oompa Loompa Halloween Costume

One of my favorite Halloween memories is of me dressed as an Oompa Loompa. The costume seems too complicated to make at home, but I used a little ingenuity and penny-pinching to pull off the loopity doo. All it takes is imagination and you can look just like the workers in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Imagine all the nostalgia you will evoke from young and old as they see you dressed as a classic Oompa Loompa from the original movie. Just thinking of it now makes me feel like I am back in Kindergarten again enjoying the sight and music of those little creatures for the first time. Here are my tips to help you make your own Oompa Loompa Halloween costume.

Hair. If your hair is medium length, wear it down and curl the bottoms up. Then spray it with green colored hair spray. There are also inexpensive green wigs that you can buy. Look for wigs that are cut in a bob hairstyle. I was able to find an inexpensive bright green wig that I had to trim down to the right size. What matters most about the hair is that it is green.

Make-up. Use orange Halloween make-up to get the Oompa Loompa complexion. Apply it all over your face except your eyebrows and powder it with Johnson's baby powder. I used a powder puff but a large powder brush works just as great. Then use white Halloween make-up to paint your eyebrows white. Powder your face again to set the make-up to last longer. If there is excess powder, use a small spray bottle to spritz water onto your face. The moisture will make sure the color of the make-up, not the powder, shows first.

Shirt. Oompa Loompas wear a solid brown shirt beneath their criss-crossed suspenders. Any solid brown shirt with long sleeves will do. I used an inexpensive Hanes undershirt from a local dept. store.

Pants. Oompa Loompas wear white knee-length pants that balloon out at the thighs. To achieve this look, I used an inexpensive pair of white that were oversized. Any pair of white pants, even scrubs, will do as long as you get them too large and cut them to knee-length. After you cut the legs roll them up. If you have the sewing skills, you could hem them. If not, then use a safety pin to make sure they stay up.

Suspenders. Oompa Loompas wear a pair of white suspenders with two big brown buttons. Suspenders and buttons are relatively inexpensive. If suspenders are hard for you to find, use any white fabric you have on hand.

Stockings. Oompa Loompas wear unique brown and white stockings. If you cannot find a pair, make your own. I used an old pair of white knee-high tights and some brown ribbon. If you have the skills, cut the ribbon and sew it onto your tights in stripes. To make it easier on myself, I just spiraled the ribbon around the tights and used staples to connect them.

Shoes. I could not remember the type of shoe Oompa Loompas wear, but I was able to guess that it wasn't high heels, platforms, high-tops, or flip-flops. I decided that a factory worker might wear sensible black shoes. It would make work easier on the Oompa Loompas' feet and more comfortable for me to trick-or-treat on Halloween.