Homemade Family Halloween Costumes That Take the Cake!

My daughters and I love to bake and indulge in treats so when it came time to come up with our annual family costume theme, it was a piece of cake. With a few simple ingredients — felt, foamcore, and a hot glue gun– I was able to whip up our bevy of baked goods. Our dog was even a little Hostess Cake.

LAYER CAKE COSTUME

Materials:
–felt (3 shades: cake color, flower color, leaves)
–foam core
–cardboard
–netting

1) Make the foamcore “layers”
Depending on your size, look around your house for large circular items you can use to trace circles of different sizes to make foamcore “donuts” (circles with a hole in the middle). Keep in mind that on the smaller top layer, the hole needs to be large enough to fit your head through and yet small enough that it can rest on your shoulders. For the larger second layer, the inside hole will be the same size as the outside circumfrence of the top smaller layer. To make a large enough bottom layer, I ended up needing to put two pieces of foamcore together by hot gluing a 5 inch wide piece of cardboard down the seam of two pieces of foam core butted together.

2) Attach the felt and Assemble

Depending on your size, figure out the height you want the layers to be and add three inches. You might consider where your arm bends so your arms can comfortably rest on top of the bottom layer.

Run the felt around the circumference of the circle to determine the length and add about 1 inch to overlap. Once you have cut out the long rectangle, about every inch, cut a strip 3 inches up so that it looks like fringe.

Determine the height you want the bottom cake layer and again run the felt around the circumference of the large foamcore circle, resulting in a large rectangle. Cut a scalloped edge into one of the long sides of the rectangle.

Trace the edge of your foam core circles onto the felt. Cut out the circles and then glue them on top of the foamcore “donuts” to cover the top of the foamcore. On the larger bottom circle, cut out the center of the felt where the hole is. On the smaller top layer, cut a hole large enough for your neck. In order for the felt to have “give” to get your head through, cut 2-3 slits from the neck hole to the inside edge of the foam core. I did one on each side of my neck. You might also need to do one on the back of your neck.

Once the tops of the foamcore “layers” are covered, it’s time to glue on the sides of the cake. Get the smaller rectangle of felt that you previously measured for the top cake layer. Hot glue the straight edge along the side of the smaller foamcore circle. The fringes should be hanging down at the bottom of the newly formed “cylinder”. Set Aside.

Glue the larger rectangle of felt along the edge of the large form core circle. The scallops should be at the bottom. Now it’s time to attach the top layer to the bottom layer.

Place the small top layer on the floor with the foamcore facedown and the felt sticking up in the air. Get some boxes or books, and make two stacks on each side so that they are the height of where the fringe begins. Center the larger 2nd layer foamcore top face down, over the small layer and resting on top of the books.Now reach through the center hole and pull up the sides of the smaller layer. Now fold down each fringe piece and hot glue it down on the larger foamcore piece. Once all the fringes have been glue down, the cake should be complete when you invert it. Cut two slits in the sides for your arm holes.

3) Decorate the cake.

Using long strips of felt, fold and glue to make roses. Cut leaf shapes out of green felt. I put a loops of felt around the cake and then draped netting through to create a scalloped decoration.

CUPCAKE

Materials:
-felt
-Puff balls
-Plastic laundry basket
-Foam sheets
-Foam ball and pipe cleaner for hat

1) Make the “cupcake liner”
Cut the bottom out of a plastic laundry basket large enough to fit your hips through. Pleat sheets of colored foam sheets about every inch and hot glue them onto the basket.

2) Make the frosting
Get several yards of white fleece. Roll it up and hot glue periodically to make a big roll. Sprial it and hot glue around the top edge of the laundry basket, leaving space for your body to go through. Tie ribbons onto the interior of the basket to make shoulder straps. (2 ribbons, each tied on both ends to the basket)

3) Decorate with Puff balls so that it looks like spinkles.

4) Make cherry top
Cut a large foam ball in half. Paint it red and then put a red pipe cleaner on top for the cherry stem. Find an old cap or hat (preferably the color of your frosting). Wrap a smaller tube of fleece around the top and then glue in the foam cherry.

DONUT
Cut out two large circles of felt. Put them inside out (It doesn’t really matter with felt as both sides are the same) and sew the edges leaving a space for your head to go through and your legs. Invert the donut so that the edges are smooth. Decorate the front with another colored fabric as the frosting and hole. You can either sew on the frosting or glue it on. Hot glue on different colored felts cut into the shape of sprinkle. Cut slits in the front for arm holes.

If desired, you can sew in some pouches on the inside to fill with filler to get a poofier look.

The icing on the cake was that everyone seemed to think our costumes were sweet and delectable!