Groot There It Is! Two Last-Minute Movie-Themed DIY Halloween Costumes
With Halloween just around the corner, holiday procrastinators are emptying costume shop shelves and craft stores and playing tug-of-war with the last pair of fishnet stockings for their sexy, R2-D2-inspired getup.
To save you the headache of sifting through bags of frumpy fantasy characters, we’ve come up with a couple movie-themed suggestions, using only things that you can find around the house or a local big-box store. You won’t have to spend a lot of dough, and you’ll get the highest of fives all Halloween night for your ingenuity.
Leeloo from The Fifth Element
Materials:
- Neon orange duct tap
- Black electrician’s tape
- Fitted white t-shirt
- Boots
- Any sort of orange fabric
- Scissors
- Nude/gold/beige leggings, tights, or skinny pants. Skinny khakis work too.
- Tape
- Bobby pins
- Scrap paper
The Wig
Luckily for us, Halloween means plenty of orange stuff is hanging around the shelves. Grab anything you want that has enough blank orange space to thoroughly cover your head: t-shirts, wind socks, towels, etc. I chose some kitchen towels that were two for $3.
NOTE: Use caution when cutting while the fabric is on your head. You don’t want to cut any of your real hair off (like I did). Pull/pin your hair back as cleanly as possible.
1. Cut off any excess decoration if it appears on both sides. If it’s a t-shirt, you can just turn it inside out. Cut it in such a way that you have a fairly large flat piece.
2. Cut off a window at an edge the size of your face.
3. Mark where a center part would be. All your cuts should be heading towards this line like natural hair would. Cut a fringe into the top of the window to create her short bangs.
4. You’ll notice some folds that stick out from a flat material curving around your head. Cut fringes into the creases. Cut like cray! Get fringes all around your head. Since my towels weren’t big enough to cover my whole head to my shoulders, I used the second towel to fill in the empty spots.
5. Cut off any excess that is longer than just above your shoulders. You’re a stylist now.
6. Use bobby pins to position the fabric as you like on your head and flatten out any lumpy parts.
The Suspender Thingie
1. Use any scrap paper you find around the house, and cut them into two triangles. I used a takeout menu and invoices from deliveries.
2. Cut a bunch of stripes that are slightly thinner than the width of the duct tape.
3. With one long, continuous strip of duct tape, start connecting the paper strips to the paper triangles, making sure they are a mirror image of each other. If you accidentally tape the wrong side, no worries, just flip it and tape again.
4. Once you’ve covered enough tape to wrap around your torso from your crotch to over your shoulder, loop the straps around and tape to the other end of the triangles. Make it a little loose so you’re able to take it off for bathroom trips. Cover the rest of the triangles.
5. It’s helpful to sketch out where the holes will be.
6. Cut away!
7. For the sake of time and laziness, I didn’t bother with the thong back part. Just used some more papered tape to loosely connect the tops of the triangles together around the back. Again, think of your bathroom trips!
Bottoms
NOTE: I bought some nude workout leggings, and wore them with thick black stockings underneath so it didn’t look too revealing!
1. Use the black electrician’s tape to create the stitching details on Leeloo’s pants. It’s easier to do it while wearing the pants.
2. Make sure to secure the tape by looping it over the ankle and waist hems.
Put it all together! For the shirt, mine had a print on it so I just turned it inside out and backwards. If you don’t want to cut it, just fold it up and knot it in the back. Lace up those boots and you’re ready to save the universe.
Baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy
Materials:
- Brown and green markers
- Long-sleeved shirt as close to brown as possible (harder to find than you’d think)
- White paper shopping bag
- Brown shopping bag
- Scissors
- Tape
- Brown makeup pencil
The Hat
1. Cut out the bottom of the brown shopping bag and cut up one of the sides so it lays out in a long strip.
2. Fold the paper twice and cut little tendrils out of the top. Then make longer snips down every few inches and crinkle the pieces.
2. Using your markers, draw some wood-like textures on the paper, adding little green leaves here and there.
3. Measure it around your head and cut off excess accordingly. The hat doesn’t need to be too high. I folded over the straight edge so I wouldn’t get paper cuts on my forehead.
4. Tape it together!
The Shirt
1. Using your brown marker start drawing a wood grain. The actual Groot has a more flowy, wrapped texture to him, but I went with a traditional wood grain to really re-enforce the idea that I’m made of wood.
2. Cover the front and around the sleeves with wood pattern. Who cares about the back! Ain’t got no time for that.
3. With your green marker, draw on a few vines.
The Pot
1. Cut out the bottom of your white shopping bag
2. Try your best to mold it into a rounder shape, turning the pre-existing creases inside out.
3. Using the handles, you can tape it to your pants, or loop in through a belt to hold up.
Makeup
1. Put on your hat and shirt.
2. Using the brown makeup pencil, continue the wood pattern over your face so it lines up with the rest of your costume.
3. I chose to do a black shadow around the eyes to make it more like my fave Baby Groot toy.
4. DANCE DANCE DANCE
