The Perfect Homemade Couples Costumes

Ah Halloween! I could go on for months with DIY ideas for this holiday. Last week I showed you some adorable ideas for easy homemade costumes for your kids. So it’s only natural to continue this week on the same subject – costumes! This time, for mom and dad!

Well, let me rephrase that. Not just mom and dad. Husband and wife, fiances, boyfriend and girlfriend, or just friends. Whatever your title is, it doesn’t really matter. Couples costumes are always adorable, and go over REALLY well – when done the right way.

But tell me if this scenario sounds all too familiar to you. You come up with a stellar idea for a couples costume, and your other half HATES it. I mean, absolutely refuses to dress the part with you. Ok, time for a new game plan.

You run to the Halloween store to see what they have in stock, but everything is so generic. Or wayyy overdone. Or just plain too expensive. ARGH!!! It’s such an annoying dilemma.

I know this all too well. My husband and I have been together for 6 Halloweens now, and often he’s such a good sport dressing up in a couples costume with me. But I have to get VERY creative. He usually doesn’t like couples costumes that are too overdone, and most certainly can’t look like everyone else. Well, I may have something to do with that, too. I like fun and exciting costumes – so a meeting of the minds can often be difficult.

The first year we were together, he was impossible. We were going to a family wedding/Halloween party, so we couldn’t get too crazy. We finally settled on Mary Ann and Gilligan from “Gilligan’s Island”. That was alright. Better to go with a safe costume with family around.

I’m super bummed we didn’t get a picture that year. I was in the wedding and completely forgot my camera (this was in the days before my cell phone had a camera – ancient! I tell ya). Anyway, Our costumes looked like this:

You can get the Gilligan Costume here
You can get the Mary Ann Costume here

The second year, we were going to a big party in San Francisco. I wanted to get a little sexier… and he was totally fine with that idea 😉 We ended up settling on Cat woman and Batman. Still, pretty unoriginal. But I felt like a million bucks. And he didn’t mind his costume either. So it was a win win.

You can get the Cat woman costume here
Knee High Boots Here
You can get the Batman costume here

Year three, I started to get creative. I got all nostalgic on Halloween and wanted to bring back one of my most beloved cartoon characters of the 80s – JEM! Granted, this was BEFORE Jem had made her comeback and was in every Halloween store known to man. And BEFORE there was a reboot movie about Jem and the Holograms. Yes, this was an OG idea from way back in the day.

Yes, Jem and the Holograms had been done before… but Jem and her boyfriend Rio – not so much! It was PERFECT. And lucky for me, Travis was more than willing to wear a purple mullet wig I kindly asked him to wear. AH-MAZING!

You can get the Jem costume here
Jem Wig here
Tutorial below for full couples costumes

Year four – again – we went all out. The nostalgic cartoon characters were such a hit the year prior, we decided to go that route again. This time, I gave Travis the choice of a few. Of course, he chose the “super hero” Quail Man – from the Nickelodeon cartoon “DOUG”. Which meant I got to be the lovely Patty Mayonnaise.

It wasn’t the “hottest” costume, but it sure was a hit. We just barely lost out to completely winning the entire costume contest. We got second, only to the entire cast of “Game of Thrones”. Wah wah. Still, we were getting praise all night for bringing back fun nostalgic memories for so many.

Tutorial Below for full costumes

Year five we broke our couple costume tradition as I was dying to dress as Britney Spears. So I made him into a spooky black widow (in honor of the Iggy Azalea song he wouldn’t stop singing). IT WAS AWESOME!

I’ll show you in a couple weeks how to make this fun costume. But for now, we’re focused on homemade couples costumes.

This year – year six – I’ve got something amazing in store! I can’t wait to show you… just a few more weeks now 🙂

But in the meantime, I want to show you the step by step instructions how to make some of these fun homemade couples costumes yourself – for super cheap! So below, I give you everything you need to make 2 of my favorite couples costumes – Quail Man/Patty Mayonnaise and Jem/Rio. Get ready to get your 90s cartoon character on!

Steps to Make Homemade Quail Man Costume

The Necessary Supplies

White V-Neck Shirt
Green V Neck Sweater Vest
Khaki shorts
Large Whitie Tightie Underwear
Red Cape
Red Felt
- Glue Gun or Needle and Thread
Light Brown Felt
Dark Brown Felt
Craft Wire
- Wire Cutters (optional, but helpful)

Step 1:

Take your red felt and draw a large block letter Q on it (large enough to show on the chest part of your sweater vest).
Then, cut the Q out of the red felt and either use your glue gun and glue to attach it to the chest of your sweater vest, or take a needle and thread and sew the outer edges of the Q onto the sweater vest.
- I chose the latter (needle and thread) because I wanted a more sturdy, long lasting application. If you’re only using it for one night (and don’t plan to put it in the washing machine) glue gun and glue will do just fine.

Step 2:

Take your dark brown felt and fold it in half. Draw a 2×3″ block rectangle on it (make it about 1/2″ thick). Then, cut it out of the felt on both sides of the folded felt (both the inside of the rectangle as well as the outside).
Now, take your wire and line one of the sides of the rectangle with wire – using your glue gun and gluing the wire to the rectangle as you go. Once you reach the end of the rectangle, don’t cut the wire. Instead, leave the end hanging outside of the brown rectangle.
Last, put the send piece of the brown rectangle on top of the wore (so now you have brown felt rectangles covering both sides of the wire). Glue the top piece of felt on top of the wire – making sure all the sides of the felt are glued together.

Step 3:

Put the brown rectangle in the center of your forehead, and with the remaining wire that should be sticking out the side, measure around the circumference of your head. When the wire reaches back to the rectangle, add another 7″ and then fold the wire.
Bring the rest of the wire around to the beginning of the rectangle (where it’s originally sticking out of the side of the rectangle) and once it reaches the bottom side, cut the wire.
Glue the end of the wire to the back of the dark brown rectangle.

Step 4:

Now, take your light brown felt and fold it in half.
Lay your folded wire flat on top of your folded light brown felt. Trace around the wire so you have enough felt to cover the exposed wire – then cut the felt out (on both sides) and glue it around the exposed wire.
Now, it should look like you have a dark brown “belt buckle” and a light brown “belt” that can easily be wrapped around your head & through the “belt buckle” to stay standing up (just like Quail Man!).

Lastly, all you need to do is put it all on!! Underwear goes OVER your khakis, sweater vest on top of your white shirt, cape on top, and belt on your head.

Ta da!! Pretty simple, yet oh so fun.