6+ Quick Ways to Use Yarn for Fun Halloween Costumes

You can help whip up a Halloween costume frugally with yarn

Are you as happy as I am that fall is finally on the way? Fall is ideal knitting weather, of course. There’s another reason I love fall: it means that Halloween is right around the corner!

One of the things I love about Halloween is the opportunity to use my knitting needles to help my children with Halloween costumes. But don’t feel you need to knit an entire costume in order to give your children the handmade touch. (All that yarn may not necessarily be very frugal!)

Sometimes simple, quick knits can be used to embellish other items and put the finishing touches on a costume.

Quick and Easy Ideas for Young Ones’ Halloween Costumes

See this photo? That’s my two daughters several years ago. My older daughter wanted to go as Hermione from the Harry Potter books and movies. I received outstanding advice on how to achieve this: go to a thrift store and buy a graduation gown and a black sweater. Knit a scarlet and gold necktie. If desired, buy a cheapo witch’s hat. Bingo!

All in all, I may have spent about $8 on her costume, since I already had the right colors of yarn in my stash. (You can do this with nearly any character from the Harry Potter series; just knit a tie with the right colors.)

This is the pattern I used – a quick and fun knit!

My younger daughter was a baby at the time, so she became a pumpkin with the help of a “pumpkin-cap” hat and a pumpkin-colored poncho. (Knitting an entire costume is much easier for a baby!)

I used the Twisted Pumpkin Elf Hat from Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter. (This is an affiliate link; if you make a purchase after clicking, I may receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting Knitting for Chrity!) This poncho would be a quick and easy knit, and it has the added benefit of being completely unisex.

Hats are a great way to turn thrift-store buys into a costume. Knit a brown hat with ears, wear with brown sweat clothes or pajamas, and voila: a teddy bear. Make the ears a little longer, and you have a puppy.  Change the color of the clothes (and hat) to white, and you have a cat or a bunny.

Need pattern ideas? Check out these Knitting for Charity posts with patterns for bear hats, dog hats, cat hats, and bunny hats!

Does your puppy or kitty need a tail? Knit an I-cord!


The poncho mentioned earlier is also a great idea for making nearly any kind of costume for a baby. Just knit it in the same color as the hat, and you have a quick and easy baby costume!

One great idea I’ve seen for those who have lots of eyelash yarn in your stash is a werewolf costume. This works well if your children have some too-small clothing: hot-glue eyelash yarn to elastic, place over the child’s wrists and shoes, use some makeup on the face and gel in the hair to make it wild.

Alternately, you can use colored eyelash yarn (and some colored hair spray) to make your child into a Troll doll or a cat from the musical Cats!

(The links in the previous two paragraphs were affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking, I may receive a small commission.)

I hope I’ve given you some ideas on how to transform the child in your life for Halloween with a little ingenuity and not a lot of money!