It’s always fun to be a villain on Halloween, right? This DIY Cruella Deville costume was made from a few thrift store finds, some simple makeup and a few perfect (but budget friendly!) accessories.
It’s one of my favorite times of the year, folks – Halloween! Y’all know, the Circus and I start planning out our Halloween costumes in the summer, ok, sometimes the spring. haha!
While my witch costume from a couple years back is one of my all time favorites – you can never go wrong with a good witch! – my Cruella costume from last year was really fun to put together as well.
101 Dalmatians wasn’t ever really one of my favorite movies growing up, but Cruella has most definitely grown on me over the years. Well, Glenn Close as Cruella has grown on me – she was just fabulous in that movie!
I don’t buy readymade costumes unless it just makes more sense to – homemade ones tend to be soooo much better, right? This Cruella costume DIY was easy to put together and affordable – half of it came from the thrift store!
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Cruella Deville Costume
If you don’t want to read all the details about how I put it all together, here are “ingredients”:
Long Black Dress – Look in the formal section at your local thrift stores. I scored mine for $4 and one day, it just might double as an Ursula costume.
Fur Coat – Again, thrift store! I actually already had my black and white fur coat on hand (I have a thing for furs.), but it was purchased at a thrift store and that’s where I have found most of my furs.
I don’t go crazy on makeup with Halloween costumes. I wasn’t going to paint my face white or gray to give it that true Cruella skin color. All that paint just annoys the heck out of. So, as I did with my witch makeup last year, I just put on my regular base of makeup, perhaps a bit more heavy and then embellished with eyeshadow and lipstick.
I loaded up my eyes with green eyeshadow, black eyeliner and gave those brows a good thick coat of eyebrow mascara as well. And of course, red lips are a must for Cruella!
There are quite a few different black and white wigs out there to choose from. I actually tried three different ones and this one worked best for me. It held it’s shape nicely and had that Cruella flair. Be sure to use a wig cap with it – makes putting the wig on so much easier!
Cruella Clothing and Accessories
For the base of my Cruella outfit, I just found a long formal black dress from the thrift store. It certainly doesn’t have to be a formal dress, but when it’s only $4, you go for it. I paired it with a black and white fur coat I already had as well, but had found at a thrift store a few months back.
Don’t forget to accessorize! Red gloves and a cigarette holder are no-brainers for Cruella. I also opted to glam her up a bit as well with some oversized costume jewelry.
I’ve had those clip on earrings for years and this costume turned out to be the perfect chance to wear them.
And if you have a significant other like mine who prefers extreme comfort in his Halloween costume, you can get him this Dalmatian costume…Find it here.
Looking for another fun Halloween costume? Here’s one of my all time favorite DIY witch costumes.
And this DIY witch broom is a must for accessorizing your witch costume AND decorating with!
Ready to cast spells in style this Halloween? That’s exactly what you’ll be doing in this DIY witch costume! You’ll need a couple of thrift store finds, some tulle and a few other basic materials to whip up this homemade witch costume!
The Circus and I were chatting about our Halloween costumes the other day. When I showed Grunt a picture in the direction I was thinking about going, his response was, “Oh yea, I forgot how extra you are at Halloween.”
Halloween is mine and the kid’s jam. Go big or go home.
Last year, the Circus had three different Halloween costumes and I did two different variations of a witch costume – one more fancied up for our Halloween party and one more laid back for trick or treating.
In my opinion, a good witch costume is always a winner at Halloween. And while there are some great store bought Halloween costumes out there, I feel like a DIY costume always kicks things up a notch or two.
I put together this halloween costume with a couple of thrift store finds, an easy-to-make tulle skirt and a few other fanciful accessories.
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DIY Witch Costume for Adults
I’m going to break this down by top, skirt, makeup and accessories.
For the Witch’s Top
You’ll Need:
The top portion of a halter-style top two piece formal dress or another black fancy-ish top. (See below for more details and ideas.)
For the top I found a black formal two piece dress with a halter style top.
I see these kind of dresses at thrift stores all the time. If you can’t find one though, just keep your eyes open for a fancier style black top.
To embellish the top, wrap the feather boa around the halter neck securing with safety pins. If there’s excess boa, then you can snip it off or tuck it into your skirt.
If you can’t find a halter style top, you could still easily embellish the neckline with a feather boa, just follow along the neckline and secure with safety pins.
For the Witch’s Skirt
Folks, I’m not a seamstress. That being said, if I can make this skirt, anyone can.
You’ll Need:
Tulle – lots of it. 😀 I used green and black strips. I had a total of 20 strips that were 48″ long and 58″ wide. You can adjust as needed – more details below.
2 inch Wide Elastic Band that will fit snugly around your waist when sewn together – more details below. You can buy this by the yard at fabric stores.
Sew your elastic band together, end to end, to create the waist of your skirt. Hold the band around your waist to determine how big to make it. This isn’t rocket science, you want the band to fit snugly around your waist so your skirt doesn’t fall, but not too tight that your uncomfortable.
Step 2
Cut your tulle into strips. I left the width of the tulle alone, I just cut strips that were 48″ long. You can cut these strips longer or shorter depending on your height. For reference, I’m about 5′ 3″. Again, I did twenty strips total – more black than green. I wanted the green to pop against the black, thus why I did fewer of those.
Step 3
Turn your sewn-together elastic band inside out.
Take a tulle strip and gather it together at the top, then sew it to the band.
This doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be pretty. When you’re done sewing all the strips to the inside of the band, you’re going to flip it right side out and no one is ever going to see your elementary sewing skills.
Continue sewing tulle strips to the skirt until your satisfied with how it looks.
Step 4
This really isn’t a step, but it’s an important part of the outfit, unless you’re planning to moon someone.
When you go to wear the skirt, be sure to wear a black slip under it. Obviously, the tulle strips don’t form a solid covering around your rear end, so the slip takes care of this.
For the Witch’s Makeup
I opted to go with greens and black for my makeup to keep with the green and black in my skirt. You can of course go with whatever colors you’d like. For my more casual take on this costume, I did purples and greens.
Full disclosure: I am not a makeup guru, folks. I’m not even that good with it. I have no idea how to contour and all that other shit. So trust me, this is not complicated. I just played around with mine and added/blended/wiped away, etc., until it looked good. I did find that more is definitely more with this look though – it is Halloween, right?
Green Cream Lipstick – I used this one in Out of This World.
Step 1
Apply your primers, concealers and foundation as usual.
Step 2
Apply eyeshadow primer and let dry. Apply black eyeshadow on your eyelid. Come back with green eyeshadow around the edges of your eyelid and onto your brow bone blending out. Add more black or green to create more depth/color or to however you like it.
Line your eyes, top and bottom, with heavy black eyeliner. Lightly smudge out the eyeliner using the black eyeshadow, then go lightly over the eyeliner again with a little of the green eyeshadow.
Apply eyebrow mascara. Apply a couple coats of lash mascara. You’ve got lots of eyeshadow going on here, so don’t skimp on the layers of eyebrow and eyelash mascara, folks.
Step 3
Apply blush
Step 4
Apply highlighter along the bridge of your nose, above your Cupid’s bow, the center of your forehead, your cheekbones and chin. I just used my finger to do this as it made it a bit more defined than using a brush.
Step 5
Apply black lipliner heavily around your lips.
Apply black lipstick all over your lips, but more heavily along the edges.
In the center of your lips, apply the green lipstick. Blend as needed. You’re going for a fading of black to green look here.
For the Witch’s Accessories
You’ll need:
A witch’s hat of course!
A broom
I just went with a classic witch hat for this costume. You can find these all over the place during Halloween.
For my broom, I used one of the DIY witch’s brooms I made, which honestly, I love more than any other store bought witch brooms I’ve found.
That’s it! Pretty basic stuff, but packs a serious punch when put together!
And what’s on tap for this Halloween? You’ll just have to wait and see….it does include a fur coat though, and black and white hair. 😉
Have you made your own witch costume before?
Ready to get in the Halloween spirit? Be sure to see these then…
