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.)
- Black Feather Boa
- Safety Pins
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.
- Needle and Black Thread
- Black Slip – this is the one I used.
Step 1
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?
To get a look similar to mine, you’ll need:
- Your Usual Primer, Foundation, Concealer, etc.
- Eyeshadow Primer – this is the one I always use.
- Shimmery Green Eyeshadow – I used this one in Jade.
- Shimmery Black Eyeshadow – I used this one in Black Knight.
- Eyebrow Mascara – I used this one in Brunette.
- Mascara – your usual. This one is my new favorite because I have zero smudging with it.
- Blush – I just used my usual blush, which is this one in Pink.
- Highlighter – I used this one and it’s my all-the-time favorite.
- Black Cream Lipstick – I used this one in Go Rogue.
- Black Lipliner – I used this one.
- 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…
Dollar Tree Skulls Candleholder – one of my favorite Halloween decorations and it uses stuff from the Dollar Tree!
Free Printable Spell Book Cover – every witch needs her a spell book, right?!
DIY Skull Drink Stirrers – and every witch needs a drink stirrer topped with the skull of those poor unfortunate souls… haha!
Easily come back to this costume tutorial later by pinning the image below!
Keep up with our Halloween shenanigans on social media:
Yep, I made a chevron witch hat with my beloved 
It was screaming for chevron and glitter, don’t you think?
To get the round, contoured cut on the tape where the cone meets the hat brim, I cut lightly with an 
I apologize for the blurriness, but you get the idea.
So now my garage floor sports not only green, navy, white and orange colors, but glitter as well.
The hat is the perfect topper to my upcycled skull, which I’ll be telling you about next week.
Beware, I still have some chevron shape tape left, there may be more chevron-ness in the future!