DIY Scarecrow Couples Costume

Ho-lee-crap, Halloween is coming up… fast. Not everyone has an abundance of time to make costumes every year, my husband and I included. Instead of slaving over some of the cleverer costumes we’ve done in the past, I opted for an easy DIY couples costume this year – a couple of scarecrows!

As a child of North Dakota, I have never, ever understood sexy costumes. It’s cold at the end of October in the American Midwest! My favorite thing about this costume idea, other than its simplicity, is that it’s also warm. You’re wearing yarn wigs, plus you can wear flannel, jeans, and as many layers as you like. Even gloves or a coat if the weather is extra terrible in your neck of the woods. Again, as someone from where I’m from, you never know if it’s going to snow on Halloween!

How to make yarn wigs!

Supplies

1 skein of yarn (pictured: Caron One Pound in Kelly Green & Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool in Oatmeal)
knit stocking cap
tapestry needle
scissors

Directions

For the scarecrow costumes, I made a short wig for my husband and a long wig with bangs for me. Both wigs are essentially constructed the same: you cut your yarn into several bundles of yarn that are the same length. Tie the bundles of yarn together in the middle with an additional pieces of yarn. The yarn securing the bundles will also be used to attach them to the hat, so be sure to leave a few additional inches.

Using a tapestry needles, sew the tails of the yarn securing each bundle through the hat. For short wigs like the one I made, I placed the bundles all over the hat, adding bundles each time I found a spot where the stocking cap was peeking through the yarn. Here’s what the short wig looks like inside out, so you can see all the tails where each bundle of yarn was attached.

For the long wig, which I styled with pigtails, you construct it just like the short wig. Instead of placing each of the yarn bundles all over the hat, looking for gaps in the yarn, you cut the yarn into long strips and attach them all along the stocking cap in a single line.

Here’s a GIF of where the super long bundles of yarn are attached to the hat, so you can see the difference in construction between the short and the long wig.

And looking at the inside of the long wig, you can see the line where the long bundles are attached. You can also see that the bangs are made with short bundles of yarn, and they’re attached across the front, kind of like the short yarn wig.

Really, making these wigs is just a matter of figuring out how and where to place the yarn to cover the wig. Super fun, cute and easy!

DIY scarecrow costume

Once you’ve got your wigs made, the costume part is S-I-M-P-L-E! All I did for the makeup was use stuff I had lying around the house. As I have near to zero makeup skills, I assure you that anyone can do this makeup in about 15 minutes flat.

Supplies

mascara
eye shadow
eye liner
lipstick
jeans
flannel shirt

I used lipstick to draw cheek accents on myself and my husband, I filled in our eyebrows and drew stitch-like lines on our noses and continuing the lines of our mouths. On me, I drew extra eye lashes, and on the husband, I drew some random stitches on his forehead and temple.

For as little effort as these costumes took to make, I think they turned out super cute. I mean, I have a seemingly endless yarn supply laying about, we both have jeans and flannels in our closets, and the makeup was just from my own bag. This takes only a little more effort than the thousands of simple lumberjack costumes I see wandering the streets every Halloween, but is so much more fun!