DIY Popcorn Costume| Free DIY Tutorial | Peek-a-Boo Pages Costumes

Everyone who knows me knows that popcorn is my favorite food. I have popcorn most nights after the kids are in bed, so dressing up as popcorn for Halloween has been on costume short list for years. This year I finally made it happen with the DIY Popcorn Costume!

I hope you like this DIY Popcorn Costume tutorial. I’ll show you how to make the skirt, the top, and the popcorn. I’ll also show you where to get your supplies so you can get started on your costumes before October comes around and Halloween is upon us.

You can also use the basis of this tutorial to make a no-sew popcorn costume for Halloween. You can do this by using any knit pencil skirt built to fit your body, striping it with some red duct tape and white duct tape and attaching popcorn to it as shown in the Halloween costume top section below. The popcorn makes the costume!

Finally, this tutorial also includes the basic steps needed to make a DIY pencil skirt. Of course, you can use this for any of your costumes but also for everyday wear.

DIY Popcorn Costume Tutorial Supplies:

1+ yard of red + white stripe knit fabric for the skirt

4 packs of pastel tissue paper from the dollar store crafts section – this makes half the popcorn

1 pack of white tissue paper for the other half of the popcorn

Small girls hair elastics to put the popcorn together

Mini Safety pins to attach the popcorn

White V neck shirt for the top

How to Make the Costumes Skirt:

Measure Twice – Cut Once

Begin the DIY Popcorn Costume by taking your measurements and cutting your fabric for the skirt.

Measure your hips and subtract 3”. For me, that is 43”-3”= 40”. Then divide that number by 2= 20” is the width of your rectangles.

Now measure your waist to you knee and add 7”. For me that was 18”+7”=25” long for my rectangle.

Next, cut 2 identical rectangles out of your knit skirt fabric, according to the measurements you took. So mine was 25” long x 20” wide. Be sure you arrange your fabric in the correct direction, for this popcorn skirt that is with vertical stripes!

Now, lay your 2 identical rectangles on top of each other and taper in the waist and the knees. I drew a line on my fabric 1” into the material and 6” down, and matched that angle on all 4 corners.

red and white stripe fabric laid out with scissors on top

Stitching the DIY Popcorn Costume Skirt

Now sew the sides of your skirt for the costume using a stretch stitch or a serger. I used a zig zag stitch at a length of 2.5. Don’t push or pull your material through the machine, let it feed the fabric through for best results with knits!

Creating the Costumes Waistband

For the costume waistband, fit the elastic comfortably around your waist and cut elastic to size. Instead of sewing a casing, you are just going to sew the elastic directly to the top of the skirt. Pull the elastic very slightly as you go, using a zig zag or overcast stitch. You will be sewing the elastic to the interior side of the skirt, about ⅛” from the edge. Be sure you do not pull on the fabric, just the elastic. Once you’ve sewn the elastic all the way around, overlap the ends of the elastic and sew those together vertically. Trim excess.

elastic being sewn into a waistband of a red and white pencil skirt

Fold the waistband over to cover the elastic and sew just the side seams, or around the waistband, depending on what style you’re going for. I just tacked my side seams.

Hemming

I used fusible hem tape so I wouldn’t have a stitch line crossing the vertical stripes. First, try on the skirt to determine how much you want to fold it up to hit your optimal length. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to apply the tape and take care not to stretch the fabric.

hem tape being applied to the bottom edge of a red and white striped pencil skirt.

Now for the Halloween Costumes Top!

Now we have to start making the top for the costume and attaching the popcorn. Begin with a white V-neck shirt that fits you. I really recommend V-neck because the visual weight of all the popcorn needs the space of the V-neck to balance.

Next, to start making the popcorn, cut your tissue paper in quarters, then round each corner with scissors.

yellow tissue paper being folded and the edges rounded

Pull the tissue into a popcorn, or flower type shape, and secure with a clear hair elastic. Make many of these popcorn “kernels!” Sit down with a show and recruit your family to help make the popcorn! I made about ⅔ yellow and ⅓ white for my popcorn, but you can choose your color preference for your costume.

yellow tissue paper being held to demonstrate how to bunch the tissue paper up and secure it with clear elastic band to create the popcorn kernel

Now use mini safety pins and pin all your white popcorn on first, separating them out all over your tee shirt. Next, attach the yellow popcorn. Try on your shirt to see how it is filling in and where you have gaps.

Woman standing in a mirror trying on a handmade popcorn costume to check for fit.

Accessories: No-Sew Popcorn Costume Accessories

As a last step, you can attach some accessories. You can use any leftover popcorns to attach to a headband or clip like I did!

I also added a red and white popcorn box as shown in the picture below.

I think the red lipstick really finishes off the costume! Be sure to find red lipstick for your costume before Halloween night!

And there you have it. We’ve made the skirt, attached the diy popcorn, and came up with a perfect costume for this Halloween.

More Halloween Costume Ideas

I hope you enjoyed this DIY Popcorn Costume but we have a few more Halloween costume ideas for you. This popcorn costume is just one of the many costume tutorials we have here at Peek-a-Boo Pages. For a full list of all of each costume check out our Costume Section. This section includes all of our costume tutorials throughout the years – these are all diy and some of them have pattern pieces and some are no-sew and just made from things around the house. You can use the costumes others have created to generate ideas for what you’ll make for your kids for Halloween. The possibilities are endless.

We also have a blog post over at Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop that details all of our different DIY Halloween Costumes. This includes many of the costumes over here at Peek-a-Boo Pages but it also includes details about some of our popular sewing patterns that are used to make Halloween costumes. These include the Practical Princess, Wonderland Wings, Super Kid Cape, and Ultimate Costume Creator.

I’ll take a moment on the Ultimate Costume Creator. This is our most popular pattern for Halloween Costumes and you can make about anything with it from knit or woven fabric. It includes options for a: (1) Collar, (2) Neckband, (3) Hood, (4) Ears: Cat/Fox, Lion/Bear, Horse/Unicorn, (4) Dino Spikes, (5) Unicorn Horn, (6) Tails: Contoured, Standard, Dinosaur, (7) Manes: Horse/Unicorn & Lion, (8) Optional Cinched Waist, (9) Optional Cinched Waist, (10) Short or Long Sleeves, and (11) Hemmed or Cuffed Sleeves & Pants.

Our customers have made just about everything with it – including a DIY Ghostbuster, Mechanic, Firefighter, Astronaut, Prisoner, Jedi Pilot, dozens of animals and more! The number of costumes you can make is amazing – making it the “ultimate” costume creator.

Thank you for joining us today to pop some popcorn. Please come back soon. In the meantime, for our latest deals and help with your sewing projects, be sure to join the Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop Facebook Group.