These DIY Dog Halloween Costumes Are Creative And Easy To Make (2024)

Perfect for last-minute costumes.

There are so many dog Halloween costumes available to buy online, but sometimes it’s more fun to get creative and make your dog’s Halloween costume yourself. We found some of the most original (and easiest) DIY dog Halloween costumes you can whip up at home using just a few supplies you may already have on hand.

Plus, DIY costumes are usually more affordable than buying ready-made outfits, which is always a good thing!

Warm up the hot glue gun and sharpen your scissors — you have a DIY project to do!

The best DIY Halloween costumes to make for your dog

Here are some of the best dog costumes that let you flex your DIY muscle.

Beanie Baby

This may be one of the easiest costumes you can make for your dog this Halloween — you’ll basically be turning your pup into a huge Beanie Baby by making a giant Beanie Baby “Ty” tag! All you need is:

First, decide whether you want your Beanie Baby Ty tag to open up to reveal a message. If so, fold your poster board in half. Then, keeping the fold within the shape, draw a heart onto your poster board using a pencil. Cut the heart out.

Draw the iconic “Ty” design onto the heart shape and then paint the background red and the lettering and border white. On the inside, you can add information about your dog, or make something up! Finally, add a hole punch in the upper left corner and tie it onto your dog’s collar with a piece of yarn.

You can check out the full tutorial on Brit + Co.

S’mores

For this super cute DIY dog Halloween costume from Studio DIY, which turns your dog into a walking marshmallow stuck between two cardboard graham crackers, you’ll only need a few supplies:

First, either paint brown chocolate drips on the topside of your dog shirt using fabric paint (acrylic paint should work fine, too), or cut chocolate drips from brown paper and glue them to your dog shirt.

Then, cut two squares from your cardboard to make your graham crackers. You can draw on the graham cracker holes or just leave the cardboard as is. Make sure the cardboard piece that will attach to your dog’s underside won’t interfere with his walking.

Attach one side of the Velcro to both the top and bottom of your dog shirt and the matching side to both of your cardboard squares. When your dog has his shirt on, you can quickly add the graham cracker accessories and remove them as needed.

Shark and surfer

Here’s a great pet parent and pup costume from Wear Wag Repeat. You can dress up like a surfer while your dog plays a shark who just took a bite from your board!
For this matching costume, you’ll need:

For your dog’s shark fin, outline a fin shape on a piece of foam board and cut it out. Paint the fin gray on both sides. While the fin dries, cut two rectangular shapes of foam board that are at least the same length as the bottom of your fin. Glue the bottom of your fin to one of these rectangles and paint the rectangle gray.

Then, sandwich your strip of fabric perpendicularly between both the plain rectangle of foam board and the fin base and glue everything in place. When dry, tie the fabric around your dog’s waist, and the fin should stay upright.

Then, make yourself a chewed-up surfboard using another piece of foam board. Draw one end of a surfboard with jagged teeth marks at the other end. Cut your surfboard out and then paint it using colors of your choice. Dress in a rashguard and swim trunks, and you’re ready to party!

Dog jetpack

To infinity and beyond! To make your dog a jetpack for Halloween, you’ll only need a few materials (some of which can be found in your recycling bin!):

First, wrap each of your soda bottles in duct or flashing tape so they’re entirely covered. Then, take a strip of tape and attach the two bottles together, side by side.

Cut strips of red and orange tissue paper to make the flames. You can then use more tape to attach the strips of tissue to the neck ends of the bottles.

To attach the jetpack to your dog’s harness, you can run a length of wire between the bottles, under the tape holding them together, and secure the pack that way. Or, you can use more tape to attach the pack to the back part of the harness. Then, you can just cut the tape off when Halloween is over.

Check out the full tutorial over on The Dog Guide.

Spider

Spiders and Halloween will always go hand in hand, so why not dress your dog like a fluffy arachnid on Halloween night? For this costume, courtesy of Sea Lemon on YouTube, you’ll need:

Yup, that’s it! To make the spider legs, twist together about four or five pipe cleaners and repeat this a second time. Take your two twisted pip cleaner bundles and twist them together at the ends to create longer legs with a joint in the middle. (But if your dog is smaller, you may not need to make super long legs — just stick with the original pipe cleaner length!)

Repeat this process seven more times to make eight legs in total.

Tie four legs on each side of your dog’s collar (with his collar’s leash clasp in the middle) by wrapping the pipe cleaners around the collar and twisting the ends back onto the lengths. Then bend the legs into shape, and you’re done!

If your dog isn’t warming up to the idea of wearing a costume, then it’s always best you take it off before he panics or destroys it. You never want to make your dog feel uncomfortable just to impress trick-or-treaters.