DIY Casper the Friendly Ghost Costume

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For Halloween, some little girls want to be princesses, fairies or the ultimate girly combination -- the princess fairy. My little girl wanted to be Casper the Ghost. At age 3, my daughter had a dress-up closet full of princess costumes, and she loved them all. But she was adamant, for the first Halloween she was old enough to have a say, she was going to be a ghost, the friendly one. Now if this was 30 years ago, I might have been able to find her a Casper costume in a store. In the year 2022, the closest thing I could find was vintage Casper masks. That wouldn't do. Mamma had to DIY a Casper the Friendly Ghost costume.

Making a Kid's Casper Costume for Halloween

To make my kid's Casper costume, I started where I always start for Halloween costumes when I don't have anything on hand: the thrift store, namely a wonderful hole-in-the-wall gem in Citrus Heights called Mary's Thrift Store. Mary's has routinely delivered at Halloween time, and this year was no exception. 

Right away, I found this simple and ethereal toddler dress for just $1.50. Sold.


I knew I had two options to turn the white dress into a kid's Casper costume. I could use fabric pens to draw the face entirely on the bodice, or I could draw onto a separate sheet of fabric, cut out and attach the pieces onto the dress. Not confident in my drawing skills, I chose the latter. 

Through trial and error, I figured out how to draw and cut the eyes out of felt, but I immediately regretted blind-ordering the cheap felt from Walmart. It was hard to draw on, and if I were to do it over, I would have purchased craft foam instead. Figuring my daughter would only be wearing the dress once or twice and not needing to wash it, I skipped trying to sew the pieces and only burned my fingers about six times hot-gluing the delicate eyes and mouth to the dress. I used a black fabric pen to draw the eyebrows, nose and smile lines of the mouth directly onto the dress.


For warmth, I layered the Casper dress over a long-sleeved white top and thick tights. Casper doesn't wear shoes, of course, so the clear jelly sandals we already had seemed like most ghostly choice. For the finishing touch, we applied white face paint. The kid insisted.

My ghost-loving 3-year-old daughter loved her DIY Casper the Friendly Ghost Costume, and she was a hit everywhere she went. 







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