Queen of Hearts Costume DIY: How I Saved My Sanity (and My Wallet) This Halloween

Three weeks before Halloween, my kid dropped the bomb on me. “Mom, I want to be the Queen of Hearts!” she says, all excited. I’m like, great, another expensive scavenger hunt for a costume. Then I saw the prices online. Eighty bucks for what might as well be a Halloween clearance reject? No way.

That’s when I decided to get crafty. Spoiler alert: It was so much easier than I’d expected, and my daughter looked absolutely beautiful.

The Panic Moment

So here I am, skimming through the internet’s costume websites at 11 PM with a cup of coffee, and I’m watching the prices climb higher than gas prices. And my husband walks past me and says, “Just make one.” Easy for him to say; the man can barely sew a button.

But then I started thinking. How hard could it be? Red dress, some hearts, perhaps a crown thing. I’ve seen enough Pinterest tutorials to feel semi-confident. Plus, my mom made all our Halloween costumes when I was little, so it’s in my genes, right?

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The Thrift Store Treasure Hunt

First stop was Goodwill. I hit gold with this black dress that had these awesome ruffles on the sleeves. Five dollars. The woman behind me was purchasing the same dress in blue, so surely it was for a different costume. Great minds think alike.

I also picked up a red curtain panel in their home goods section. I know it might sound weird, but take it from me. That curtain had the right stiffness for a flouncy skirt, and it was only three bucks. Sometimes, the most effective Queen of Hearts costume DIY materials come from the most random places.

My neighbor, Karen, was also there (because, of course, she was), buying things for her kid’s vampire costume. She saw my curtain and gave me that look. You know the one. Like I’d lost my mind. Whatever, Karen.

The Crown Catastrophe

This part nearly broke me. I decided to try making a crown out of cardboard first. Epic fail. It looked like something my kid would create in her high school art class. I was then reminded of something my sister had mentioned to me about a stuff called craft foam.

Game changer. Craft foam holds its shape, you can cut it easily, and it doesn’t look like trash when you’re done. I made this crown template by basically drawing what I thought a queen’s crown should look like. Five points, with the middle one taller than the others.

Spray adhesive and cover the whole thing in black glittery fabric. Pro tip: do this outdoors, unless you want your kitchen table to sparkle for eternity. Then I drew a large red heart in the middle, using the same technique as before. My kitchen shears got a workout that day.

The Dress Drama

Now for the actual Queen of Hearts costume DIY part, which freaked me out a little. I am not exactly what you would call a seamstress. I can hem pants and that’s about it. But sometimes you gotta fake it ’til you make it.

I cut the red curtain panel into the shape of a skirt and gathered it at the top. YouTube became my new best friend when I needed to learn to make gathers that don’t look horrible. It took me about four tries, but I finally got something that seemed to be on purpose.

Attached the red skirt to the bottom of the black dress with my mom’s old sewing machine. That thing is older than me, and it still works great. Thank goodness, because I was not hand-stitching all that fabric.

The Details That Made It Pop

Here’s where I went a little fancy. Purchased some of that gold trim stuff from Walmart; you know, the stuff that looks good but is only like $2. Glued this around the neckline and down the front of the dress.

Cut out card shapes from white poster board and colored them with red markers. Hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds, which translates to everything. Taped them to the skirt with double-sided tape. My daughter helped with this part, which was actually pretty fun.

The playing card collar was my husband’s idea, believe it or not. We made it using more poster board and attached it with safety pins on the inside. It looked way more complicated than it actually was.

Hair and Makeup Reality Check

This part scared me because I can barely do my own makeup, let alone make my kid look like royalty. But it turned out pretty simple. Pulled her hair up into two bumps at the front; think Mickey Mouse ears, but with hair. Secured everything with about twenty bobby pins.

The red heart lips were easier than expected. Outlined with red eyeliner first, then filled it in with lipstick. My daughter kept giggling during this part, which made it take twice as long, but it was totally worth it.

Added some red blush to her cheeks and called it done. She looked in the mirror and squealed. That moment right there made all the stress worth it.

The Night of Truth

Halloween finally came, and I was nervous as heck. Would this homemade creation fall apart during trick-or-treating? Would other kids make fun of it? Would I be known as the mom who can’t even buy a proper costume?

None of that happened. Instead, I got compliments all night long. Other parents were asking where I bought it, and kids were telling my daughter how cool she looked. One mom even asked if I’d make one for her daughter next year.

The costume held up perfectly through three hours of trick-or-treating, a school parade, and a Halloween party. Compare that to my friend’s store-bought princess dress that started falling apart before they even left the house.

The Money Talk

Want to know the real kicker? The whole thing cost me about twenty-eight dollars. The black dress was five, the curtain panel was three, the craft supplies were maybe fifteen, and I had some stuff already at home.

That expensive costume I was looking at online? Ninety-five dollars, and it didn’t even include the crown. Plus, looking at the reviews, half the people said it fell apart after one wear. No thanks.

What I’d Do Different

If I had to do this again (and my daughter’s already hinting at Queen of Hearts part two), I’d start earlier. Three weeks was enough time, but I definitely stressed myself out unnecessarily. Also, I’d buy better scissors. Mine are older than dirt and made cutting fabric way harder than it needed to be.

The hot glue gun was my friend, but man, those burns hurt. Next time, I’m investing in some finger guards or whatever they make for clumsy people like me.
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Why This Worked

Making a Queen of Hearts costume yourself isn’t rocket science. It’s mostly about being willing to try stuff and not worrying if it looks perfect. Kids don’t care about being perfect, but they care about feeling awesome in their costumes.

Plus, my daughter learned that we can make pretty much anything if we put our minds to it. She’s already planning next year’s costume and asking if we can make that one too. Mission accomplished, I guess.