See how easy it is to make a DIY scarecrow costume in no time and with thrift store finds. It's great for kids, toddlers, and adults, and the best part: no sewing required!

Need an easy scarecrow costume that doesn't require professional sewing skills or approximately 37 trips to the craft store?

This DIY version comes together with simple pieces and works perfectly for Halloween, school dress-up days, fall festivals, productions of The Wizard of Oz, or any occasion where your child suddenly informs you at 8 p.m. that they need to dress like agricultural décor tomorrow.

For Halloween this year, we decided to dress Rowan up as a cute little scarecrow.

We wanted something a little more classic than last year's Sons of Anarchy biker baby getup (which was also equally squeal-worthy if a little controversial...some people have no sense of humor, I tell ya).

The whole thing ended up being unbelievably easy to make, and everyone loved it.

His teachers, fellow trick-or-treaters, and other parents all had incredibly positive comments, and most importantly, Rowan was feeling himself in his scarecrow era.

It's also surprisingly durable: this exact costume was eventually worn by both of my boys, four years apart. More on that adorable little encore below.

So grab some overalls, a plaid shirt, a little raffia, and your hot glue gun. Here's exactly how I put this little scarecrow costume together!

DIY Scarecrow Costume at a Glance

• Difficulty: Super Easy
• Time: An hour or two (depends on your hot-gluing skills)
• Sewing Required: None!
• Ideal for: Halloween, school dress-up days, fall festivals, Wizard of Oz
• Cost: $ (very inexpensive, but depends on what you already own)
• Durability: Preschool- and Trick-or-Treating-tested...TWICE!

What You'll Need to Make a DIY Scarecrow Costume

CLOTHING:

• Denim overalls
• Plaid shirt
• Fabric scraps for patches (I used a $1 thrift store shirt)
• Optional: Straw hat if you don't want to DIY yours

CRAFT SUPPLIES:

• Sheets of felt
• Burlap
• Larger piece of felt (for hat)
• Raffia
• Faux sunflowers and fall leaves

TOOLS:

• Hot glue gun & sticks
• Scissors
• Brown eye liner (for scarecrow makeup)

Pictured below are some of the main supplies that I used to create this costume. I also used some faux sunflowers and fall leaves but they're not pictured.

Hey, I'm not that great at planning ahead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

How to Make an Easy DIY Scarecrow Costume

The overalls are incredibly simple, and the hat requires a little more winging it, but if I managed it without a pattern, you absolutely can too. Or just buy the darn thing if you want to skip a DIY hat.

Once you've gathered everything, it's time to scare up a costume. ;)

Step 1: Prepare the Scarecrow Overalls

This was actually really easy!

1. Cut irregular squares/rectangles from the felt, burlap, and plaid fabric.
2. Fray fabric edges to give them an old, weathered vibe.
3. Arrange them randomly around the overalls, overlapping some here and there (the wonkier, the better) and hot glue them in place.
4. Tuck small pieces of raffia under some patches and hot glue them too.
5. Add faux sunflowers and fall leaves scattered around wherever you'd like.
6. Glue raffia into pockets to resemble straw popping out.
7. OPTIONAL: You can also add some raffia sticking out of the sleeve cuffs or the bottom of the pants, but I didn't think Rowan would appreciate that potential scratchiness, so I left it out.

Step 2: Make the Scarecrow Hat

Creating this piece of the costume was a definite wing-it process.

I didn't use a pattern and had no clue exactly what the final product would look like. I basically fumbled my way through it, and somehow ended up LOVING the result.

BUY INSTEAD OF DIY: If you'd rather, you could totally buy a cheap straw hat and then just add scarecrowish embellishments, like faux fall leaves and a sunflower.

Here's what I did though since I wanted a full DIY costume (and because I enjoy torturing myself).

1. Cut a large circle out of felt that was roughly 16" across.
2. Measured one of Rowan's baseball hats to get an idea for head size and drew another circle that size in chalk.
3. Cut out that inner circle, which ended up being a little too big after testing it out on Rowan's head (nuts!), so a strip of felt was glued to make the hole smaller, which ended up working perfectly.
4. Using straight pins, attached a cone of felt around the inner circle of the base, then hot glued it to the base as well as the seam up the side.
5. Chopped off the top.
6. Tied raffia around the top and then added the other embellishments to jazz it up.

Sorry for the not-so-great photos and lack of details in the images. Like I said, this was done on the fly:

Step 3: Scarecrow Makeup

Once the actual scarecrow costume is complete, the final touch to really put the look over the edge is adding a bit of makeup.

I grabbed a brown eyeliner pencil and simply drew some tiny patches and small stitches on Rowan's face (nose and corners of his mouth) as well as on the back of his hands.

You could totally jazz this step up too by using different colors that coordinate with your shirt or patches, like black, orange, purple, etc., or even a little glitter.

Surprisingly, Rowan didn't mind this step at all.

It goes on AND washes off easily, so I would not skip this step because it looks so darn cute.

Step 4: Put The Scarecrow Costume Together

Putting it all together:

1. Plaid shirt goes on first.
2. Overalls on next.
3. Don't forget the scarecrow makeup!
4. Plop that hat on your/your little one's head.
5. Wear any shoes you'd like (Rowan wore a pair of gray and white sneakers).

The Finished DIY Scarecrow Costume!

And here's my little scarecrow!

Gahhh, isn't he just TOO CUTE?!?!

I am so thrilled with how this scarecrow costume turned out.

It was so easy to throw together (even if I am missing several fingerprints now thanks to the hot glue), and Rowan LOVED wearing it.

He'd probably put it on right now if I let him, especially the hat.

He first wore it to preschool, and Momma here was so thankful to see it survived the day AND the costume parade!

That's also why the sunflower on his cute little hiney is looking a little rough.

He then donned it again a couple days later for the real trick-or-treating fun on Halloween, then once more a few days later for our little blog photoshoot.

Hey, I wanted some nice high-quality photos with my DSLR instead of quick on-the-fly iPhone ones.

I know I'll cherish these images and memories for years to come. :)

Four Years Later: The Scarecrow Returned!

As if I didn't already love this little scarecrow costume enough, four years later it got an encore!

When my younger son, Brayden, was in preschool, we pulled the same costume back out for him to wear for Halloween.

Same jazzed-up overalls. Same plaid shirt. Same hat. Different shoes.

And somehow, after surviving an entire day of preschool, a Halloween costume parade, trick-or-treating with Rowan, four years in storage, another day of preschool, and another night of trick-or-treating, this little scarecrow was still going strong.

And once again, everybody LOVED it.

There's something extra special about seeing something you made for one little boy years earlier get a whole second life with his little brother.

At this point, I'm pretty sure this costume has officially earned family-heirloom status (you know how I love my keepsakes).

I'm saving it, and if I'm lucky enough to have grandkids someday, you better believe Grandma Christine is going to pull this thing out of storage and say, "Guess what you're wearing for Halloween???"

Those hot-glued patches better hang on for another 20 years. :)

Here's Brayden absolutely cheesing it up as a scarecrow and older bro Rowan as Steve from Minecraft (not DIY cuz if you haven't figured out from this post, I don't sew) getting ready to go trick-or-treating.

More Easy DIY Costumes

Easy DIY Captain Underpants Costume

DIY Pete the Cat Costume

Vocabulary Parade Costume IDea: Feeling Ambivalent

Idiom Parade Costume IDea: Raining Cats & Dogs

100 Days of School Shirt IDea: Bugging My Teacher

100th Day of School Shirt IDea: Clowning Around