Win the Couple Costume Contest with a Stunning DIY Queen of Hearts and Mad Hatter Costume!

The Alice in Wonderland theme is one of my favorites because there is so much you can do with it! Read on for tutorials!

This couple costume was a blast to put together.  I bought the corset and stockings from a Halloween costume store, and his jacket and pants came from a thrift store, but the rest is homemade.  

The Queen of Hearts Skirt

Grab some elastic and tie it comfortably around your waist where you want your skirt to start.  Knot it and cut off the excess.  Measure the tulle from your waist to the floor, then double it over to cut.  Pull the ends through the folded loop around the elastic and pull tight.  Repeat over and over all around the skirt until you get the desired fullness.  That's it!  No sewing required!  I staggered the red, black and white, but you can do it in whatever pattern you choose.

I had a little too much fun in the ribbon sections of various craft stores.  There is so much to choose from!  Take creative liberties and use whatever you love!  Just wrap the ribbon around the waistband after you've finished with the tulle.  Let it hang long in some spots to give extra patterns and textures throughout the skirt.  You can use safety pins to hold it in place.  I also found some foam and glitter heart stickers that I stuck on some plain black ribbon.  You can't have enough hearts on this costume!

The finishing touches on the skirt are pretty easy.  Just cut out hearts from black felt and red felt, hot-glue together, and give it some sparkle with jewels on top.  Hot-glue the whole thing right to the tulle where you want it, and you're set!  I also twisted in some mini roses I found in a pack at Michael's, and gold ribbon at the bottom.  To get extra fullness and a little more funky dimension to the whole skirt, I tied little bits of black tulle in knots at the bottom of each strand, all the way around the skirt.

The Queen of Hearts Crown

Cut out a template from paper with a slight curve at the bottom.  Measure five even points and draw lines straight up, with a heart on top.  Then you can draw curved connections between each one.  Cut out and draw onto either a red or black sticky-back foam sheet.  I got mine from Michael's.

Once you've cut the pattern out on one sheet of sticky-back foam, place it directly on the sticky side of another sheet BEFORE you cut out the pattern on the other sheet . If you try to cut out the pattern twice and then line them up while sticky, it's nearly impossible and you will destroy them trying to pull apart and realign.  I learned from experience!  Just place the cut one directly onto a full uncut sticky sheet, and then cut the pattern around it to match.

Form the cut pattern into a circle and hot-glue the two ends together.  Just make sure the hot-glued section is in the back.

To keep the structure rigid and easily glue to your headband, use something solid to form a cross, like a cut popsicle stick.  Add some jewels and you're done!

The Queen of Hearts Accessories

The wand is super simple.  Use a long wooden stick from the craft department, paint it black, and again use the sticky-back foam sheets to cut out hearts of the same size and stick together around the stick.  Then decorate with ribbons and jewels.

I used an old necklace I didn't need anymore and cut more hearts from sticky-back foam sheets and stuck to the existing pendant.

Same story here:  I used old earrings and stuck glittery heart stickers to existing pieces of the earrings.  A great way to recycle and not spend any more money!

The Mad Hatter Costume

I made the hat out of pieces of posterboard and lots of duct tape!  Make sure you measure the person's head, and leave room for it to fit over the wig, but snugly, so that it doesn't move around.

​Once the structure was done, I used modpodge to layer on scraps of fabric I found.  Then I used yarn and a large needle to sew on a big square.  It's a little difficult to penetrate the posterboard, but i can be done!

Get some silky fabric of your choice to tie around the base of the hat and knot in the back.  Use a notecard to write the famous "10/6".  Spray-paint wooden craft sticks and other random jewels or pins that you have with gold pint, then hot-glue them together.  A big feather completes the look!

The clothes are all from the thrift store.  Pick up an old sports coat and hot glue some lace to the inside of the sleeves.  New sewing necessary!  I trimmed the legs of dress pants we bought, so that we could see some funny socks underneath.  Don't forget to pick up a tea cup from the thrift store while you're at it!  You can find the orange Mad Hatter wig from any costume store.  Pick up some fun fabric to tie around his neck for the "bow".  The possibilities are endless!

For the signature thread sash the Mad Hatter wears, grab a cheap pack of thread spools and weave yarn back and forth through each one, knotting the ends together when you're finished.  Super easy!

Our little Alice and her cat, Dinah, make the costume complete!  Her costume came from Amazon, but it had no fullness to the skirt, so I whipped up a quick tulle skirt to go underneath (same process as my Queen of Hearts skirt).  I glued a black bow to a black headband, bought her the shiny black shoes, and she was set!

So there you have it!  Our Alice in Wonderland theme was a success!  It's my favorite costume creation to date.  If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line on my contact page.  Happy Halloween!