Turn Your Child into a Fairy or Elf!
Here on Sesame Street, we’re celebrating Halloween with a little Abby Cadabby-inspired fairy fun. If you’re looking for some costume inspiration, you can turn your little one into a fairy or elf – and you won’t need a magic wand to do it. Follow these easy steps to create an enchanting costume out of ordinary objects from around the house and in your back yard.
Fairy Outfit
A fairy could wear a floaty dress or skirt, a long tunic, or leotard. If you don’t have any of these items at home or want to make a fairy outfit of your own, follow these magic steps!
Step 1: Find an old slip, nightgown, skirt, or long T-shirt.
Step 2: Use scissors to cut the bottom hem in a zigzag pattern.
Step 3: Using ribbons or scrap fabric, fit the outfit to your child by pinning on any necessary straps. Fairies love bows and belts!
Step 4: Add brightly colored tights or leggings, and pair them with ballet shoes, slippers, or sandals. Check out our list of different fairy types for some guidance on color options.
Step 5: Here’s the fun part for your little fairy: Decorate the outfit with ribbons, leaves, glitter, feathers, or flowers.
Elf Outfit
An elf usually has pointy ears, a pointy collar and wears a hood. Our version is made from an old sweatshirt and leggings -- a toasty outfit for little trick-or-treaters. Make some mischief with these simple steps!
Step 1: Find a long T-shirt and an old hooded sweatshirt.
Step 2: Use scissors to cut the bottom hem of the T-shirt in a zigzag pattern. The T-shirt should fall just above the child’s knees. Save the leftover fabric scraps for later!
Step 3: Gather the T-shirt around the waist using a belt, string, or a piece of scrap fabric.
Step 4: To make a collar, measure the child’s neck by gently wrapping the leftover T-shirt fabric around the neck. Remove the collar from the child’s neck and cut off the excess fabric with scissors. Wrap the collar around the child’s neck again (with the zigzag pattern facing down) and safety pin it where the ends meet.
Step 5: To make a hood, cut the hood and shoulders off an old hooded sweatshirt in a zigzag pattern.
Step 6: To make pointy ears, draw a pair on a piece of paper or cardboard, cut them out, and use tape or safety pins to attach them to a stocking cap or headband. You can also pin the pointy elf ears to this hood.
Step 7: Add leggings, opaque tights, or long socks—striped are best! Sandals or ballet slippers make great elf shoes!
Step 5: Decorate the outfit with markers, pebbles, ribbons, buttons, leaves, glitter, feathers, or flowers. Try adding bells to the toes of the shoes or smooth stones along the belt!
Wings
Poof onto the scene with these printable wings! They’re perfect for little elves and fairies.
Step 1: Print out the fairy wing pattern from your computer.
Step 2: Cut out the pattern and trace it onto a large piece of construction paper or cardboard.
Step 3: Get creative! Decorate the wings using markers, crayons, paint, feathers, glitter, stickers, ribbons, silk flowers, bells, wrapping paper. You could even cut out pictures from magazine pages and add them to the wings.
Step 4: Cut out the decorated fairy wings, making sure to cut out the arm holes.
Step 5: Thread two pieces of elastic, ribbon, or string through the back of the wings using the arm holes. Pull the elastic through the arm holes until all four ends are the same length on each side.
Step 6: Position the wings on your child’s back. Using the two ends of elastic on each side, tie a knot around each of your child’s arms.
Wand
Abracadabra! Turning a pumpkin into a stagecoach might be tricky, but turning a chopstick into a magic wand is as easy as 1, 2, 3…poof!
Step 1: Find a thin stick – a chopstick or unsharpened pencil is perfect. If you can’t find a stick, make one by tightly rolling up a standard sheet of paper and wrapping tape around it.
Step 2: Print the wand star pattern from your computer.
Step 3: Decorate the star any way you want using markers, crayons, paint, glitter, feathers, stickers, wrapping paper, or pictures from magazine pages.
Step 4: Use glue or tape to attach the star to the tip of the stick. Wind ribbon around the stick for an extra touch of magic!
Express Your Fairy or Elf Personality!
What kind of fairy, elf, or sprite does your child want to be? You can work together to add creative, original touches to your costume. Nature is a great resource -- try going outside and finding leaves, flowers, or branches to put in hair or carry as accessories.
Here are some ideas to help you decide.
Freckled Pixie: Using face paint, sprinkle freckles on your little pixie’s cheeks and have them break out in a big grin!
Fairy Prince or Princess: Attach flowers, leaves, and glitter to a loop of elastic or a headband. You have a crown!
Autumn Elf: Collect brightly colored leaves to put in your child’s hair or tuck behind his ears. Use washable orange marker or orange face paint to draw leaves on your child’s cheeks.
Flower Fairy: Flower fairies could wear pale colors and carry a basket of flowers. Add lots of flowers to wings and clothing. Tuck some flowers in your child’s hair. You could even attach flowers to your child’s wand.
Water Sprite: Water sprites love blue, silver, and green glitter! String blue ribbons from the spout of a small watering can (this can double as a treat container if you’re taking your water sprite trick-or-treating). Use shades of blue, green, and silver in clothing and wings.
Woodland Sprite: Find a long thin tree branch that is easy to bend. Bend the branch in a circle and secure the ends with duct tape to create a crown of branches. Decorate it with glitter, flowers, or leaves.
