👻 Easy Ghost Costume Tutorial with a Bed Sheet

When my daughter wanted a ghost Halloween costume, I jumped at the chance to DIY a classic homemade white bed sheet ghost costume.

But, I had to think about how she would see behind the bed sheets.

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I didn’t want to just make holes in my DIY ghost costume. You’d see the face inside.

Then, the idea came to me to use screen material. The same thing that keeps the bugs from flying into your house.

The costume ended up being a great hit.

It may be a Halloween costume but it usually makes an appearance well before Halloween night.

We’re talking late September. And it isn’t entirely put away until Thanksgiving.

Forget the mess of white face paint or the challenge of making a ghost tutu dress combo.

If you are searching for a spooky costume that doesn’t take a lot of time or lots of materials to make, this is the perfect DIY Halloween costume.

Martha Stewart would be proud.

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More DIY Costume Ideas

Looking for more clever and crafty costume inspiration? These DIY favorites are fun, unique, and guaranteed to get compliments at the party!

🦇 Bat & Butterfly Costumes – Quick DIY wings that turn kids into fluttery, spooky fun in no time.

🕷️ Black Widow Costume – A creepy-cool spider look that’s shockingly easy to put together.

🍬 Tic Tac Costume – A fresh and funny group costume that will have everyone grinning.

🐙 Jellyfish Costume – Light up the night with this whimsical and glowing sea creature outfit.

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Ghost Costume Materials

You will need:

• An old white bedsheet or several white sheets in case you make a mistake (mine was a full size fitted sheet. I cut the edges off leaving raw edges)
• Some screen material (mine came from an old screen but any hardware store will have it)
• The ghost eyes and mouth downloadable template at the bottom of this post
• Black thread
• Scissors
• Sewing machine, sewing needle or glue (fabric or hot glue and hot glue gun)

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What size sheet do I need to be a sheet ghost?

The size of the white bed sheet needed will depend on the size of your kids. A queen or king size sheet will work best for taller kids or adults.

That means this costume even works in the category of women’s costumes.

My sheet was a full-size sheet, which fit my 7-year-old quite well.

Make sure you’re happy with how far the bed sheet hangs before you start cutting.

Of course, you can just get white fabric from a fabric store if you don’t have white sheets you can cut for this scary ghost costume.

Flat sheets are best, but if you only have a fitted sheet just trim the elastic out of the corners to make it flat.

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How do you cut a sheet for a ghost costume?

To be honest, except for trimming the edges off because I had a white fitted sheet, I did not bother with cutting the bottom of the sheet I had.

I concentrated my efforts on placing the eyes and the mouth in the middle of the sheet. Once that’s in place, if your bed sheet is too long, feel free to trim it while your kid is wearing it.

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Ghost Costume Eyes and Mouth Tutorial

Cut the eyes and mouth templates from my free printable and pin them onto the screen material.

You will need 4 of the eyes and 2 of the mouth otherwise people will be able to see the little face behind the mask.

I just folded the screen material in 4ths so I would only have to cut once.

Now choose where the face should be.

Usually somewhere in the middle of the sheet.

You can try placing the sheet over your child’s head and marking where the eyes and mouth should be with a fabric pen to ensure good placement.

Position two pieces of screen material on top of each other for each of the eyes and the mouth.

Here the eye holes are 1 inch apart, but you may want to measure your little goblin’s face before you start sewing.

You might think that the next step would be to cut out the holes.

But if you do that the sheet will deform as you sew the screen and you’ll end up with a wrinkly ghost.

We can’t have that now! 

So, sew the eyes and the mouth on the sheet FIRST.

A satin stitch works great. I did it with a tight zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine but this step can also be done by hand.

To make this an easy no-sew project, you could use fabric glue or hot glue around the edges of the circles. I would still recommend spending the time and sewing it.

Then turn the sheet around to the back and cut out the sheet material to create an opening for each eye and mouth.

Here you have it. An ooky, spooky ghost costume that your kids will want to wear to the breakfast table.

Put it on and have a great time with this ghostly look! If the weather is chillier on Halloween night, just put on a white long-sleeved shirt and other warmer articles of clothing under the white fabric. 

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How to Keep Your Ghost Costume from Slipping off

We didn’t have a problem with the sheet shifting on my girl’s heads, but if you’re afraid the sheet might fall off when your kids run, just use safety pins (or sew) to secure a white knit cap to the inside of the sheet at the top.

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Ghost Costume Ideas

If you are looking to create complementary costumes for other kids or the whole family, here are some great ideas:

• A pac-man costume
• Pac-man ghost
• Ghostbuster costumes
• The Ghost of Christmas Past from A Christmas Carol
• Boy and girl ghosts. For a girl ghost, just add a hair bow to the top.
• A friendly ghost costume. Just cut the mouth into a smile rather than a circle.
• The Peanuts’ ghost costumes from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
• A reversed ghost with black fabric and white holes

Go check out the adorable Free Halloween Treat Bags Printables this little ghost is holding:

Please note that this idea is not suitable for a baby costume.

If you liked this Halloween costume, check out my other creations, like the jellyfish costume, bat costume, butterfly costume, and my list of last-minute Halloween costume ideas.

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Don’t forget to pin this diy ghost costume:

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