DIY Old People Halloween Costumes: Easy Group Costume
Follow these steps for the perfect easy and funny old people Halloween costumes! Great for a last-minute group or family costume!
We loved being old people for our family costume this year! I feel like dressing up as old people is one of those classic Halloween costumes that will never go out of style, and it always makes for some good laughs. I still remember dressing up as a little old lady in the 3rd grade and being so proud of my creative costume.
This was such an easy family costume to put together, with relatively little DIY involved. It’s the perfect last-minute costume idea for you and your best friends, coworkers, or family (and come on…little kids dressed as old people are just adorable). I think old people would also make a funny couples Halloween costume for a first Halloween as newlyweds (that first year can really age you 😉).
Keep reading for all the details on our senior citizen costumes and more ideas to customize this for yourself!
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What you need for a DIY old people Halloween costume
I don’t know why, but I kind of have an aversion to store-bought costumes, at least the ones right out of the bag where you don’t customize anything. I prefer to hand-pick each item for our costumes, so they’re exactly the way I want them to look and unique from anything else you might see on Halloween night (and some years that means a lot more DIY-ing, like when we went with our Wizard of Oz theme or Egyptian mummy theme–you can see all our family Halloween costumes HERE).
Half of our old people costume pieces were thrift store finds and the rest came from Walmart or Amazon. Definitely scour your local thrift store for old people clothing–you are bound to find lots of good (and inexpensive) options there, so it’s a great starting point.
Old Man Costume (child)
- I found this outfit set that was perfect for my son (and bonus, he can still wear it for church after Halloween’s over). It came with pants and suspenders, a plaid shirt, and bow tie.
- fake old man facial hair and glasses
- this hat
- walking cane: we found an adjustable one at DI (Deseret Industries–our local thrift store, definitely check if you have one in your area!) which was perfect for our little old man
- shoes: you could go with dress shoes, but I think regular sneakers are even better here (and my son’s simple gray ones matched perfectly)
Old Man Costume (adult)
- dress pants
- button up shirt with a graph check pattern
- dress shoes
- a straw fedora hat from Walmart (similar to this one)
All my husband’s clothes were found at DI and then we found the perfect hat on clearance for $5 at Walmart. Feel free to add a bow tie, cane or walker, and facial hair (if needed–my husband’s already got the beard going and it’s already naturally, ahem, a little gray 😜).
Old Lady Costume (adult)
- floral dress*: I found the perfect floral dress at DI. Something about the roses screams grandma. The only thing that could’ve made it better would be if it had shoulder pads (and now I actually am regretting throwing mine away from this Halloween costume–I totally could’ve reused them, haha). I purposely searched for a dress that was baggy on me so I could add stuffing for a larger chest and backside (which my toddler thought was hilarious).
- “fat suit”: see how I made mine below
- sweater or shawl: also a DI find
- socks & shoes: Feel free to go with some cute lace-topped ankle socks, nylons, vintage heels or loafers. To save money, I opted for regular socks and my comfy sneakers, but somehow I think they complete the look (some old lady Reebok-type sneakers would look even better).
- gray wig: This wig set was perfect and looked much better than the one I found at Walmart. Bonus points for coming with accessories! This looks like another good wig option.
- glasses, complete with a glasses holder chain: You could definitely find some cat-eye glasses or old lady glasses for your costume, but I felt like my everyday glasses were grandmotherly enough (not sure what that says about my choice in eyewear…). Besides, I didn’t want to wear contacts just to then wear fake glasses, ya know? The glasses holder chain came in the wig set and worked perfectly!
- pearl necklace (and earrings if you want): also came in the wig set
- cute old lady handbag: optional, but completed the look!
*If you don’t want to wear a dress (or can’t find one), other great options would be a matching sweatsuit, a frumpy nightgown, or even a bathrobe (if you go with the latter, you could get a wig with curlers like this).
How to make a DIY fat suit for a costume
I apologize if the term “fat suit” offends you, but I really don’t know what else to call this. 😆 I made a simple under-dress with stuffing so my old lady costume would have a larger bust and buttocks. Obviously, you can dress as an old lady without this, but it was perfect for helping to fill out the larger floral dress I had thrifted.
I found a simple jersey tank top dress on clearance for $5 at Walmart and grabbed a $3 pillow so I could use the poly-fil cotton inside (this is my favorite hack to get cheap batting/poly-fil!). The tank top dress was perfect for my costume since I was wearing a dress, but you can also stuff a tank top or t-shirt and shorts to wear under your costume.
Cut open the pillow on one end so you can pull out the poly-fil. If you want to be thrifty like me, save the pillow fabric to make your bust and buttocks pillows (might as well!).
Choose how much stuffing you want and shape two round-ish balls the same size for the bust. Cut four large circles/ovals out of the pillow fabric (I totally just eyeballed this because it does not need to be perfect, but feel free to trace a template so they’re the same size if you want).
Place two circles right sides together and hot glue 3/4 of the way around the edges (I probably would’ve sewn this but I was either lazy or didn’t have my sewing machine handy at the time). Then flip the circle right side out–this way the raw edges will be enclosed and you’ll have less fraying. Stuff the circle with poly-fill and hot glue the remaining edge closed, turning the fabric inside to hide the raw edges again.
Repeat to make a second boob pillow.
Perfect! Now you can attach to your tank top dress/shirt. You could sew them in, use hot glue, or just use large safety pins like I did. I definitely recommend pinning, at least at first, so you can test the placement and try it on. Remember to account for the extra weight and if your top is stretchy, as you may get saggier ta-tas than you want–I had to pin mine higher.
Now for the booty pillow. I simply made a rectangle pillow, folding over a rectangle of the pillow fabric, stuffing it, and hot gluing in the same way to hide the raw edges. I pinned it to the inside of the dress with one or two large safety pins at the top (this was enough to hold it in place, but if you need to, you can sew in place or use hot glue).
If you also need a belly pillow for your costume, the process would be almost the same (though I’d probably make the pillow round instead of rectangle).
Now you’re ready to wear this DIY “fat suit” underneath your costume! Enjoy your newfound voluptuousness.
Old People Halloween Costumes
Dressing up as old people makes such a fun group costume! I think the only thing we were missing were Werther’s Originals candies or maybe saltwater taffy in our pockets to pass to trick-or-treaters. 😉
I hope you have a fun Halloween night dressed as senior citizens, channeling your inner Gladys or Ethel (or Clarence or Otis) and make it back home to be in bed by 8 PM sharp!
P.S. Be sure to save your old people costume pieces after Halloween, because you never know when you might be able to reuse them–my son and I wore ours again when we threw my husband a surprise 40th birthday party with a senior center theme (I thought it was hilarious, but I don’t think my husband loved it as much…haha).
Happy Halloween!
Don’t forget to pin and save for later!
