Easy Homemade Costumes for Pretend Play Using Pillowcases

Toddlers love to dress up and role play. The more items they have the more their imagination expands.

It is good to have some store bought costumes of princesses, policeman, nurses, and others. But children's imagination goes even further. They will use blankets and pretend it is a super hero cape or they wrap it around their body and imagine they are wearing a ball gown.

There is a very simple way to add to their dress up collection. It is easy, inexpensive or even free, and there is no sewing required!

Collect some pillowcases you do not use anymore and you can easily turn them into costumes. You can add your own creative touches to it, but here are the basic steps.


Take a standard size pillowcase, any color or print, and cut the border on the opening of it. Put this aside for now.

Make a decorative border by cutting strips in the opening creating a fun fringe finish. This will be the bottom part of their costume.

Open the pillowcase and cut along both side seams.

On the remaining side that is closed, cut a semi circle. Make sure it is  large enough for your child's head to fit through it. The child can now slip the costume over their head.

Take the pillowcase border you cut off during the first step and cut it open creating a long strip instead of leaving it as a close circle. This strip can now be used around the waist as a belt or tie.

You can combine different colors and prints to create different looks. All from a few pillowcases!