Paper bag princess costume

This paper bag princess costume was a total hit last night for Halloween! I feel like so many of us loved this book as kids (and as adults). This costume is quick, affordable, and a forever-favourite. Yay for princesses like Elizabeth who don’t take no guff from no one!

Keep reading if you’d like to learn how to make your own paper bag princess costume for Halloween! The best part? It’s super quick, cheap, and easy to make!

Paper bag princess costume – DIY tutorial

Here is how I made this paper bag princess costume. It took maybe half an hour in total? I think it would have been quicker if I wasn’t filming the tutorial though! So.. Definitely not a big time investment to get this project done.

Also, if you’d prefer to watch how to make it – Check the video out below!

Is this costume durable?

I am so happy with how this DIY paper bag princess costume turned out! It did get a few little rips in it during the second round of trick-or-treating, but it held up remarkably well. Honestly, for just being a paper bag, it had some surprising durability! We will definitely be remembering this costume – My daughter loved it!

Materials to use

Making the dress

For the paper bag dress, I used a home depot yard waste brown paper bag. The yard waste bags work WAY better than regular grocery store paper bags because they’re two layers thick. Ours stood up all day on Halloween and even for a week or two of dress-up afterwards. See – Pretty durable, right?!

The video above shows how to draw on a basic pattern with marker and cut it out. All you have to do is make sure it’s the right length and that there are holes for the head and arms, then your kiddo can wear it!

Then, you can staple the sides to make the dress a bit smaller so it fits well. You could probably use duct tape (just be sure to tape the inside so you can’t see the duct tape) or hot glue – Just use whatever you’ve got!

Personally, I decided to use staples since it’s a quick and easy to create the shape you want.

Making the crown

The paper bag princess’s crown is just an old plastic yogurt container and a headband. We stuck some previously-loved stickers on the top of each point and then I spray-painted the whole thing gold. It took a coat or two of metallic spray paint, but it did look pretty legit in the end! This is another part you may want to hot glue to make it a bit more durable.

What do you think? Are you up for making the paper bag princess costume? This costume was definitely the biggest success we’ve had for a last-minute costume!

Another DIY Costume: Baby Link

Our other little one went as Baby Link this year. See how his costume was made by reading our post DIY Baby Link Halloween Costume!