Super easy DIY elf fairy costume for Halloween or cosplay

Our luscious garden had the perfect materials for this year’s elf fairy costume. And I’m not going to lie I had the hardest time naming this costume. It is also a woodland elf costume, fairy elf costume, woodland fairy costume, or forest elf costume. You be the judge! What do you think it should be called? It’s fantasy and can go either way.
This costume is made from twigs, leaves, moss, and pretty makeup. Usually, our daughter likes being a villain or something a bit scary like her DIY Maleficent costume, Queen of Hearts costume DIY, dark angel costume, apocalypse costume, sugar skull costume, sad clown costume, or soccer zombie soccer costume. So this was a nice change to see and fun to come up with.

I first had this idea when I saw how big our elephant ears had gotten over the summer because we all look like elves and fairies next to them.

Elf fairy costume tutorial

It’s such a simple costume and I wanted to do so much more but you have no idea how much actually went wrong along the way. First off the weather has been terrible all year and even though we’ve been thinking about doing this since we got back from Germany, the fact that there have been continuous downpours hasn’t helped to get this blog post finished.

Since this is a Halloween costume, you can and should of course let your imagination take this costume to whatever you want it to be. That’s the fun part of dressing up. I just thought it was also interesting to address the history behind the stories about elves and fairies. Since I’m from Germany (born and raised), I especially find Germanic folklore interesting and forest elves often appear in those stories. They also appear in Norse and old English folklore. 

Materials used for this elf fairy costume

• green or skin-colored cami dress (children or adults), skin-colored camisole leotard (children or adults), or for colder weather a long skin-colored bodysuit/leotard (children or adults) – we had the tan/skin-colored leotard and I didn’t want to buy more things but I think a green one would look even better and it would certainly look awesome with a renaissance outfit as well
• leaf branches in different colors and sizes from any yard
• flat elastic string cord
• belt (similar belt to ours)
• preserved moss
• gold floral wire
• elf ears or elf ear tips (we bought the tips)
• fairy wings (optional) – we chose not to get them
• wig (optional if you want long hair like my daughter) – I have this wig and wore it for this costume. Or this wig is great too.
• a variety of makeup and this is what I used
  • primer
  • pale foundation ( we used the color fair)
  • a variety of green eye shadow (I love this color for example, one of ours was Zodia from Urban Decay but it’s not available anymore – this eyeshadow palette would be great too)
  • green liquid eyeliner (we used ink metallic eyeliner by Maybelline but it’s not available anymore. This eyeliner in Ghosted Green or Cyan Simp might work great instead. Or I’m loving this green multichrome metallic liquid eyeliner)
  • gold glitter liner https://amzn.to/44RD3Uv
  • black eyeliner
  • cream eye shadow
  • black mascara (my favorite mascara)
  • eyebrow pen
  • glitter lip gloss

Step-by-step simple elf fairy costume instructions

I had taken photos along the way about how we made the crown and skirt and they all got deleted accidentally. So this is my best attempt at explaining to you how we made this super simple costume.

The crown or headpiece

For the elf fairy crown, I cut down fresh thin branches and removed the foliage. The Key is that they are fresh and bendable. If they are dried then they break way too easily.
We lost the photos for these steps, but when you look at the photo below, you can see exactly what we did. My daughter pretty much made the crown herself.
All you need to do is take the twigs and form them into a crown while wrapping them with the gold crafting twine. We added some small plants and moss. You can go all out and add gemstones or more plants and twigs and even fake butterflies or other insects.

The outfit

The leaf skirt for the forest/woodland elf was so easy that I’m almost embarrassed to say what we did. I knotted a flat elastic cord around her waist and literally just hung branches on it the way it is pictured below. I had her wearing the band and just kept going all the way around her waist with different colored leaved branches until the skirt was full.

After that, I used a belt that I tied over the branch ends. If you don’t have one like mine, any belt would do, or even a pretty scarf. And you can just tuck some more leaves into it afterward and use some more wires to help them stay attached.

I originally wanted to use bark for her costume somewhere which I had collected in abundance but she was so frustrated with her tight shirt that I skipped that idea. Remember she grew up with sensory issues (you can catch up on her journey HERE) and tight clothing still bothers her sometimes although things have gotten much much better.

The elf fairy make-up

Here is my video about how I applied the makeup that you can see in the below photos. It’s not difficult at all. If it doesn’t load then you can watch it on my YouTube channel instead.

And now we are ready to share a ton of photos with you which is always our favorite part. She was complaining along the way through. I’m not going to lie 🙂

You can use glue for the ears but we chose not to because it worked well without and we didn’t want to risk getting her hair stuck in glue.

Fancy eyelashes would look great for adults. I love these eyelashes just as an idea. The glittered ends are like pixie dust.

Another idea is to include more hair accessories like these clip-in dreads or clip-in natural feathers.

As I mentioned earlier this makeup would look great with a renaissance outfit too like Arwen Undómiel in Lord of the Rings. For example, I love this green long-sleeved dress or this green hooded long-sleeve dress.

Photos of the finished costume

As I mentioned above, I would have liked to have a green top which we didn’t have and I didn’t want to buy anything else so I think the tan works great too.

And it was freezing that day for the first time. Go figure!!! It’s been ridiculously hot nonstop but when we have time to do this it ends up being wet and cold.

And I’m really really curious as to what and if you are dressing up or what your kids are dressing up as. Please do tell. (Also check out my 4 easy sensory-friendly Halloween costumes for kids that are struggling)

Tschüß,