The Basics

• You'll find great clothing for Halloween costumes at thrift stores and second-hand shops. Keep an open mind while you look through the available items. If you're committed to one costume idea, you might not find exactly what you had in mind, but you'll probably see something that you can adapt to make a different costume. Look for old-fashioned suits and ties to use for zoot suits or gangster ensembles, worn jeans and long-haired wigs for hippie costumes and sweat suits that you can accessorize to make a variety of characters.
  
  

Simple Costumes

• Star Trek: Wear a black sweatsuit or black slacks with a black crewneck shirt or t-shirt. Add a long-sleeved red or blue v-necked shirt or tee shirt. Copy the insignia from a Star Trek picture and trace it onto gray fabric. Fuse the insignia to the left side of the red or blue shirt using an iron-on fusible product, or use fabric glue to attach it.
  
  Hippie: Buy a pair of worn jeans. To make bell bottoms, cut all of the leg seams open at the bottom hem, extending 5 inches up the jeans legs, and cut brightly colored, patterned fabric in V-shapes to fit the openings. Sew or glue the fabric in place. Make a matching headband from the fabric. Wear a long-sleeved shirt, a vest, some "love beads" or any long strings of beads and a pair of glasses with round frames. Add a long-haired wig and keep it in place with the headband.
  
  

Cardboard Box Costumes

• Make a robot costume using a large cardboard box for the body and a small box for the head. Spray-paint both boxes silver. Use the boxes with the flaps facing down, and tape them open to make the boxes longer. In the bottom of the large box, cut a hole that's big enough to fit over your head. On the small box, cut eye slits and a narrow slit for air, either at nose level or mouth level. Cut arm holes on the sides of the large box. Gather hardware to use as controls, such as old clock works, old calculators, knobs and buttons. Spray-paint them black and glue them to the front of the large box. Wear a gray sweat suit and black gloves. Put on the large box, then put the small box on your head and tape it to the large box at the shoulders using silver duct tape.
  
  ATM: Make an ATM in the same way as the robot. Spray-paint the boxes any color you like. When the paint's dry, draw on a fictional bank name and logo with markers. Instead of attaching controls, make an ATM keypad using buttons or small knobs.