In this collection of homemade costumes, we’ll be Tom Hank’s bosom buddy and guide him through some of his movie character costumes. Even Tom Hanks knows it’s time to retire the David S. Pumpkins costume. But what’s the nicest guy in Hollywood supposed to wear for a Halloween costume instead? Never Fear.
While his list of movie roles is longer than a terminal walk around an airport, we’ve selected the best 7 DIY costumes for him here.
In addition, if you ever find yourself at a Tom Hanks themed costume party, here are some awesome costume ideas for you!
1. Coolest Adult Cast Away Couple Costume
If Tom celebrates Halloween in a warm climate, this is an easy costume to pull off. A simple wig and fedex box is all John needed for this Castaway couple costume. As a bonus, Rita Wilson can dress up as the real Wilson – it’s almost too perfect.
Movie Character Costumes: Cast Away Couple Costume submitted by John C.
My girlfriend and I decided to mix up our usual Halloween ritual of being different types of food items and went with Tom Hank’s character and Wilson from our favorite movie “Cast Away.” Needless to say the costume was a huge hit, although everyone wanted to take more pictures with Wilson.
The Wilson costume was much more time consuming to make. We started by getting a 4-foot beach ball and then paper mached many layers on it, leaving holes for the head and arms. At first I was nervous it wasn’t going to work, so I wound up putting so many layers on it that she could have gotten hit by a car and just rolled down the street it was so solid. Anyway, after the paper machete hardened we spray painted the whole thing white, then spraypainted the Wilson face in a dark red color, with a dot of black for the air hole nose. She wore white leggins and shirt, along with a Wilson head band with pieces of Palm sticking out to complete the Wilson look.
For the Tom Hanks character I basically just got a long beard and wig combo and used a cut up sheet for my bottom covering. I got a Fedex box and long stick to complete the look. I also tried to lose a few lbs after I knew what we were being to complete the look! One of the coolest movie character costumes indeed!
2. Awesome Zoltar Halloween Costume
Movie Character Costumes: Zoltar Costume submitted by Katie S.
The best part about this costume was making it with my kids! We saw this machine at an amusement park we went to and thought what a perfect idea for a costume! We used a lot of card board and tape.
My daughter is an artist so she painted the wall sconces and the words on the front to look just like the real thing. My son helped me paint and tape the box. We had to make everything in the box light enough for my 9 year old son to tote it around and that was a real challenge. We had a lot of fun in the dollar store finding things that would work.
The sconces are made out of small plastic goblets with the breakaway bottom. We used a dowel and the bottom of the goblet turned sideways to look like real light fixtures. There are LED candle lights in them for illumination. We used lots of material for the curtain and the skirt and the costume.
I couldn’t find a pattern for the shirt, vest, cumber bun and hat that I loved so I made everything myself. The hat I sewed and scraped twice before I got it to look the way I wanted. The Crystal ball was a challenge as well because we really wanted it to light up but it had to be light! We spray painted a plastic serving bowl gold, turned it upside down for the base and then hollowed out a Styrofoam ball to put a changing color LED in it.
The second he walked out the door in this costume people were coming up and flabbergasted by what we had created! It was so funny to watch kids come up to him because they wouldn’t talk to him they would just stand there staring. I think they thought he was really a machine.
Adults just love the idea and couldn’t believe we made it ourselves and wanted to know how it was staying on him because you can’t see anything yet he is able to walk around with it hands free. I anchored old belts to the box and they crisscross over his shoulders under his vest. So much fun. I actually doubled over laughing when we finally got it finished and put it on him. Good memories!
3. Littlest Rockford Peach Costume
Perhaps the greatest lesson learned from Tom Hanks is that there is absolutely no crying in baseball! Check out the most adorable homemade costume from A League of Their Own.
Movie Character Costumes: Littlest Rockford Peach Costume Submitted by Megan D.
I saw this costume on Pinterest and completely fell in love with it. Unfortunately, there was no tutorial and the only ones I could find on Etsy were $150. I’m a perfectionist and a HUGE A League of Their Own fan, so I decided to make one myself. Using my daughter’s clothes, I made the top, which turned out surprisingly well. I had a pattern for a collar and skirt, and used those to complete the costume. I purchased the patches on Etsy and made the matching belt and hat. Then I found red socks at Old Navy after a long desperate search and purchased some white Keds. I was SO excited with how it turned out! And, the big bonus was I got to see Tom Hanks in all his glory many many times while I made it.
We took her to several events for Halloween and the costume was a huge hit! Everyone wanted to take pictures of it. I love original costumes and this was by far my favorite. I have no idea how I’m going to top it next year, but I’m thrilled with how well it went! The only downside was that she had a weapon. That bat may be small, but I promise it hurts! She also tested out the sturdiness of the sidewalk everywhere we went. Thankfully she refrained from hitting anyone other than me, so I have no pending lawsuits.
After Halloween, we entered several contests, all of which she won. Of course, she loved all of the attention. The only downside was explaining her costume to anyone under the age of 25. People, make your kids watch this classic! It’s only the best baseball movie ever. Possibly the best sports movie ever, rivaled only by The Blind Side.
I do plan on making a tutorial at some point. Search for it on PInterest! I’m more than happy to help with any of your movie character costumes :)
4. Beloved Movie Character Costumes: Forrest Gump and Jenny
Warning: this homemade couple costume may cause a hankering for Bubba Gump shrimp. If Tom enjoys people shouting “Run, Forrest, Run!” at him, he should definitely make this DIY costume.
My boyfriend and I met in film class my junior year of college. We were polar opposites. He is a methodical shy cinematographer and I consider myself creative and outgoing. Our mutual friends were concerned we wouldn’t get along once we were placed on set together. That day of out first shoot I fell in love :) … We now live happily together in West Hollywood, both still working in film.
This costume is a special one. I was living in London for what would have been our first Halloween together (which broke my heart). So this is our first official costume together, inspired my a film we love and character we relate to. They found love in their differences and so do we with our movie character costumes.
5. Splashy Madison the Mermaid Costume
Costume Submitted by Kaylee C.
Tom can help make Splash popular again by dressing up as the fabulous Darryl Hannah. Take a look at this beautiful mermaid costume for Madison inspiration. For those of you who haven’t seen Splash, go watch it now! Please. You’ll get inspiration for the coolest movie character costumes ever!
I wanted to be something awesome this Halloween, something I loved and enjoyed dressing up as several times for parties and such. So, I decided I wanted to go as a Mermaid but did’t like the mermaid and other related movie character costumes I was seeing online. I even looked up some patterns to make your own mermaid costume, but they had the fins of the tail dragging in the back, or where you carry them in the front…which looked silly, so I decided to just make a skirt like a mermaid-style gown and it would look close enough.
I went to Joann’s and Hobby Lobby for all the materials of this costume.
From Hobby Lobby: Real starfish, Lionspaw Sea shells, Floral inserts that look like gold coral, a roll of pearls on a string, ribbon, sea shell glue, clear jewelry string.
From Joann’s: Liner Fabric, Teal Sequin Fabric, Teal tulle, Sheer teel sparkly fabric, Hidden zipper, Teal thread, Large teal sequins, small clear iridescent sequins and smaller glitter pieces of the same color, small scrapbooking half/pearls, Wire with pearls on it.
Making the Mermaid Costume Top
First, I made the mermaid top. I took a cheap nude-colored bra and cut off the shoulder straps and replaced them with pearl-string straps. I cut up the gold coral into separate pieces and hot-glued them onto the bra so they stuck out the top, bottom, and sides. Then, I used the seashell glue to glue the Lionspaw shells onto each side of the bra. When the glue was dry, I took the clear jewelry string and used it as thread and was able to hand-sew the shells onto the bra (for reinforcement) by following the natural grooves of the shell across the entire shell.
Then, I put a layer of wet glue into the grooves I just sewed over, and covered the line with clear iridescent glitter. I covered the bust strap of the bra with the same fabric I planned on using for the ‘fluke’ of my mermaid tail. Then I began to make my accessories.
I used tiny pieces of the faux coral and the real starfish and the wire pearls to make a crown and matching bracelet. Then I started to work on the tail. Since I did not have a pattern, this was pretty difficult. I wanted my costume to look fitted, but the fabric I had was not stretchy, so that complicated things for me even further. I laid the liner on the kitchen floor and had my roommate trace the lower half of my body onto the liner with sharpie and was able to turn that into my pattern. After that, I sewed the liner onto each sequin section of the skirt and then sewed those panels together. I then cut the back to sew the no-show zipper on.
Then I took the tulle and pinned small pleats in the top and sewed them into place. I pinned the sheer glitter fabric onto the tulle following the same small-pleat method I used on the tulle and sewed those two layers together to make the fluke. Then I sewed the fluke onto the tail. Then, to add extra detail, I took the large teal sequins and glued some on randomly to look like individual overlapping scales. For my makeup, I used a roll-on teal glitter eyeshadow and put it on my eyes, and some random areas of my skin.
On my skin, I took eyelash glue and glued individual clear iridescent sequins over the teal glitter to give a scaly effect to my skin. To make the scaly effect seem to fade-out, I used smaller sequins at the edges. I also used scrapbooking half-pearls to decorate my eyes and cheeks to give more of an under-the-sea feel.
Reaction to the Costume
People loved my costume. I don’t like to tell people I made things, so when they commented I would just say “thank you” and my roommates or whoever I was with would say “She made it herself!” and people’s jaws would drop or they would start telling me how amazing it was. Parents stopped me to see if I would take a picture with their kids, the kids would just stand there staring and tell me I was a pretty mermaid and asking me what my mermaid name was.
It was so much fun to wear this for two weekends in a row… I think I’m even going to wear it to the Ren Fest because I love it so much.
My costume was 100% handmade. I even made my own pattern- which was myself. This costume took me 3 weeks to complete (of course, not all at once, I had to take breaks and go to school of course!). Good luck with your own movie character costumes!
6. Amazing Homemade Polar Express and Conductor Costume
Movie Character Costumes: Polar Express Submitted by Cheryl
My son is OBSESSED with The Polar Express. So when he said he wanted to be the Polar Express for Halloween, I did what any mother would do for her child. I made him a Homemade Polar Express and Conductor Costume! And to top it off, we used a blue suit and old TWA pilot’s hat to make him the conductor.
I’m missing the spectacles and tie, but I figured I made my point with the mustache. I printed out a conductor badge, printed on it the words “Polar Express” and tacked it to his pilot’s hat. He also carried a ticket puncher with him.
The train was made out of a cardboard diaper box. I added construction paper for the add-on pieces (the top of the engine, the smokestack, the front where the light is, the bottom front (the grill? I don’t know the names of the train parts!) and rounded sides. The rounded sides were attached by using a paper cutter to slice through the diaper box and slide cardboard construction paper into the groves and fold and tape them into the inside. I used paper plates for the wheels, attached with nuts and bolts.
Everything was spray-painted glossy black with metallic champagne trim and stick-on letters were added that I found at Michael’s. I used the hole in the diaper box that is the “handle” to place a flashlight, so he would have a working train light to lead the way in the dark. I attached banding from the fabric store as straps to hold the train up on him.
7. Cool Female Buzz Lightyear and Woody Couple Costume
Costume Submitted by Calynn A.
Without a doubt Tom can find a pal to pair up with for this super cute Woody and Buzz couple costume.
Buzz: Making Buzz’s jet pack was the difficult part of the costume. I used cardboard poster board and cut out the shape. From there I drew/painted the exact design from the movie onto it. Waiting for the paint to dry took the longest. The paint was Martha Stewart All purpose paint (even waterproof). I cut holes into the cardboard to get the drawstrings on.
Then, I bought a plain kids XL white shirt from Michael’s craft and painted everything on it. I learned that several coats on fabric shrinks up the fabric! The bottom of the shirt where I painted the belt I couldn’t even get over my hips, so I cut slits down both sides. The fabric did become really stiff, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. I had 2 pairs of plain white socks. I used one pair and cut off the foot and painted the design for gloves. Again, when I went to put my arm through this, the elastic was very stiff and started cracking the paint. I took a pair of Keds I always have around and added lime green duck tape to the tops. I also had a sparkly purple headband on, but you could barely tell in the photo.
Woody: Woody seemed simple to make as we already had most of the accessories. We had the white vest, cowboy hat, boots, and belt. We bought a yellow shirt and painted on red lines. Also, purchased a $1 red bandanna scarf and a toy gun and sheriff badge. The cow spots were made from black felt and hand sewn on. This was one of the coolest movie character costumes ever for us!
So, no matter which DIY costume Tom Hanks chooses, he’ll always have a friend in us.
Tom, thanks for making movies that live so close to our hearts. Good luck to all with your homemade movie character costumes!