DIY Costume! Cutest Storm Costumes Idea for Halloween

Looking for storm Halloween costume ideas? Try this DIY storm chaser and tornado costume! Easy, creative, and fun for kids, these costumes are perfect for a unique Halloween look!

I know Halloween DIY costumes aren’t on everyone’s radar (no shame in buying it, that’s what we did last year!), but if you are up for it, these weather costumes were fun to make, not too intense, and everyone loved them! Perfect for trick-or-treat, costume parties, group costume ideas, or a school play or project!

My oldest son has been in love with storm season since he first heard thunder. Lightening, rain, dark clouds, he loves it all. Fortunately for him, we live in Oklahoma so storms are abundant (and I guess I should be thankful he’s not afraid of them?). His favorite part of the wild world of weather? Tornados.

Again, living in Oklahoma, tornados are an area we’re quite familiar with and Indy, who is almost 7, is just sure he needs to be a real storm chaser one day. His interest in all things weather gave me a theme to work with for Halloween this year.

While he picked a store-bought costume to wear for trick-or-treating on Halloween, I wanted to come up with something different for our church Trunk or Treat. And I think I nailed it this year! I was able to create a group costume for my two boys, ages 6 & 3, that they both loved and that wasn’t too difficult to create!

Our costume this year? A storm chaser and tornado!

I’ve called Pax, my youngest, a tiny tornado since he could move because, well, he leaves a path of destruction wherever he goes. Literally. The sweetest, cutest, most adorable little blonde boy who is always just absolutely filthy and leaving a trail of crumbs, pudding, and toys. A tornado was absolutely the perfect costume for him!

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Here’s how I made the storm costume idea come to life!

Storm Halloween Costume Ideas

Here are a few supplies I used for each costume

Storm Chaser

cardboard boxes
duct tape
black spray paint
nylon straps
contact paper (could also use shiny paper or even aluminum foil)
reflectors
motion sensor lights (optional)

Tornado

pool noodles
wire wreath
duct tape
quilt batting
silver spray paint
poly filling
hot glue gun & glue sticks
zip ties in assorted lengths
assorted toys, trash, etc.

Storm Chaser DIY Halloween Costume

1. I took my cardboard box and open the flaps on both ends, on one side I pushed up the flaps to the inside (you could also cut them off but I was feeling lazy!). For reference, my cardboard box was 23 1/2″ x 15 5/8″ x 9 7/8″. It was a thicker cardboard too.

2. Next, cut the remaining flaps at an angle where they meet together to form the top of the car opening. Duct tape the edges together on the outside and inside.

cardboard box for DIY storm chaser costume

From the inside of the box, you can see where I folded the bottom flaps into the box.

3. I next took an old Amazon box (maybe you have one of those too?) that fit pretty decently on the end and taped it to the box using more duct tape.

4. The next step was to spray paint it all black, which I somehow forgot to take a photo of, but I’m sure you can imagine it. :)

5. Next came windows! I had a partial roll of silver contact paper leftover from covering the inside of my kitchen drawers around 12 years ago (seriously!) and figured this was a good opportunity to put it to use! I didn’t measure super accurately or anything, just help it up to get an idea and once I cut one piece, I used it for the pattern for the others. I needed 6 pieces total for the side windows (four slanted edges and two solid rectangles), and a front and back windshield. Once everything was cut I attached them to the back top of the car (the box flaps).The contact paper didn’t stick quite as well as I wanted so I supplemented with some masking tape in places.

6. I wanted Indy to be able to walk around without having to fold the car so I added some nylon straps along the top of the car that would sit on his shoulders. Since my box already had little hand notches cut in the flaps I was easy to use those. I first stapled the strap, then put some hot glue on it.

And then I MEANT to put duct tape over that but forgot. One of the straps came off and I’m sure it wouldn’t have if I had duct taped it, but oh well, it wasn’t that big of a deal!

View from the top:

7. Now that you have your car, everything else is just decoration! I added some reflective lights to the back and a couple of battery operated motion sensor lights to the front (attached with hot glue) and printed out (on cardstock) a license plate reading “STRMCHSR” and a “vanity plate” on the back with another storm chaser design.

8. For what he wore under the costume, we kept it simple with jeans, a white t-shirt, a white “Storm Chaser” ball cap I found on Amazon and the walkie talkie that came with a police uniform we have. Oh, and some black shades. :)

On a DIY scale of 1-10 I’d give this a 3? It was pretty much just taping up a box and painting it, then attaching some decor!

Tornado Costume

The tornado costume looks super involved, but really it was mostly just using the hot glue gun which most people can handle! Here’s how I made this Halloween getup:

1. The tricky part for me was just getting started. I wanted to give the costume a base but wasn’t quite sure the best way to do it but it ended up pretty simple. I took one pool noodle we already had and taped the ends together. Then I taped a another pool noodle together and taped the ends. I probably could have used a third noodle but originally thought the costume would be more taped down (like a funnel) at the bottom so I used a metal wreath I had in the closet.

2. To attach the pieces together, I used more duct tape! I just taped pieces together to make a strap of sorts so that my rings were attached somewhat evenly. It didn’t have to be pretty since it would all be inside the costume.

3. As I went along with my DIY costume ideas this year I kept having my kids try them on to make sure I was on the right track. Once I had the length how I wanted it it was time to start adding my tornado!

4. I attached some quilt batting to the inside of the top ring and used my handy duct tape to secure it, I then had the brilliant idea to use some zip ties I already had and they worked really well! If you just wiggle the zip tie end a bit it will slip right through the quilt batting. Again, it didn’t matter if it showed because it would be covered. I also did this on the inside of the costume on the middle and bottom hoops so the batting stay attached to the hoops.

looking down from the top of the tornado base

You can see where I’ve zip tied the batting to the ring and pool noodles

5. Once my batting was secured I had Pax try it on to check the length (I ended up cutting a few inches off the bottom) and then measured some should er straps for him too. Once I had my straps cut I put a small notch in each end and then zip tied them to my noodle hoop. What’s nice about this is if I needed to adjust it was easy to just cut and try again!

6. I next took my batting tornado outside to give it a little coat of silver spray paint.

7. Once it was dry I started attaching the white poly fill all over using a glue gun. This wasn’t difficult, just a little time consuming! I had to stop at one point because I ran out of glue sticks!

Once my tornado was covered in puffy clouds, I added my debris! I thought about using plastic animals or toy cars or things like that but went a less realistic (and depressing) route and made ours a “Paxnado” instead! I added some toys, crayons, nerf darts, etc. all over using the hot glue gun. (I used zip ties in a few places too, like on the action figures.)

Pax just wore some gray pants and a gray shirt underneath. His was actually a gray Christmas tee that I turned inside out. The tornado took a bit of time to make, but it wasn’t difficult. Once I figured out what I was doing with the hoop frame, it came together pretty easily!