How to Make a DIY Poison Ivy Costume

Halloween is my favorite holiday and I have so much fun handing out candy in costume and getting into the spirit. Why let the kids have all the fun?! I’ll show you how I made my DIY Poison Ivy Costume. This build allowed me to use lots of creativity and some engineering skills, all while being very affordable.

The first step was creating a Poison Ivy Pinterest board (duh). I knew I would adhere ivy leaves to a top of some kind and that I wanted a tulle, tutu style skirt. I wanted the leaves to attach in a way that would be comfortable and not restrict movement. After doing a little research on ivy and snapping a couple of photos of ivy beds around town, I was ready to start buying supplies. There were several shopping trips for supplies while working on this costume. I worked through some of the design as I made my DIY Poison Ivy costume and I also took advantage of rotating sales and coupons to get the best deal. So let your creative juices run free and don’t worry about having everything planned out before you start. The act of making will bring more ideas, inspiration, and more fun along the way.

STEP 1: Supplies

For a detailed list of supplies and where to find them for your own DIY Poison Ivy costume, check out the Supplies and Tools section at the bottom of this post. I purchased ivy garland from the craft store, as well as green glitter puff paint, metallic gold acrylic paint, green sequins, dark green thread, and rolls of tulle in several shades of green. I found a green tank top with a built in bra for under $5 (YES!). HINT: Always check the juniors section when looking for good deals and items with built-in support. I already had a roll of green grosgrain ribbon that I planned to use for the tulle skirt.

STEP 2: Laying out the Design

The first step is to pull all the Ivy leaves off the garland. I sorted the leaves by size as I plucked them.

Painters tape was used to layer ivy leaves onto the tank top. I first pinned the painters tape along the contours of the top, sticky side out. Then I stuck the leaves onto the tape. Once the leaves were in place I secured them together with a piece of tape over top. I then took each section of leaves and taped them to a piece of green tulle (from my skirt supplies).

I sewed a straight stitch along the base of the leaves. Each row of stitching gets covered up by the next row of leaves. Next, I cut the tulle above the stitch so it would not show. Each row of sewn leaves was pinned back in place on the top. It was exciting to see each row of my DIY Poison Ivy costume come together. I continued sewing the rows to tulle and pinning them onto the top.

STEP 3: Attaching the Leaves

I knew I didn’t want to permanently attach the leaves to the top, because I wanted to be able to wash the top. With my top being stretchy, I also didn’t want the way the leaves attached to prevent the top from being comfortable. Once I had the sewn rows of leaves pinned to the top, I added snaps to the leaves and the tank top.

To add the snaps, I placed straight pins at the locations where the snap would go in both the top and the sewn leaves. With the way the leaves were layered, it was easy to hide the snaps under the rows of ivy. The snaps allow the leaves to be secured to the top and then easily removed for laundry day. Because the tank top is a stretchy knit, I added small squares of  material between the snap cap and socket to prevent them from pulling through the fabric. Snaps are a useful craft supply to have on hand. If you don’t want to give snaps a try, you could do the same technique with Velcro, although snaps are more secure.

STEP 4: The Skirt

To start the tulle skirt for my DIY Poison Ivy costume, I cut my rolls of tulle into strips twice as long as I wanted the skirt to be and made piles of each color. I used a pull through knot to attach the tulle to the grosgrain ribbon. For each knot, I used two different shades of tulle. The double layers gives the skirt volume and the colors add depth and blend well with the ivy leaves. Once I had enough strips to make it around my waist, the skirt was ready for some decoration.

I designed the top to look like the ivy vine was growing down onto the skirt. Where the ivy met the skirt, I continued the vine and then added a scattering of leaves around the skirt. I adhered the leaves with a hot-glue. I did some single leaves and some with a smaller leaf stacked on top of a larger leaf.

STEP 5: Embellishment

The final step was to add sparkle to my DIY Poison Ivy costume and some color variation to the leaves. The leaves were looking more like a sea of green than real ivy. I added metallic gold paint to the edges of the leaves and dabs of green glitter paint for some added sparkle. I also added a few green sequin to the center of the leaves.

STEP 6: Final Details

To finish off this DIY Poison Icy look with leggings and Poison Ivy inspired makeup. For the makeup, I used a red lip liner as a brow pencil, bright and dark green eye shadow, green eyeliner, and bright red lipstick. I store the snap-on ivy in a zip-top bag and the three pieces hang together nicely in the closet waiting to be worn

I was very happy with how my DIY Poison Ivy costume turned out. It was fun to make and fun to wear. With having the ivy leaves snap onto the top, I am able to wash the tank top and keep this costume looking good! If you are thinking of making a DIY Poison Ivy Costume, I hope you found this tutorial helpful and inspiring.

Supplies and Tools List:

I purchased most of my supplies from the craft store closest to the house. If you want to purchase your supplies online, check out the links below.
(Purchasing through these affiliate links supports STEAM Powered DIY)

1. Ivy Garland
2. Tulle (I purchased 6 inch x 25 yard rolls in three shades of green)
3. Thread
4. Ribbon (The ribbon I used was from Dollar Tree $1)
5. Metallic Paint and Glitter Fabric Paint
6. Green Sequins (Green Gemstones would look great too!)
7. Green Tank Top
8. Green Leggings
9. Snaps and Snap Pliers