When the costume plan falls through and the store shelves are picked over, a plain hoodie from your kid's dresser can carry the whole look. Add some felt, tape and a hot glue gun, and it's often more comfortable than anything in a plastic bag. Swipe for seven ideas you can pull together in an evening.

Dinosaur

Hoodie color: green

Cut a row of triangles from stiff felt and hot-glue them in a line from the top of the hood down the center of the back. Make the triangles largest between the shoulders and smaller toward the hood and hem. The spiky silhouette reads as a dinosaur or dragon from a distance.

Shark

Hoodie color: gray or light blue

Glue a row of white felt triangle teeth around the inside edge of the hood so your kid's face peeks out of the shark's open mouth. Add two googly eyes or felt circles on top of the hood and a dark gray felt fin down the center of the back.

Bat

Hoodie color: black

Glue or sew a wedge of black fabric or felt from each wrist to the side seam at the waist, so the wings spread every time your kid lifts their arms. Scallop the bottom edge of each wing with scissors and add two felt triangle ears to the hood.

Spider

Hoodie color: black or brown

Most spiders have eight eyes, so cluster eight googly eyes across the hood. Stuff six black socks or felt tubes with fiberfill or plastic grocery bags and attach three to each side of the hoodie. Your kid's own arms become legs seven and eight.

Skeleton

Hoodie color: black

Use white fabric paint or strips of white duct tape to add ribs across the chest, a spine down the back and long bones on each sleeve and each leg of a pair of black sweatpants. Tape is faster, with no drying time, but it can peel by the end of the night. Safe Kids Worldwide recommends reflective tape on costumes so drivers can see trick-or-treaters, so swap it in for a few bones.

Mummy

Hoodie color: white, gray or any old one

Tear an old bedsheet into strips, a job kids are usually thrilled to help with, and soak them in brewed tea to give them an aged look. Once the strips dry, attach them at crisscrossing angles to the hoodie and a pair of sweatpants with fabric glue. Leave the ends loose and ragged, and keep the face opening clear so your kid can see.

Jack O' Lantern

Hoodie color: orange

Cut triangle eyes, a triangle nose and a jagged grin from black felt and glue them to the front of the hoodie. If the hoodie won't be worn again, draw the face with a permanent black marker instead. Glue a green felt stem and leaf to the top of the hood to finish the pumpkin.