Updated September 30, 2026
Here’s how to make a garden gnome costume for kids: a craft foam cone for the hat, a faux fur beard, and a pair of overalls you probably already own. About $10 and 10 minutes per costume. No sewing, no pattern, and nothing that has to be symmetrical.
I made two of these in under 20 minutes, one for my toddler and one for my baby, and I’d never worked with faux fur before in my life. If you can run a hot glue gun without burning your fingers, a skill I’m still working on, you can make this one. Lawn gnome, garden gnome, same costume. A DIY lawn gnome costume is a red cone hat, a white beard, and a blue top, and nobody has ever asked which kind it was.
If you want a super-fast adult option to match the kids, see my blog post for a DIY Halloween Costume T-Shirt .
How do you make a garden gnome costume?
Roll a craft foam sheet into a cone for the hat, cut a beard from faux fur, and glue a strip of elastic between the two so they stay on together. Add overalls and a long-sleeve shirt. No sewing, about 10 minutes per costume, and every supply comes from the craft store.
Table of Contents
- How do you make a garden gnome costume?
- Watch the Garden Gnome Costume Come Together
- Garden Gnome Costume at a Glance
- What You Need to Make a Garden Gnome Costume (No Sew)
- How to Make a Garden Gnome Costume (Step-by-Step)
- Step 1: Make the Gnome Hat
- Step 2: Create the Gnome Beard
- Step 3: Attach the Beard and Elastic
- Step 4: Try It On!
- How Much Does a DIY Garden Gnome Costume Cost?
- How to Make a Baby Garden Gnome Costume
- Can Adults Wear a Garden Gnome Halloween Costume?
- Our Garden Themed Family Halloween Costume
- More Halloween Projects
- 📌 Save This Garden Gnome Costume for Later
- Garden Gnome Costume FAQs
- The Bottom Line
Watch the Garden Gnome Costume Come Together
Here’s the hat and beard going together in under a minute, foam, fur and all.
Garden Gnome Costume at a Glance
- Cost: $10 per costume in supplies
- Time: 10 minutes per costume, two in one nap
- Difficulty: Beginner. If you can use a hot glue gun you can do this, and crooked cuts hide under the fur.
- Sewing needed? None at all
- Best ages: Babies through big kids, and it scales up for adults
- Reusable? The overalls and shirt go back into regular rotation all winter
What You Need to Make a Garden Gnome Costume (No Sew)
This whole costume comes from a craft store run and your kid’s existing closet. Here’s the full list, and I’ve noted what each piece is actually doing so you can swap anything you can’t find.
- Craft foam sheets: this is the hat. Stiff enough to hold a cone, soft enough to cut with regular scissors, and forgiving if your first cut goes crooked.
- Faux fur fabric: the beard. A small piece goes a long way, so buy the remnant if there’s one.
- Elastic band: holds the beard under the chin and the hat on the head at the same time. This is the trick that makes the whole thing work.
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks: low temp is fine and safer with little ones nearby.
- Scissors: a sharp pair. Faux fur will fight you with dull ones.
- Long-sleeve shirt: any color. We used plain tees the boys already had.
- Overalls: brown or denim. They read most gnome-like and they’re real clothes afterward.
Want more of my go-to craft supplies? Browse my favorites on my Amazon storefront.
How to Make a Garden Gnome Costume (Step-by-Step)
None of this is hard, but the order matters. Make the hat first so you can size the beard to it, and do all your cutting before you plug in the glue gun. Hot glue sets fast and is not interested in your second thoughts.
Step 1: Make the Gnome Hat
Start with the cone, because everything else gets sized to it. Measure around your child’s head with a piece of string or a tape measure, then add about an inch for overlap. That measurement is how wide the base of your cone needs to be.
Roll the craft foam into a cone, check the fit on their head before you commit, and run a line of hot glue down the seam to hold it. Trim the excess along the edge and square off the bottom so it sits level. Add glue anywhere the seam gaps.
Pro tip: Make it taller than you think. A short cone reads like a party hat. A tall one reads unmistakably gnome.
Step 2: Create the Gnome Beard
Cut your faux fur into a beard shape, trimming and shaping as you go until it looks right. You can make it fuller, longer, or shorter depending on your child’s age. Babies look extra cute with tiny fluffy beards, while older kids can pull off a bigger, more dramatic one.
Pro tip: When you cut faux fur, slice only through the fabric backing and not the fur itself. Then when you brush it down, the hairs hang naturally past the edge for a fuller, more realistic look. This one change is the difference between a costume beard and a good costume beard.
Step 3: Attach the Beard and Elastic
Glue a strip of elastic between the back of the beard and the inside of the hat. That single piece does two jobs: it holds the beard comfortably under the chin and keeps the hat on their head at the same time.
Leave it loose enough to slip a finger underneath. Too tight and they’ll pull the whole thing off before you get a single photo.
Step 4: Try It On!
Now for the best part… seeing your little garden gnome in action! I made this costume for both my baby and toddler, and it was so easy to adjust the sizing. You can make the hat slightly smaller or longer, depending on the age, and cut the beard to fit their little faces perfectly. Sized right, the kids gnome costume looks beyond adorable.
For the outfit I kept it simple: long-sleeve tees and brown overalls for both boys. It pulled the whole look together, and they wore those same pieces as regular clothes all fall and winter. You can add gardening tools, kid-sized leather gloves, or a cute watering can for photos, but even with nothing the look is spot on.
How Much Does a DIY Garden Gnome Costume Cost?
About $10 per costume buying the foam and fur new, and less if your craft bin looks like mine. Store-bought gnome costumes run about $20 to $40, so making two of ours cost less than buying one, and the homemade beard honestly looks better than the ones that come in a bag.
How to Make a Baby Garden Gnome Costume
Shorten the cone and shrink the beard. That’s the entire adjustment.
For my baby I made the hat noticeably shorter than my toddler’s and cut the beard down to a small tuft, because a full-length beard on a baby is mostly a chin hazard and they will absolutely try to eat it. Keep the elastic loose, check that it sits below the chin and not across the throat, and take your photos early. A gnome who rips his own hat off in the first ten minutes is just a kid in overalls.
Can Adults Wear a Garden Gnome Halloween Costume?
Yes, and the method doesn’t change at all. Scale the cone up, make the beard longer and fuller, and wear the same overalls and long-sleeve combination in adult sizes. A garden gnome halloween costume works especially well for a group, because one gnome is cute and four gnomes is a bit.
If you want something faster for the grown-ups, my DIY Halloween costume t-shirt takes about twenty minutes and doesn’t need a Cricut.
Our Garden Themed Family Halloween Costume
The gnomes were part of a full garden theme. Our boys were the gnomes, the girls wore no-sew flower costumes, I went as the gardener, and my husband was a bag of fertilizer. It was 99% DIY, it cost almost nothing, and it’s one of my favorite family looks we’ve done.
We pick a theme every year. We’ve been a cave-dwelling family, barnyard animals, and the Weasleys. They’re all in one place in 31 Family Halloween Costumes if you need a theme for your own crew.
In my totally unbiased opinion, this tiny little garden gnome may have stolen the show, though. Seriously, so cute!
More Halloween Projects
- Farm Animal and Farmer Costumes: Easy No-Sew Family DIY
- DIY Caveman Costumes for Kids and Adults: Stone Age Outfits
- DIY Chicken Costume: Easy No-Sew Tutorial
- Tomato Cage Ghosts: Easy DIY Light-Up Porch Ghosts
📌 Save This Garden Gnome Costume for Later
Pin now and come back when you’re ready to make your own adorable garden gnome costumes!
Garden Gnome Costume FAQs
Roll a sheet of craft foam into a cone, glue the seam, and trim the bottom edge so it sits level on the head. Cut a beard shape from faux fur, cutting through the backing only so the fur hangs past the edge. Glue one strip of elastic between the hat and the beard so it goes under the chin and holds both at once. Put it on over a long-sleeve shirt and overalls the child already owns. No sewing, about $10 in foam and fur, and about ten minutes per costume.
Faux fur fabric with long pile, in white or light gray. It is soft against a child’s face, it hangs like a real beard instead of sitting flat, and a small remnant covers two or three costumes. The trick is to cut from the back with the tips of the scissors, through the fabric backing only, so you do not chop the fur short at the edge. Cotton batting and white felt both work in a pinch, but batting sheds and felt reads as a paper beard from across the yard.
One strip of elastic that connects the hat to the beard and runs under the chin. Because the beard pulls down and the hat pulls up, they hold each other in place, and there is nothing loose to tug at. Size the foam cone around the child’s head before you glue the seam, snug but not tight, and glue the elastic inside the hat at two points rather than one so it cannot twist. For a child who hates anything under the chin, a thin beanie underneath gives the foam something to grip.
Yes, and it takes the same ten minutes. Use two sheets of craft foam taped together for a cone tall enough to read as gnome on an adult head, and cut the beard to reach mid-chest, because a short beard on an adult reads as a party hat with fluff on it. Overalls and a long-sleeve shirt finish it. Adults usually skip the chin elastic and glue the beard to the hat’s front edge instead, so the whole thing lifts off in one piece when it is time to eat.
Overalls and a long-sleeve shirt, and that’s genuinely it. Brown or denim overalls read the most gnome-like, though red and blue work too. Don’t buy anything special for this part. The whole point is that the clothes underneath are real clothes your kid wears again in November.
Yes. Stiff felt, poster board, or a rolled piece of cardboard covered in fabric will all hold a cone shape. Craft foam is my pick because it’s forgiving when you cut it crooked, which I did twice, and it doesn’t crease permanently if the hat gets sat on. Which it will.
It’s all in the beard. Length and volume are what sell it. A short, thin beard reads like a party hat with some fluff stuck to it. A beard that reaches mid-chest reads unmistakably gnome. Cut only through the fabric backing so the fur hangs past the edge, and brush it downward before you glue anything.
That’s the best part about it. Overalls over a long-sleeve shirt handles most Halloween weather, and you can add a thermal layer underneath without the costume looking stuffed. The foam hat blocks wind better than you’d expect, but it isn’t warm on its own, so a thin beanie underneath works for a cold night.
Absolutely, and it’s easier than making one. The pieces are identical at every size, so you cut all the cones first, then all the beards, then assemble. Doing it in batches is much faster than finishing one costume start to finish and then starting over. Vary the hat colors if you want them to photograph as a set instead of looking like a uniform.
About 10 minutes per costume once your supplies are out, and most of that is shaping the beard. I made two in under 20 minutes while the baby napped. If you’re making several, cut all the cones first and then do all the beards, because switching back and forth wastes time.
The Bottom Line
A garden gnome costume is a cone, a beard, and clothes you already own. It’s the one I’d hand to someone who swears they aren’t crafty, because there’s no pattern, no sewing, and nothing that has to line up. If you take one thing from this post, make it this: cut the faux fur from the back, through the backing only, and your beard will look twice as good as the store-bought ones.
Making one of these? Tell me what size you’re working with and I’ll help you figure out how tall to make the cone. And if you’ve found a better beard material than faux fur, I want to hear about it.