How to Create an Undertaker Costume

Giving people the creeps is one of the best parts of dressing up on Halloween and there's no better way to do it than by dressing up as one who works with the dead. Undertakers arrange for the burial or cremation of the deceased and often follow the ways of the embalmer. Their faces are pale, their clothing black and their hearts crippled by the sight of death; you can look just like them.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Black pants
• Long-sleeve black shirt
• Black cape or a black sheet
• Black top hat
• Black dress shoes and socks
• Pale facial powder or flour
• Duct tape
• Large safety pin (optional)

1. Go to a local thrift store to find the clothing items needed if you don't have them readily on hand. If you have more money and more time, you can purchase a costume.

2. Take your black sheet, fold it lengthwise and tape the open sides together. Repeat this process until the sheet runs the length from your shoulders to your calves.

3. Put on your shirt, pants, shoes, socks and hat. Place the sheet around your shoulders and pull the two corners closest to your face together in front of your neck. Secure the ends by either tying them in a knot or using a large safety pin.

4. Powder your face. Seldom does an undertaker see the sun, so it wouldn't do for you to walk around in this costume with a tan. It's helpful for someone else to do the powdering for you and for you to cover your costume with another sheet; this will prevent your creepy black costume from looking like a cow's hide.

5. Look in the mirror and scream. You're now an undertaker.

Tips & Warnings

• You can use strips of duct tape to add flair to your costume: a shiny gray stripe around your top hat, a line down the outer edge of each pant leg, and you will look like an undertaker from outer space (or a melancholy jogger in a track suit).
• Other accessories that you can use include white gloves and a measuring tape (to measure the bodies). Also, if you prefer, you can substitute a white dress shirt, black tie and black trench coat for the black shirt and cape.