DIY Halloween Couples Costume Ideas: Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett

One of the first real "dates" I can remember Gary and I going on was to see Sweeney Todd in theaters. We both fell in love with the movie and decided that the following Halloween, that was going to be our first couples costume. We met around Halloween in 2007 and the movie came out shortly after that so we had a whole year to wait. Luckily we were still together a year later so I knew we had to do the costumes! We were definitely going for the Tim Burton version of the characters, portrayed by Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the movie. For Sweeney Todd, we didn't really do a "DIY." We were able to find a costume and decided to just get that along with a wig. We added a a few of our own touches however. You could easily DIY though by raiding your closet, your dad's or with some clothes from Goodwill. For Mrs. Lovett however, I could only find an "old London" version of the costume and I wanted to do the "Tim Burton" version. I believe there is a costume out now that is more her style but I'm glad I was able to create it myself, gave me the chance to be more unique with it.

The Goal:

Supplies Needed: Sweeney Todd:
Black or gray pants, pinstripe if possible
A vest
A white long sleeve top, loose sleeves if possible
A scarf/handkerchief for around the neck
Black fingerless gloves
A black and white wig or colored hair spray
Fake blood to splatter on shirt
Bloody towel and razor props

As I stated above, we just purchased a Sweeney Todd costume. But you could also put something similar together yourself using old clothes you own or hit up a thrift store. I believe the shirt that came with the costume already had blood splattered on the sleeve but if you're doing it yourself, make sure to get artistic with the fake blood! I added the bloody towel (just took a white hand towel and doused it in fake blood) tucked into the belt on his hip and the fingerless black gloves. We also purchased a Sweeney Todd wig but if you're doing it yourself, spray paint the hair black and add a white stripe and make the hair look messy and wild. I wasn't able to find a prop razor, I found one online but it was sold out until after Halloween so we got a real one at an antique store. Obviously we were only able to use that for pictures, it wouldn't have been appropriate to bring out to a bar since it could be considered a weapon! He just wore basic black lace up shoes to complete the look.

Supplies Needed: Mrs. Lovett
Long black skirt and lacy top/corset or a long lacy dress
Lacy black gloves
Black pointy shoes
Meat pie and cleaver props

Mrs. Lovett is a pretty simple costume to put together. I already owned a long black skirt that I thought would be perfect so I started there. I went to Hot Topic for a  lacy corset to pair with it. Something red/black would have been perfect but I fell in love with this beautiful teal colored one so I went with that. I also got a pair of black and white striped socks that I thought would look cute with the outfit, you could only see them if I hiked the skirt up though! Around the time I did this costume, these black, lace up heels were very popular. I think they are very ugly but fit perfectly with the costume. Luckily since they are popular at the time they were everywhere and I was able to find an affordable pair at Wal-mart. As I mentioned above, the only costume I could find for her was an "old London version." While that costume wasn't what I was looking for, I was able to purchase the accessory pack for that costume which included a plastic meat cleaver with blood on it and a meat pie with eyeballs and fingers in it. These accessories along with the accessory of a boyfriend dressed as Sweeney Todd were perfect! I think a guy could pull off Sweeney Todd alone but Mrs. Lovett definitely is better suited with a Sweeney Todd. We got so many compliments on our costumes as a couple! Messy hair is another component of Mrs. Lovett but unfortunately I had just gotten a cute, short haircut right before this so I just put it up in a clip. A fun accessory I added at the end was a meat cleaver necklace that I also found at Hot Topic.