F or every Halloween party I went to as a child, my mum made me the same costume: bin-bag bat. Black base layer, fangs drawn on with eyeliner, and wings cut out of bin bags and attached to the sleeves. Surprisingly effective, cheap and with a five-minute assembly time (particularly helpful as I was the youngest of four), the costume became such a habit that I’ve fallen back on it many times in adulthood too; my friends even dressed up as a colony of bin-bag bats for my hen party.

Given the Halloween “season” seems to swell every year like an overgrown gourd (a house on my school run is already covered with fake cobwebs), I asked colleagues, friends and readers about their own DIY costume ideas.

Mummy’s on a roll …

Holy sheet! The toilet-roll mummy is a classic for a reason.…