It’s not about making every single piece of your costume. It’s about putting in the effort. It’s about giving a damn. And boy do I give a damn when it comes to Halloween! Here’s how I put together my version of the matriarch of the century, Marge Simpson.

The Blue Hair
Forty bucks for a subpar blue wig from the Halloween pop-up store? I think not. This wig was the only 100% DIY piece of the costume. I went back and forth about how to create Marge’s iconic blue beehive: Blue bubble wrap? Foam? Painted cotton balls? There are tons of creative DIY versions out there, but I found some inspiration in the fabric section at JoAnn with royal blue felt and glittery blue tulle.

I don’t want to bore you with all the details. (Just some of them.) I sewed some batting to one side of a felt rectangle (roughly 23″ by 15″), sewed that into a tube, and used a zig-zag stitch to attach a few pieces of elastic on the inside of the sides and back to keep it in place. I eyeballed a circle for the top and sewed that on, too.

Then came the hand sewing. I cut strips of tulle about twice as high as the wig and 2″ wide and hand sewed them vertically up the felt, balling it up a bit as I went. To finish, I cut a small sliver from the front to make it look more like hair and less like a blue Queen’s Guard hat.

The Green Dress
In its former life, this was a full-length bridesmaid dress, train and all. I rolled my eyes when, under the fluorescent lights at David’s Bridal, the bride’s grandma said, “You can cut that off and wear it again!” Literally nobody ever does that, I thought at the time. Cut to six years later, and my mom’s voice echoed in my head as I racked my brain for costume ideas. “You know, that dress looks a bit like Marge Simpson’s.” Yes, it does. So I cut off the train and shortened it by a few inches. Never say never about wearing your bridesmaid dresses more than once.

The Red Shoes
I hate flats. They hurt my high arch and rub against the weird bone on the back of my heel. But Marge needs her red shoes! These were $13 on Amazon, and they were about as comfortable as you’d imagine $13 buys.

The Bright Yellow Body
By a stroke of Halloween magic, I found a shirt—a men’s Patagonia running tee—to match the canary yellow tights I bought at a Halloween pop-up. ‘Twas meant to be.

The Red Pearls
Thanks, Mom! She miraculously found a string of cherry red pom-poms that worked perfectly as Marge’s necklace.

The Face Paint
It’s terrifying close up, but this yellow and white makeup definitely brought the cartoony look over the top. I used black eyeliner to outline and for the eyelashes.

Hank Scorpio: The Other Simpsons Character
Homer would have been too obvious, no? The thing is, Marc didn’t want to shave his beard for Halloween, so we had to find a character that would work with his facial hair. Enter Hank Scorpio.

Hank, voiced by the incomparable Albert Brooks, only appeared in one episode, but it’s a memorable one. Marc created the supervillain’s flamethrower using PVC pipe, duct tape, and a couple empty 2 liters of Coke for the tanks. It’s obscure, but the people who get it REALLY GET IT.

And that’s about all she wrote for this Halloween. Until next year!