This DIY Samara Morgan costume from the movie The Ring will terrify everyone!
When my daughter learned about her upcoming school dance, she was thrilled! We both love Halloween and dressing up, and the possibility of winning a prize made this dance even more fun. She studied the categories for the prizes and decided she wanted to enter in the Scariest Costume category. Then we had to figure out which scary character she should be!
We went through a lot of different ideas, none that really seemed to catch her interest. Last weekend I happened to see that the movie The Ring was on Paramount Plus, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to watch. I enjoyed it so much that I watched it twice! My daughter has long black hair, making her the perfect Samara. Since she just turned 13 I thought the movie was still too scary for her to watch, so I showed her some still images from the movie and explained who Samara was. She loved the idea and was all in. Now I only had 5 days to get the costume ready!
DIY Samara Morgan Costume Supplies
- White dress or nightgown (I ordered this $15 dress because it came had next day delivery and was fully lined so it wouldn’t be see-through like some nightgowns.) If that dress is out of stock try this nightgown for a similar look.
- Folk Art Ultra Dye in Magenta and Teal
- Black Acrylic Paint
I made a short video to show how to dye the white dress. Because I was short on time I needed a quick dye process. This is what I did:
- I dumped both dyes into a bowl and added black acrylic paint. I mixed them all up and dipped the ends of the dress into it.
- Use an old toothbrush to splatter the dye mixture onto the dress.
- Add water to what’s left of the dye and pour it onto the dress.
- After coloring the dress I hung it in the sun to mostly dry, then sped the process up in the dryer.
Dipping the dress in the dyes and then pouring a watered down dye mixture over it made the dress look like it had been in a well with Samara. If you can’t find the Ultra Dye you can just use acrylic paint. I added the purple and green Ultra Dye to give the dress a swampy, bottom of the well water look.
@morenascorner Last minute costume DIY: Samara Morgan from The Ring 👻💀🎃 @Juliana 😱 won scariest costume with this look! #halloweencostume #halloweencostumeideas #diycostumes #thering #samara #samaramorgan #scary #creepy #horror #horrorcostumes ♬ Horror movie opening instrument(859680) – half-dim
After she put on the dress I used white and black Halloween makeup on her face, arms, and legs. My daughter won Scariest Costume with this look and was THRILLED! I’m so glad our last minute DIY costume worked out.
The link for the dress does not show white. Any ideas for a white dress that’s similar?
This dress is a different fabric but has a similar look: https://amzn.to/3UeSGT6
To make this costume with acrylic paint would you recommend using the same colors you did or just using black? Did you prewash your dress and then start dipping it in the paint? And the paint that you dipped did you rinse it off or just leave it there to dry after pouring the watered down paint over the entire dress?
I would probably just use black if only using acrylic paint. The purple/green give it a murky water look but that’s harder to achieve with acrylics. If you wanted to try it I would create a very watered down purple and/or green to pour over it. I did not prewash the dress. If you use Ultra Dye don’t rinse it because it will just run right off. If you are using acrylics then dip it, let it set, and you can rinse the clumps/excess off. I hope that helps!