Halloween is Wednesday and this year the pressure is on to have the coolest and most unusual costume. The best way to do this is to avoid buying one of those overpriced and cheaply made costumes from Halloween stores and make your own. This way you can rest assured that your costume is unique. All you need are some supplies and a lot of creativity.

Before deciding what costume you’re going to make, consider going on sites like Tumblr and Pinterest to gain some inspiration. Some of the most popular and easy homemade costumes are bath loofahs, which are made from netting; grapes; or a bag of jellybeans, which are made from balloons; and cupcakes, which are made from cotton.

Before deciding what costume you’re going to make, think realistically about your expectations. Do you have enough time to make it? Are the supplies you need easy to find? Is the costume going to be easy to assemble?

One of the hardest parts of making a costume is getting the supplies and, more importantly, getting them cheap. Resale shops offer a large variety of products for a low price. Luckily, there are many of these shops in the DePaul area including The New Elephant resale shop on Webster, The Salvation Army on Clybourn and the Mount Sinai Hospital resale shop on Diversey.

Looking for some retro vintage clothes? The best area to guarantee you will find something funky for your costume is off the Belmont stop. Within a few blocks there are many vintage stores including Jive Monkey, Clothing Optional, The Alley and Strange Cargo. The best store to get crafting supplies is Michael’s, a huge crafting store, on Clark.

Once you’ve created your original costume, be sure to show if off. There are various costume contests online as well at Chicago’s main costume contest Oct. 29 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Franken (Daley) Plaza.

Don’t think you have the creative chops to make a costume but love the homemade idea? You can go on sites like Etsy and purchase a homemade costume although this option tends to be more expensive.