What's in your closet

You could go to Party City for your trendy pirate costume. You could hit the Halloween shop at the mall for your French maid's outfit.

You could troll through every thrift store in the Triangle looking for the perfect nerd glasses.

But as any good costume designer can tell you, everything you might need for a clever last-minute Halloween costume is likely somewhere in your closets at home. All it takes is a little imagination -- and some well-stocked closets.

That's what the Allen family of Cary found out last week, when we asked Chapel Hill costume and set designer Jan Chambers and her 17-year-old daughter Rachel Gordon to spend an evening going through the family's closets to create homemade costumes.

In less than two hours, they came up and fully executed two ideas for Sophie and Bennett -- and nearly everything came from the Allen home.

'The Pick of the Litter'

What's needed:

About 15 stuffed dogs

A medium-size box

A brown, black or beige fitted hat

A white turtleneck or a black, brown or beige hoodie

A pair of brown socks

A pair of beige socks

Two small blankets

Brown or black face paint or eyeliner

Duct tape

It didn't take Chambers long to figure out what Bennett, 9, the family's youngest, would be. Under the Harry Potter cape and below the Boy Scout uniform at the bottom of his closet was a big box packed full of stuffed animals, many of which were dogs. More were on the top bunk of his bunk bed. Even his sister had a collection.

Bennett's vast pack of stuffed dogs meant he could easily be the "pick of the litter" in a box full of puppies.

The costume wouldn't work, however, without a box to put the puppies in. So Chambers sent the family in search of a medium-size box, which they found after searching the attic. Chambers opened up the bottom and, with duct tape, taped the top and bottom of the box so that Bennett could fit inside. Then she created two straps from the duct tape to make suspenders so Bennett could hold up the box with his shoulders.

In the family's hats, scarves and mittens bin in the front hall closet, Bennett had a fitted beige fleece hat -- perfect to simulate a dog's head. Chambers pinned on two of sister Sophie's brown socks for ears. The hat fit snugly on Bennett's head.

A pair of beige socks from dad Nick -- amazingly the same color as his fleece hat -- went on his hands for paws. Bennett's mom supplied the white turtleneck, which was the perfect cover for his "puppy" body.

Next, Chambers laid out the blankets in the box and stuffed the animals around Bennett's head.

The final touch: black face paint (which, for full disclosure, Chambers brought with her) to color the tip of his nose and draw whiskers on his cheeks.

'Whoville' Girl

What's needed:

Striped open scarf

Colorful poncho

Striped socks

Blue Keds

Wire hanger

Dixie cup

Face paint or makeup

Ribbon

Bobby pins

Hair spray

Rachel, who is a budding actress at East Chapel Hill High -- and as it turns out, a budding costume designer -- worked on Bennett's sister Sophie, 12.

During the initial tour of the family's closets, one item -- Sophie's open blue striped fuzzy scarf, a find from her mom, Diana Allen, during a trip to New York -- caught everyone's attention. Their immediate thought: Dr. Seuss.

Upstairs in Sophie's closet, they could have gone countless different ways: A spa girl. A bubble bath taker. A geisha.

But they started seeing more Seussical signs, specifically of Cindy Lou Who, the young Grinch charmer in Whoville from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." The colorful poncho. The striped socks.