What age group is this costume for?
Elementary School
Middle School
High School & Beyond

Estimated time required to make this costume:
hour or less (need to gather items)

Difficulty level:
Quick and easy - no sewing required

Items you will need: (Hit your return key to start a new line)
White shirt

Black trousers; black belt, if needed

black ribbon (2 feet?)

black plastic trash bag

makeup (primarily white and black, bit o' red...)

Instructions:
Put on pants and shirt; tuck in shirt tail. Turn up the shirt collar, and make a debonair Bow Tie with the ribbon.

Slit the trash bag open at one side and the bottom, so the whole thing can lie flat; make a sinister batty "cape" by cutting escalloped edging from wingtip to wingtip. Gently secure this elegant cape with safety pins, under the back of the collar and the lapels of the jacket, as invisibly as possible. Flap, flap, flap....Purrrrfect...

Now, brush hair back, off the face. Whiteface base makeup is the pale look; even without that, you can get a sinister look with black makeup on heavily arching, almost triangular brows, some black shading near the corners of the eyes, black on the lips, and the prerequisite li'l red dribble from lower lip to chin...a ha, ha ha! Vonderful! You are zee Count!

Other information to consider:
For the Preschool set, I'd definitely tone it down a bit, and perhaps go with the Sesame Street Count concept. Cut numbers of construction paper, and pin them to the cape, or draw/stencil numbers to the Trick or Treat bag. Then, too, I'd try to take Big Bird and other Sesame Street guys along, too.

Of course, the plastic and the pins make this Not a good choice for the Under 3 set, so if your Dracula hangs out with li'l rug rats, exercise Care.