Have you planned for Halloween? I admittedly have not. If you are like me and haven’t got a costume; you are hoping the store has the costume your kids want or expediting shipping. With the holidays right around the corner, spending a lot of money on a costume they’ll wear for one night may not be feasible. Don’t feel pressured to buy them an overpriced costume especially if they are indoor trick-or-treating. Get creative and frugal with these four easy Halloween costumes that are DIY and/or require inexpensive accessories.
Book character costume
Not everyone celebrates Halloween, so in school teachers have required that students dress up as a book character instead of a traditional costume. This can be an easy costume to make, with the help of your child’s wardrobe, accessories and fabric glue. For example, one year Mila was Pete The Cat. I bought a blue baseball cap, heavy construction paper and I already had fabric glue and pipe cleaners. I made Pete’s face on the hat and she wore a shirt I put together with old fabric and the fabric glue and she was Pete The Cat and the Tooth Fairy. Other popular book characters are Thing 1 & Thing 2, Fancy Nancy, The pigeon, etc. Choose whatever will go best with what you already have.
Creative Ghost costume
I believe, Since the beginning of dressing up for Halloween people have been creating their own ghosts costumes. The key to making a ghost is to not be basic and make it unique to your child’s personality. One Halloween my daughter wanted to be a “pink ghost”. I couldn’t find that costume anywhere, I had no choice but to make it. After a few failed attempts I finally came up with something intricate looking, but also simple. I used a pillowcase and made it into a tunic, cutting out holes for the head and arms. I glued light pink mesh fabric to make it flow and give the illusion she was floating. The makeup and hair spray paint really set the look off. She loved it and people were impressed with the uniqueness.
Insects and Fairies
Any costume with wings and headbands are super easy to do. Mila wanted to be a beautiful butterfly. I ordered the Monarch wings and antennas and she wore a dress that resembled the torso of the butterfly and she wore her snow boots. Never doubt the power of your kid’s closets.
Scarecrow
This last costume is one that could work for your kids or yourself. The same year Mila dressed as a butterfly, I wanted to be in costume while we took her trick-or-treating. We had a lot of straw in the garage and I had overalls and a straw hat and thought scarecrow. I taped the straw to the inside of my overalls, hat and boots; used makeup to scarecrow up my face and I was done. Super easy to do, the only thing is the straw did get a little itchy.
All of these are easy and quick to do. After you are done trick-or-treating, enjoy some Halloween experiments with your family and enjoy wearing your costume longer. Happy Halloween!
