I’m a huge fan of homemade Halloween costumes, they’re much more creative than store-bought ones. I was lucky and grew up with a mom who could sew and whip together adorable outfits. Now, I’m fortunate enough to have an incredibly creative husband that can make great costumes without sewing. On a side note, the only reason I still dress up every Halloween is because I’m a teacher and the kids get a kick out of their teacher wearing a costume on Halloween.
Here are a few tips about making a homemade costume that don’t require sewing:
- The character or person you choose to imitate doesn’t have to be spot-on. As long as you have the key elements that make the character distinguishable, that will do. For example, I dressed up as Olaf a couple of years ago. Instead of transforming my entire body into a large snowman, we created his head out of a white baseball cap and his body using a white long-sleeved shirt. It totally worked. People knew I was Olaf.
- Felt works great. Felt comes in all colors and thickness and it glues onto fabric pretty well if you purchase tacky glue. When we created Olaf, we used felt to create his eyes, nose, and buttons, and then glued them onto the hat and shirt. The costume is two years old and still intact.
- Don’t forget about the Goodwill. In the past, I’ve dressed up as a cowgirl and pirate and purchased quite a few items to complete my outfit from the Goodwill. This year, I’m dressing up as a surfer (our school chose a Hawaiian theme). Guess where I’ll be looking for a Hawaiian-inspired t-shirt? The Goodwill!
- Details and accessories matter. A cowgirl wouldn’t be complete without a cowboy hat, rope, and cowboy boots. Just like with any character, the details and accessories matter. I’m plotting my surfer outfit this weekend and realize I’ll have to add an accessory or two, such as a lei, board shorts, flipflops, and a shark-bitten surfboard (which Mr. LH will be making out of foam). The accessories can take a so-so costume and give it a little more pizzazz.
As much as I love homemade costumes, I also acknowledge that sometimes it’s just easier to buy a store-bought one. Last year, I chose to be Princess Leia (I try to be current in my costume choices). However, after brainstorming how we could whip together the costume on our own, we realized it was going to cost more money to create it ourselves. Instead, we purchased the costume for under $45. When the next Star Wars comes out in 2017, I’ll probably wear this costume again (and again when the next installment premieres.)
When you’re short on time or just aren’t crafty enough to create your own costumes, check out this article for ideas.
For additional tips and tricks, we found these How-to-Videos at Halloween Express to be helpful. When my surfer costume is complete, I’ll put together a short description of how we created it. Are you getting ready for Halloween?
Update: Surfer costume in progress. Here’s the breakdown:
- Lei from Party City, $3.25
- Flip flops from Old Navy, $3.89
- Tank top from Walmart, $2.50
- I had the board shorts
- Still to come: a foam board to create a shark-bitten surfboard and a flower for my hair.
