Money is tight for everyone this year and with Halloween right around the corner, this is a great opportunity to have fun and make your kids’ (and your own) Halloween costumes. Most of the components of home made costumes can be found in your own house or the local dollar store. Have the kids pitch in and I guarantee you’ll have more fun than opening your wallet at the party store. The costumes my kids always remember from Halloween isn’t the girl who dressed up in the store-bought Hannah Montana costume, but the kid who came in as the home-made TV. Sometimes the imperfections make it memorable - lucky for those who are less gifted in the crafty department (like me).
So this year, skip the party store and go back to basics - here are some great costume ideas with no sewing (I don’t sew - or iron for that matter - pity my husband) and in many cases, no need to buy anything new. These are nothing fancy, but quick and easy and definitely not featuring Sponge Bob or Pokemon.
Cardboard Box Costumes:
Take a large cardboard box and cut a hole in the top for your child’s head and a hole on each side for the arms. Fold the flaps in on the bottom where their legs come out.
Playing Dice/Die: Paint it white and paint black circles on it to match the die of your child’s choice. Have a sibling or friend? Make 2 for a pair of dice.
TV: Paint most of it silver and draw a smaller square on the front for the “show”. Draw your show, print out characters from your computer, or paint it black for the set that is turned off. Fashion some antenna (again - do kids know what these are - more history on the advent of cable) by rolling up tin foil to make 2 antenna and attaching to a plastic hair band.
Fire Truck: Paint it red, paint some paper plates black for wheels and glue or tape to the box where the wheels would go. Decorate to look like a fire truck. Top it off with a fireperson’s hat.
Refrigerator: Paint it white, attach a handle.
Present: Wrap in wrapping paper and add a bow.
Costumes using Poster Board:
Playing Card: Have your child pick the card they want to be and copy it on 2 pieces of large poster board (yes, some artistry required, but keep it simple) . Take 2 pieces of ribbon or strips of material and staple so you can hang the poster board over your child’s head and have one piece on front and one on back.
Pizza: Cut 2 big circles of brown poster board or one white and one brown and leave one brown circle plain for the crust. Decorate the front to look like a pizza. Again use ribbon or material to hang over head - crust in back.
Costumes using Sweat Suits:
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Road: Black Sweat Suit. Using wide white tape, make a dotted line down the middle of the front and back to look like a road. You could draw or print out road signs from your computer and pin onto the road.
American Flag: Blue Sweatshirt/Red Sweat pants. Cut stars out of white contact paper and stick to shirt. Put white tape stripes down the pant leg.
Autumn Leaves: Brown, Black or other “Autumn” colored Sweat Suit. Safety pin silk leaves (from craft store - or you could try real leaves - could get tricky). Carry a rake and collect candy in a lawn bag.
Black Cat: Black Sweatsuit. Girls could wear a leotard for the top with black leggings or sweatpants. Make a tail of felt or even construction paper. Tape or glue ears from construction paper to hairband (or you may find cat ears at a dollar store at this time of year). Draw nose and whiskers with eyeliner. Carry a stuffed animal mouse for added effect.
Crayon: Sweatsuit in a crayon color. Use black contact paper or construction paper and cut out letters to spell “CRAYON.” Stick to the clothes running vertically.
Bunch of Grapes: Green or purple sweatsuit. Attach same-colored balloons - paint face and hands same color.
Other easy ideas:
Artist: Use an over-sized white shirt and splatter with paint. Cut out an over-sized paint palette out of poster board - paint 4 or 5 large circles of paint on the palette. For a finishing touch, you could draw a mustache and goatee out of eyeliner and add a beret. Carry a paint brush.
Pumpkin: Green turtleneck/brown pants. Use an orange pumpkin leaf bag (at most grocery stores or hardware stores) and cut 2 small holes in bottom for legs. You’re done.
Hippie: Tie die shirt, jeans, sunglasses, sandals, long wig if you have one or bandanna tied around head or both.
Basket of laundry: Use a cheap, light laundry basket (try a dollar store). Cut a circle in the bottom for your child’s body to fit through. Cut 2 pieces of clothes line or rope to tie to the basket like suspenders. The top of the basket should rest just above your child’s waist. Hang clothes on the basket and your child - secure with clothespins. Safety pin some dryer sheets. Carry an empty detergent container and use a pillow case to collect candy.
Bag of Jelly Beans: Have your child wear a white top and bottom. Blow up lots of small different colored balloons. Cut a hole in a clear garbage bag for the head, put the balloons inside and and cinch the bottom of bag so the balloons don’t fall out. Make a sign that says “JELLY BEANS” and hang around your child’s neck. Replace balloons with leaves for bag of leaves.
Other easy ideas using your and/or your child’s clothes and sporting goods: Soccer player, tennis player, football player, hockey player, baseball player, a baby (wear pjs, carry a bottle), cheerleader (pleated skirt, pig tails, make pom poms).
Feel free to bring back the favorite costumes from when you were growing up - most years I was an old lady or a hippy (remember those?). What is your favorite home-made costume?
10.03.08 @ 12:29 pm
One year for our Halloween parade my Brownie troop dressed up as “party tables”. Using a box, we covered it with material (table cloth), glued plates, utensils, cups and for the centerpiece–I thought this part was a genius idea we had the girls make an arrangement of flowers that they could wear on top of their head. We cut a hole in the middle of the box so their head came through being the centerpiece of the table. This cosutme was very inexpensive to make and the girls had so much fun making it!!!
10.03.08 @ 3:24 pm
I hve used the cat sit for my child. Now I’m heping a friend with her 4 boys. You have some great ideas. I will be using them to help a family who normally would not go out this year.
Thank you,
Cathy (a friend of a single Mom barely getting by)
10.03.08 @ 6:17 pm
I have a son and a grandson who are both almost 3 and we have decided to have them be “Thing 1 and Thing 2″ from DR. Seuss Cat in the hat. They are wearing red sweat suits, white mittens, a piece of white felt with a 1 or 2 written in black marker on their chests, for the hair we are going to use blue spray paint for hair and spike it up. It was so easy to do I may even go a the Cat from the story. Thanks for your other great ideas. I still have 2 girls to get costumes ready for and I will be showing them your ideas.
Vickie (a faithful viewer)
10.03.08 @ 7:37 pm
Both of my daugthers are making homemade coustmes one is going as a hobo and the other is dressing like the 50
10.03.08 @ 8:01 pm
My daughter and a friend went as thing one and thing two from Dr. Suess. We put them in red sweatsuits and gloves cut a round piece of fabric and wrote “thing 1″ teased their hair straight up and sprayed it blue with spray you can find anywhere at Halloween time. We then painted their faces white and drew the noses and eyebrows by looking at the story book..it was adorable and super easy, (and fairly inexpensive) and they won first place in a costume contest!
10.03.08 @ 8:02 pm
I should add that we tacked the round fabric onto the front of the sweatsuit.
10.04.08 @ 7:59 am
well those are very great ideas well there are more things you can do like a witch with her hair all mest up raggy outfit and bad makeup there an idea with no waste of money.
10.04.08 @ 11:28 am
I USED A LARGE T SHIRT FROM MY HUSBAND AND GOT PURPLE AND GREEN BALLOONS AND MADE MY TWO CHILDREN GRAPES IT LOOKED REALLY GOOD AND IT WAS EASY TO PUT ON AND TAKE OFF.
10.04.08 @ 4:48 pm
I am sending my boys as cowboys. Flannel Shirts, Wrangler jeans, boots, rope and broom stick pony. They are both so excited.
Catrina
10.05.08 @ 12:54 am
I would like to say for the refrigerator you could also cover it with aluminum foil instead of painting Use black marker to separate top portion from bottom portion by drawing a 1/4 - 1/2 inch line accross the front or you can draw line down to make it look like a side by side.I did this for my daughter when she was little and she won 2nd prize I do believe for best costume…We used a light weight card board box to make the refrigerator out of ..
10.05.08 @ 2:41 am
Last year, for Halloween, my older 2 kids decided that they wanted to be a matching front loading washer/dryer set. I made their costumes from Cardboard boxes. We painted them red & added a “door” made from a coolwhip lid (courtesy of grandma), water bottle lids for knobs, glued a trial size detergent bottle onto the washer, & made a dryer sheet box from a picture from an ad. We got tons of compliments on them!
The year before, one of my kids decided he wanted to be an elephant. I bought him a grey turtleneck & grey sweatpants. I made an elephant mask for him out of felt, complete w/trunk (w/pipe cleaners inside for support) & pipe cleaner tusks & a felt tail. He was so proud of his costume!
I think my favourite costume was when my oldest was almost 2. He wanted to be an ER doctor. I made him a set of Halloween scrubs. I created the pattern & he chose the material. I made him a “hospital ID” on my computer, gave him a real mask (the kind used by medical workers), & let him carry my real stethescope
10.06.08 @ 10:02 am
Road-Kill road costume was a hit with our daughter for her seventh grade middle school costume dance. Can be done for any age. We took a black sheet that we had used for paint drippings a few times, ran yellow and white duct tape down it to look like a road. Cut a hole in the middle for a head to pop through to wear the sheet. As many families do we have tons of stuffed animals, pick out the not so favorite ones anymore, rip apart at the seams or limbs and attach with safety pins or sew on. We add a few “limbs” hanging off a black stocking cap. At the “tear” spot, we spray painted it red. It was a huge hit. For a non sewing mom, it was simple and less than an hour to make.
10.06.08 @ 2:21 pm
Being in my 50’s, we didn’t have store bought costumes–everything was home made. We always did hoboes and gypsies, cowboys, cowgirls, a princess, anything you could make with old clothes, jewelry, and make-up. Those were some of the best costumes and we had a ton of fun making them.
10.06.08 @ 6:03 pm
When my sons were younger I bought them each white sweat shirts and white sweat pants from a local Walmart. When we got home I thought, “What am I going to make them for Halloween out of these?” I saw a Sharpie sitting on my computer desk and immediately thought, “Dalmation puppy!” I made “dots” on the sweats with the Sharpie, used my eye liner to give them “doggy like features” on their faces and wa-lah…2 of the cutiest lil puppies and no need to carry a baggie for “doggie accidents” *grin*
Total cost: $6 for sweats
10.07.08 @ 1:37 am
I’ve done the pile of leaves with real leaves–as an adult!!
I’ve also gone simple with the “groaner” costumes–
tie a string to a leaf and attach it to a hat. When someone asks what you are, blow on the leaf and tell them you are a leafblower!
tape a quarter on your back–you’re a quarterback!
use black face paint around one eye, use tape to make a “P” on your shirt–you’re a black-eyed pea!
10.07.08 @ 12:03 pm
I was an interoffice mail envelope one year.
Had the flap in the back with two red circles and a string to close it. Every near I would add a new Name on the front in the TO: column.
10.08.08 @ 10:03 am
How about a “Toasted Western”…cut 2 pieces of toast out of brown boxes then tie with brown ribbon to go over shoulders like suspenders and on sides to keep in place. Dress yourself in jeans, plaid shir and cowboy/girl hat. Add make-up if you wish.
Or try “Deviled Egg”…Use old pillowcase with hole cut in tope for head. Stuff with batting or garbage bags (whatever you have). Dress yourself in red sweatsuit or try longjohns. Wear horns on your head and carry a dollarstore pithfork
10.08.08 @ 9:28 pm
I’m in my 50’s. We were really poor and a young family. Dad was going to college and Mom was working. Our costumes, and some Halloweens with the best memories, were the cut-the-holes in the bedsheet ghosts. I tell my kids this story and they can’t believe something so simple was fun. It was the spirit of the night, pardon the pun, and a safe time in the world. I’m sorry my children and grandchildren will never experience that.
10.13.08 @ 8:46 am
Cosignment or dollar store costumes are also great! For $6 I let my four-year-old pick his own costume, and he was VERY excited. (He’s a “scary skeleton”.) His little brother is wearing one of his costumes from years past, an Elmo costume that I found on the clearance rack at Toys R Us about 3 years ago for $2.
10.13.08 @ 3:55 pm
One year I made my daughter and her friend ipods. I bought a white oversized sweatshirt, bought clothes paint in a color of an ipod, and painted that on the sweatshirt on the front, and on the back wrote in italics their name so it looked like it was engraved. I had them were black yoga pants from Old Navy, and put ipod headphones around their neck, and it looked sooo cute! I enjoyed making them as well. Low costs.
10.15.08 @ 12:32 pm
My kids always wandted to be something different so we’ve done a lot of the box and poster board costumes. The Oreo cookie I made was so popular with my kids I ended up making a fabric version that would last. Last year my now grown daughter decided to use it again and we made a glass of milk out of two sheets of white poster board for her husband.
When my son was taking tae kwan do he just wore his ghee and we “beat him up” using purple eyeshadow and other makeup I had on hand. The only thing I bought was some fake blood to dribble under his nose and down the corner of his mouth but you can actually make that too using corn syrup and red food coloring paste.
10.17.08 @ 12:46 am
One year when i was a girl scout leader i made myself up like a scarecrow, using dark face makeup, lipstick and eyeliner for my face and i wore a flannel shirt and jeans and my husbands work boots and stuffed raffia in my sleeves and ankles,i tied a haystring around my waist and wore a straw hat with raffia stands hanging out of it, you could even pin a fake crow on your shoulder. it was a hit.
10.21.08 @ 11:36 am
Last year work had a costume contest. I went as a “bag” lady! The only thing I had to by was groceries!? I took safety pins and pinned the bags upside down all over a shirt and knickers! I had a straw hat lying around the house and had the clogs for shoes. Once I got to work there were some beanie animals lying around that were pinned to me as well. Every one agreed that it was clever! And who doesn’t have the plastic grocery bags lying around!?
10.30.08 @ 1:20 pm
One year my daughter was a baby. She wore her pajamas and slippers. I put her hair up in pig-tails. With my eyeliner i drew little freckles. All i bought was a binkie and a bottle for her to carry..Very Easy!
10.30.08 @ 2:55 pm
One year, when my girls were young, the oldest (about 6 or 7) went as a cheeseburger and the youngest (about 4) went as a box of McDonald’s french fries. I cut foam into the shapes, painted them with spray paint & cut cloth or vinyl pieces for the M & the fixings and glued them together (spray adhesive and tacky glue combined). I put the front and back together with velcro straps, so they were easier to get on and off. It was a lot of fun to make and they got several compliments on their costumes!
10.31.08 @ 11:25 pm
Last year, my daughter was so small (at 4 months old) that none of the store bought costumes would fit her. I got creative and used one of her thick white sleepers for a base and then bought some gauze like you use for dressing wounds and wrapped it around the top of her head, under her chin, and around the rest of her body, and she went as a mummy. She was so cute!