Homemade Halloween Costume Ideas

By Rachel H and Tracy S of Charlotte Smarty Pants

As you all probably know by now, we are hosting a Homemade Halloween Costume Contest for our TSP readers. Pictures of your kids in their costumes need to be sent to triadsmartypants@gmail.com by October 8th. If you haven’t already gotten started, we thought Tracy’s post last week on Charlotte Smarty Pants could give you some inspiration in your costume design! Good luck! - RH

As Halloween is quickly approaching, I find myself once again pondering what to deck my little goblins up in this year. And once again, I am compelled to craft a "one-of-a-kind" homemade getup more perfect than anything I can purchase at Morris Costumes or Target. Don't get me wrong - they have a terrific selection (and last year Jake's superman costume just HAD to be truly authentic with fake abs and all ... you just can't make that yourself!) I just have this crazy obsession to get all Martha Stewart sometimes ... I think it must be a craft gene handed down from my mom. Anyway, enough about that! With Halloween a full month away, there's plenty of time for us all to get a little "Martha". Here are a few ideas to get you started…

My first attempt at homemade was three years ago, when my son wanted to be Mickey Mouse for Halloween. I was amazed how hard it was to find an authentic looking Mickey costume. And the ones I did find were just BAD! So, the crafty side of me thought “how hard can it be to just make one”? We had certainly seen enough episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that I could picture him in my sleep! Turns out – it was not hard at all, and I must admit, I was pretty dag-gone proud of how it turned out (see picture)! All I needed was a black turtleneck (Wal-Mart, $3), some old khaki shorts that I died red (Rit die, $1.50), a hot glue gun and white felt “buttons”, a pair of black tights (Wal-Mart again), and a pair of oversized slippers that I got on sale at Old Navy and spray painted yellow. Then I found some white kid gloves (costume store, $5) and some Mickey ears (that was the tricky part – I actually had a friend that was going to Disney that week! Got lucky there!!) And there you have it – authentic Mickey Mouse!

The next year, Jake wanted to be a Pirate. Again, every store-bought pirate costume I came across was just cheap-looking, cheesy, or the Pirates of the Caribbean version where he would have looked like every other kid on the block. So, off to Wal-Mart I went again. This time I came home with some black pants, shiny black shoes, a big clunky woman’s belt that I trimmed down, a pirate bandana, and the best was the vest … I found a crinkly red sleeveless shirt on sale in the women’s department for next to nothing. So I bought an extra small and trimmed off the collar and glued down the top (like a hem around the neck), took off the buttons and cut off the bottom to fit him better. Add a pirate hat, hook and sword; pin a fake parrot to his shoulder – and Voila! Pirate Jacob!

And last year was my baby girl's first Halloween, so of course I had to think of something special. Her room was decorated in ladybugs, so I carried that theme over to her costume. This time I stepped it up a little and actually had to pull out the sewing machine and sewed 2 little red wings, stuffed with a thin piece of batting to keep them stiff. Then glued on some big red felt dots and attached to a black onesie. Add black tights, and there you have it - A little ladybug was born!

Now it’s your turn - share your super smarty ideas ... I know they're out there! And if you want, send in your pictures to enter our contest at triadsmartypants.com. Happy Halloweening!

Posted by Triad Smarty Pants at 5:00 AM