Make Halloween Costumes At Home – Creative Frugal And Fun Ideas

by Susanne Myers

Is Halloween a favorite memory-making holiday in your family? The memories that many of us cherish of Halloween are usually wrapped around the costumes we created at home. Those store-bought costumes don’t hold the same nostalgic feeling as the silly ones we made ourselves!

Many folks want to make their own costumes at home in order to create lasting memories with their children. However, this is not the only reason they want to make homemade costumes with their kids. More and more families are trying to watch their budget. Making their own fun costumes for Halloween is an easy and fun way to save money.

If you’ve decided to try your hand at making your family’s Halloween costumes, you need to ask yourself a few basic questions. Who is the costume for and what will they be doing while wearing their costume? How much time do I have to spare? How much money can I spend?

Who? – Costumes for a 12 year old child will be vastly different than costumes for a 1 year old child. Using beads and complicated accessories on a baby’s costume is not safe. Whereas, an older child may enjoy fancy detail on their costume. If a child will be out on the streets Trick-or-Treating, then face painting is safer than a mask. Kids who are bobbing for apples shouldn’t have their head wrapped up like a mummy. If you use common sense, you can create a great costume that will work well for any age and situation.

Time? – If you get an invitation to a Halloween party hours before it begins, you obviously have to come up with some very easy costume ideas. If you have a month to plan a Halloween costume, you can put some real thought into the design. Choose a costume that you can make in the time you have. Don’t try to make your child’s dream costume if you have to be there in an hour!

Money? – You can spend as much or as little as you want on a costume. Buy some tulle, lace, satin, sequins, and jewels, and you’ll turn your little princess into a princess, but it will cost you some money. Grab that gaudy old bridesmaid dress, give it a little adjustment, and your princess is ready to go for next to nothing. Look at your budget before you decide on a costume.

Some basic costume construction elements can help you create something that’s fun, frugal, and fast. With a little cardboard or posterboard, you can build a classic sandwich board style costume and create any number of costumes, like a playing card or box of cereal. Cut a couple wing shapes out, spray them with different paint colors, and you’ve got yourself a butterfly. With a cardboard box and some paint you can turn your child into a car or a Christmas present.

Necessity IS the mother of invention – especially when you’ve got no time and no money to spend. That’s when digging in Mom and Dad’s clothes closet comes in handy. Pull out the most normal looking items of clothing, put them on a child, and you are guaranteed some laughs. An old work shirt of Grandpa’s, complete with suspenders, and an old hat, and your sweet little toddler is now a lumberjack. How about that satiny shirt that Mom doesn’t wear anymore? With a pair of black pants or tights, and an old red towel, you’ve got yourself a matador.

Homemade Halloween costumes are really about creating fun and lasting memories with your family. After asking yourself some simple questions, who’s the costume for, how much time do I have, and how much money can I spend, you should have a better idea of where to begin. Now that you’ve narrowed down your options, spend some time looking for ideas to spark your imagination, so that you’re ready when your child looks at you for the answer to that question we hear year after year… What should I be for Halloween?

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