Halloween frugal costume ideas

[rainbowmum]

Every year I leave it too late and my kids never have a costume ready. Does anyone have any good patterns/websites/ideas of costumes that are cheap cheap cheap (and easy too)??? Thanks xx

[corrie43]

I know most people here boycott disney, but disneydirect online has a big sale with free shipping and an extra 10% off with the code disneytreat

We got a stitch costume for $15 total.

[EFmom]

My dd was a mummy one year. I took an old holey white table cloth and tore it into strips (bandages) and basted them on a white sweatsuit mummy-style. I sprayed white stuff in her hair and did face make-up. You could remove the bandages afterward to have the sweatsuit back.

[judybean]

I've been wondering about ideas as well!!

One year when I was growing up my mom made the three of us kids m&ms. She just cut up two big circles from cardboard for each of us, covered them in a solid-colored fabric (I was orange ... if you don't have fabric, you could always use paint) and then cut out an 'm' logo for the middle out of black felt. She then put straps on the inside to to over our shoulders and we wore black turtlenecks and pants underneath.

Then... I think my brother went as as hobo clown a couple of times (basically, he wore clothes that were way too big and didn't match, his pants were held up by suspenders, his hair was either sprayed a bit white or just really messed up, then he had a bit of clowny face paint).

[Shenjall]

Butterflies can be easy. Get a big peice of posterboard, paint and glitter as desired and attach an elastic to one side for a harness. Pair with a black top, black bottoms. Voila!

I just took out 3 great books from the library on costumes.

Easy Halloween Costumes for Children by Leila Albala

Illegally Easy Halloween Costumes for Kids by Leila Peltosaari

Singer Sewing Reference Library - Halloween Costumes


They have some great ideas and the patterns are included

My dd will be the above butterfly and my ds will be a spider. I'm taking some extra black fabric to make "legs" with little black mini mitts attached for hands then sewing them to black sweater. I'm also going to sew eyes onto his toque. Cheap. I only had to buy the mini mitts but they were $2 for 3 pairs and my family will get to use them after.

[srain]

Check familyfun.com- while it's a Disney company, you can ignore their ads and see some great, cheap ideas.

[Lil'M]

We have a big box of dress-up stuff from goodwill, old costumes, stuff grandma gave us, etc. Costumes come mostly from there. Last year my girls were the good and bad witch from wizard of oz. All I bought was a kid's size black hat from Party city and some green spray hair paint. Everything else was from the dress up box or their closets. Oh, and I sacrificed one pair of old white socks and colored green stripes on them with permanent marker. They still like to wear the socks with the stripes!

[DawnaRose]

i love making costumes, I think halloween just might be my favorite holiday

Both of my older kids have been a puppy, in fact the first year I made the costume I was finishing it up while in labor with my son, who was born on the 29th of oct, the nurses kept coming back into my room to check on my costume and commenting on how cool it was :LOL the kiddos have informed me that its now a "tradition" for the puppy costume so my baby might be a puppy this year too :LOL

I bought a pair of white sweat pants (5.00) and a white hoodie (5.00) some black, brown, white and pink felt pieces ( less than 1.00 ea) and some needle and thread, I cut out various circles in the brown and black and sewed them all over the pants and hoodie, and I cut out a tail shaped piece from the white and some ears from the white with small parts of pink inside. My daughter who was 2 at the time made the most adorable puppy on halloween night, everyone commented on how cute it was. My son then wore the same costume the following year.

my daughter was also a black cat for halloween, again, black sweats and black hoodie, black felt which I cut into triangle shapes and hot glued to the hood, made a tail from and old pair of pantyhose and used some black eyeliner to give her whiskers and a black nose.

son was a lego once, following the directions on the family fun site, took a box and cut out arms, glued old yogurt containers on it, painted it red and put him in a red sweat suit we already had... total price about 3.00 for the paint, everything else I had.

my daughter was a sunflower one year. Took a piece of cardboard and cut out a big enough circle to frame her face, cut out a bunch of petal shaped pieces out of yellow, attached them all around the circle with hot glue and then glued on some brown beads for the seeds, she wore a green sweat suit and I had some extra green so I made a belt out of felt and glued some big leaves to it. She won 1st prize in a costume contest with that one...
{eta- I used some elastic to make a sorta "mask" like back for it, so it would stay on her face and frame it}

I saw this one on Ellen the other day, pink sweat suit with a shoe on her head... "bubblegum on the bottom of a shoe" I laughed at that one but my 11yr old thought it was "dumb mom!"

last year the baby was about 5 mo old and really too small for anything much, but I got her an orange sweat suit and cut some black punkin face shapes out of felt and hot glued them onto her shirt, she was cute and warm

I did a ladybug one year, I drew two big oval shapes on some posterboard, then painted it red,cut out some dots with felt and glued them on, made some shoulder straps out of some black material I had and she wore a black sweat suit (notice a trend with the sweats? hah)
Made some antenna from some pipe cleaner attached to a red headband we already had.

I could about costumes all day, I really love them I try to always make the kiddos their costumes because I never really had any good ones as a kid, my mom always waited until the very last minute to shop and we got the crappy ones no one wanted :LOL

[mamadege5]

Dawn~those are great ideas!!!

Our ds won a costume contest at school dance with this one year....robot costume, spary paint box silver, attached dials, gizmos, part of a clock, part of a headphone wire thing, on/off switch...any electrical looking things....used that shiny silver dryer hose for his arms and legs, it was a little stiff but bendable when he walked

[LaLa]

I made dd an Alice in wonderland costume by dying an older dress blue and pinning a white tank top and white skirt together with some lace to make a pinafore! It was very makeshift, but she loved it

I made a little red hooded cape and then dressed bean in a dress and basket and she was little red riding hood one year.

the girls have lots of dress up these days, so we wouldn't need to buy anything to dress up. Lot of princess, fairy type play every day.

I think our family is going to dress as the dick and jane family (Bean reads those books and loves them).
That will be easy enough by altering our current wardrobe. S houldn't need to buy anything.

I also saw that dollar stores in this area have capes and pirate costumes for $1 a piece...

A Zoro costume would be pretty easy by making a sword out of newspaper and wearing all black, making cape and mask. (buying hat)

Cowboy/woody from Toy story...another fun one that can be pieced together.

Local thrift stores have many ideas for costumes for affordable prices too!

Have fun!

[jake&zaxmom]

My 2 year old is going in classic '50's clothing. Black high top Converse (he already had these) cuffed blue jeans, white socks, white t-shirt, gelled hair, comb in his back pocket, cool wayfarer type sunglasses and if I run across one...a black leather (read vinyl) jacket if I don't find a cheap one then I guess he will wear his denim jacket if it is cold.

If I don't buy a jacket, this costume is free and useable all year round.

[Spock]

A friend of mine needed a last minute costume so she dressed all in green and wrapped herself in plastic wrap and went as leftovers.

I've also seen a postage stamp costume made out of poster board that should be pretty easy.

[Vanessa]

Originally Posted by srain

Check familyfun.com- while it's a Disney company, you can ignore their ads and see some great, cheap ideas.

They have some really great ones. One of the new ones this year was a washing machine. It's really cute and uses things around the house.

[freespiritmom]

A funny last minute "costume" is to paint or sew a large letter "P" on the front of a tshirt,sweatshirt etc and then black one eye with some make up. You're a black-eyed pea Dress in the colors of a black-eyed pea to make it even better.

When Keaton was 1 I dressed him as a dinosaur. I started with a set of green warm ups. I cut out a dinosaur tail from cheap cotton fabric and added multi colored spikes with felt as I stitched it up.. stuffing it with polyfill. I just pinned this well to the back of his pants. He wore green socks. I cut "claws" out of felt and glued them on the toes. He wore a cute little dragon bib and a little cap that had dinosaur spikes down the center.

When Keaton was 3 he dressed up as Charlie Chaplin. I found some old black pants, black jacket, white shirt and black tie at Goodwill... all a little big so they would be loose. He wore black shoes. I found an old walking cane at a flea market and used a handsaw to cut it down to his size. I bought a pair of those silly glasses at a party supply store.. the plastic ones that have the big nose and black, furry mustache on them. I removed the mustache, cut it down a bit, and attached it to keaton's face using some stuff I bought at a costume supply store (like a glue but used for the body.. not sure what it was called). He already had black hair. He won the costume contest that year at the Mall. It was the cutest costume EVER and it cost me under $8

Taylor went as an old man when he was 3. His grandmother had bought him a 3 piece suit for church that he never wore. I added a fancy bowtie, gave him an authentic grey mustache from a costume supply store and he carried a small cane, cut down to his size.

gosh I know I have a lot more cheap ideas but I can't think of them right now.

[carla72]

Great ideas everyone!! Does anyone have any ideas for me and dd (16 months). I wanted to do something that complemented each other. I thought maybey mary and her little lamb. I don't have a dress for mary though and to buy one in a plus size would cost to much. I want something cute but cheap. My creative juices have dried up.
Carla