halloween costume ideas that are free or cheap

[jackson'smama]

i have a ds who will be 3 around the time of halloween...any ideas for cheap or free costumes?

[MissMommyNiceNice]

You can turn a pair of overalls into a scarecrow costume with some rafia and poorly sewn patches. Add a flannel shirt, a bandana, and a hat, viola! Scarecrow.

[annekevdbroek]

This year DS4 will be a pirate ghost - a black shirt, pants, and white tunic came from the .99 Goodwill, a plastic sword from the $1 store, and a scrap piece of elastic to make his belt.

I haven't figured out the hat situation yet - but it will be cheap (for sure).

[papschmitty]

My all time favorite costume was homemade for CHEAP!

A FREEWAY!
Take black sweats and paint yellow lines for the road. One up each leg merging into one at the waist so there's just one road in the middle of the shirt. Sew on some matchbox cars and viola! I'm no seamstress so I sewed my cars on with dental floss. It worked great! I actually won a prize for this costume at a party. Best of all, it's warm and comfortable!

[momaste]

I was just going to post the road idea! That's what DS is going to be. It's free for me - we have a gray sweatsuit for him, yellow electrical tape, and enough Hot Wheels to populate a small city. I found it on the Family Fun website. They have lots of good, easy costumes that are sweat-suit based.

[DisplacedYooper]

Mummy - tear old white sheet into strips. Wrap around body. Voila! May want to add some white face paint to avoid wrapping around the face.

[wombatclay]

The world's easiest tunic... find a rectangle of fabric (a towel, a sheet, dollar fabric off the bolt), cut a hole in the middle for the head, pull it on and belt. A white tunic over black or grey sweats with a shield/sword (cardboard covered with aluminum foil or silver paint) and you're a knight! A green or brown tunic over green or brown sweats, add a cardboard or twig "bow/arrow" and you're Robin Hood! The same tunic in a red or stripe with an eye patch and cardboard/foil sword and you're a pirate. A long brown tunic (or old brown bathrobe) and a toilet paper/kitchen towel tube properly decorated and hanging from your belt makes you a jedi.

Different colored ribbons tied to the arms and you've got a rainbow (and a little one who will have a blast fluttering their arms!). Take a black trash bag, cut it into strips and attach the strips to a long piece of tape...run the tape along one arm/over the back/down the other arm to create long fluttery "wings"... with a black sweat suit you have a scary little halloween crow. Or paint red circles of the wings to be a butterfly.

And face paint can make all sorts of things.

Have fun!

[CandyApple]

Originally Posted by MissMommyNiceNice

You can turn a pair of overalls into a scarecrow costume with some rafia and poorly sewn patches. Add a flannel shirt, a bandana, and a hat, viola! Scarecrow.

This was my first thought, too. Altho, we used golden fleece instead of raffia for the straw. I just "fringed" little bands and tied the end peices around his wrists, ankles and pinned a little to his collar. Its was soft and warm, and didn't itch. I even borrow the idea for a kids party the next year!

Originally Posted by annekevdbroek

This year DS4 will be a pirate ghost - a black shirt, pants, and white tunic came from the .99 Goodwill, a plastic sword from the $1 store, and a scrap piece of elastic to make his belt.

I haven't figured out the hat situation yet - but it will be cheap (for sure).

How about just a bandana?

[Semi_Crunchy]

Growing up we always made our own costumes from things around the house or items that were very cheap. Even today if I'm dressing up, I go with what I have or what I can make myself for close to nothing. Some things I've done include: a punk rocker - tease and spike up hair, lots of colored bracelets , some bright colored make up, bandanas tied up around the leg with some jeans, over sized bright colored shirt, etc. If you have or can get a large clear plastic bag (can usually get this free if you ask at a dry cleaner), make a "bag" with arms and legs to go thru, and fill it up with some small balloons blown up, you've got yourself a bag of jelly beans! In college I took 2 pairs of black tights, cut off the legs, filled them with cotton stuffing and sewed them to a black shirt and then had a string running from my wrist of the shirt to each black "leg" and a pair of black pants...instant spider. If you get one of those big oval foil roasting pans, spray back it red and paint in black dots, along with wearing all black clothing, make some antennas out of wire and lil puff balls, you've got yourself a lady bug. And cardboard boxes painted up, endless possibilities. One year my sister wanted to be a "golfer" so I suggested she be a dead golfer. So I dressed her up as someone playing golf but took a toy golf ball and cut it in half and put small holes in each side, and used elastic so it'd sit around her head so it looked like the golf ball was half wedged into her head. She wore a visor and was adjusted so you couldn't see the string. I used makeup to make the area look bruised and swollen. She enjoyed it and had I more time, I would have liked to have gotten some sort of pipping to bend and put the end of the club she carried on the end of that, so it looked like it was twisted around her neck or other body part. I love Halloween...one of my favorite holidays! I get to be creative and play dress up! And I've never worn a purchased costume...seems to defeat the purpose of dressing up for Halloween.

[Benji'sMom]

At our goodwill all 3T or 4T stuff is $1.99. Oh, also if you have a Dollar Tree, they have costumes there right now and each item is $1.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Originally Posted by annekevdbroek

I haven't figured out the hat situation yet - but it will be cheap (for sure).

My plastic pirate hat was only like $5 at the local Party City. It's not a nice Capt. Jack one, but it works. I got it for a boat parade where we were sexy pirate wenches...I was the cutest preggo pirate wench the creek had ever seen!

Anyway, it's a good play investment, because 2 years later, I still use it for play time/dress up. Or, maybe you could make one out of felt...

[onlyzombiecat]

I recycle things around the house. Look around at stuff you have. Old sheets and old shirts can be reused to make costumes. Look in your dc's toy box. Look at clothes you have. You can use paper or poster board to make hats or accessories. Check out a thrift store.

My dd was a flower one year. I made a hood out of an old green shirt. I hot glued petals from a couple of old silk flowers around the edge of the hood. I sewed a simple jumpsuit out of a green sheet. I painted leaves on it with paint I already had. I did not buy anything. A green shirt and pants would have also worked.

scarecrow- pants or overalls, flannel shirt, face paint, hat

construction worker/handyman- pants, shirt, tool belt/tool box, hard hat

ghost- sheet

mummy- strips of fabric or toilet paper

crayon- single color clothes with black stripe, hat made of paper or a plastic flower pot in matching color

butterfly/ladybug/spider- add wings or legs to black clothes. You can make wings out of fabric or poster board and legs out of old pantyhose or socks

cat/dog/animal- make ears out of paper, foam or fabric on a cheap headband or ribbon, make a tail, face paint, dress all in one color, make a collar out of ribbon or paper

chef/baker- apron or white pants/white shirt or jacket/hat, carry kitchen tool (spoon, pot, rolling pin), sprinkle flour on face or costume

painter- paint spattered shirt and pants, paint brush, paint can

clown- oversize clothes, hat, face paint

tree- brown clothes, attach leaves (paper, silk or real) to a hat and sleeves.

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf51717325.tip.html
http://www.robinsfyi.com/holidays/ha...n/costumes.htm
http://www.costumepage.org/hallocst.html
http://www.costumeideazone.com/CIZ/CategoryList.aspx

[MomAndOliver]

My son is going to be a galaxy - I am putting glow-in-the-dark stars all over a dark sweatshirt and pants. I got the idea from a magazine my sister loaned me (whose name I cannot remember). It is inexpensive, and not too much like a "costume" - my son was absolutely, positively NOT going to put on a costume. He is 2.5, but apparently has not gotten the message that kids like to dress up. Hats are fine, but nothing else.

[velcromom]

My ds2 won a costume contest wearing a knight costume I made from cardboard boxes and containers, tissue paper and paper mache. The only thing I bought was paint to decorate it.

The chest/back plate was one piece, came down over the head and laced at the sides with yarn. The arms and legs were pringles and oatmeal containers. The helmet was made with papermache and had a tassel made of strands of tissue paper on top. I also made him a shield and sword to carry, after the paint unified the pieces, it all looked very convincing! And because I was so broke, I didn't have a camera and didn't get a single picture of him, wouldn't you know it.