My 3-year-old requested a fairy costume. Thankfully there are plenty of fairy costume patterns available on the market and even more thankfully - because I started planning for Halloween back in July, I was able to have my sister pick up the pattern at a $1 sale in the States. Fabric from the Peterborough market at City Centre - just a couple £'s - and used up some leftover pink netting (from an old project years ago) and voila - a fairy costume:
Like I mentioned earlier, sometimes kids can request quite an unusual costume. My 6-year-old presented the challenge for me this year. She wanted to dress up as Winnie the Witch - a character from a favourite book series here in the UK. There is no pattern available for this costume, nor is there anything commercially available for purchase. So, with some careful study of the book's illustrations (and my daughter on board for creative direction), we came up with this:
Like I mentioned earlier, sometimes kids can request quite an unusual costume. My 6-year-old presented the challenge for me this year. She wanted to dress up as Winnie the Witch - a character from a favourite book series here in the UK. There is no pattern available for this costume, nor is there anything commercially available for purchase. So, with some careful study of the book's illustrations (and my daughter on board for creative direction), we came up with this:
I must credit - again - the Peterborough city market for the stripey socks and ebay.co.uk for the purple cardigan (no, I did not knit it myself as some have suggested!) Total cost = £7.42, which includes the shipping costs on the cardigan.
Tips for Halloween costumes:
- Check what you have on hand, sometimes digging through the bin of yester-year's costumes can yield a suitable hand-me-down that even the pickiest of kids can be content with.
- Create a costume swap within your circle of friends. Borrowing a costume from someone else can save a lot of time, money and effort.
- Use up old fabric, clothes, pieces of old costumes and/or other items from various projects to inspire a certain look.
- If you don't sew, learn! Or have someone who does help you out with constructing something unique.
- Involve your kids in creating their costumes - it doesn't have to be 'perfect' and they will enjoy taking some personal ownership in the creation.
- Search the internet for ideas. It's quite possible these days that someone has already thought up a great costume that you can purchase or re-create.
- Check out second-hand stores or websites like Ebay where you can purchase costumes or parts of your desired costume at a discounted rate.
- Keep it simple. Outlandish costumes can not only be uncomfortable to wear, but a hassle to haul around when it's party or trick-or-treating time.
I'm ALL about digging through old stuff to use as a costume spruced up with a few nifty touches. My 15 month old son wore a pair of 12 month sized black pants that I had tatter-cut along the bottom of the legs along with a red scarf of mine tied around the waste for a pirate costume. All I had to do was buy a pirate hat for a couple of bucks at Party Central. Yo Ho Ho!
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