Purchasing new Halloween costumes each year can be both a draining and a costly endeavor. The children will want costumes of the newest cartoon character, or the superhero of the moment. You will just want to get through the holiday without going broke. Here are some ideas you can use to make inexpensive home made Halloween costumes.
The first thing you will need to do is convince your child that a home made costume is cool. You can do this by having them help make it and brainstorming about creative ideas. If they are participating in a costume contest, you can point out that only the most original costumes win the prize.
Next, you will have to choose what kind of costume the child will wear. The costume should be something generic that you can make from any number of materials to which the child can add his or her own personality. You can choose an animal, a book character, a person, or even a thing.
The easiest costumes to make will be that of an animal. You can turn a child into a cat or a lion by adding a tail onto a leotard and tights in fair weather, or a coat with matching slacks if the child will be going out in the cold. Next, you can add the appropriate ears to a simple headband. Finally, you can paint the child’s face to resemble the face of almost any animal. Face paint sets usually come with books for you to use as a guide. By following their instructions, your child can be a mouse, cat, dog, lion, or even a monkey.
Because interpretations of book characters are fueled by the imagination, such a costume will be easy to make. No one can say that Tom Sawyer would never wear those shoes, or that you have the wrong cape for Little Red Riding Hood. Just look through your child’s favorite story books for clothing descriptions and clues, and make up the rest.
Your child can also be any person you know about or that you know personally. They can dress up as their doctor, by putting on a white lab coat. They can dress up as their teacher, by imitating her hairstyle and clothing; they can even dress up as you by borrowing your clothing. If your child wants to be a firefighter, or police officer, do not be tempted to purchase expensive gear. You can get the hats and badges from your local dollar store and adapt clothing you have at home. A yellow raincoat can be turned into a fire coat for the day by adding colored masking tape stripes and all you need to imitate a police officer is a navy blue outfit and a toy gun.
Dressing up as an inanimate object is sure to get your child a prize for most creative costume. Any object can be imitated. They can even become a piece of lint by dressing in a grey sweat suit and covering yourself with imitation spider web. This is a great costume for a wallflower as lurking in the corner ads to the true character of the costume. Other items they can dress up as are a refrigerator, a piece of candy, a tree, or even a lamp by putting a lampshade on their head.
