Homemade Halloween Costumes

Jammers

Jammers

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It's that time of year. Just wondering if you have ever made/come up with a homemade costume and if so, what was it?

I have never actually sewn/made a costume, but have come up with some clever ones. My favorite was when my daughter and her best friend at the time went as Salt and Pepper shakers....they were in the 9th grade. They wore black pants and white shirts...Salt had a black S and salt packets attached to shirt, Pepper had a black P and pepper packets attached to shirt. They both had gray stocking caps on that I put felt circles on top of to look like holes. They got many compliments that night and it cost about $5 to buy the hats. They already had pants and shirt, I already black fabric paint and felt. I had the salt and pepper packets from various fast food places.

Another favorite of mine was when I was little (probably about 4) and my mom made me and my brother clown costumes out of paper grocery sacks. She just decorated the bags (I think she drew circles on the bag and colored them in with crayon) and cut hole for our head in the bottom of the bag and arm holes int he sides and then used another bag to make two pointy hats and decorated our faces with her makeup/lipstick. We had little money growing up and she was always trying to find something around the house to use as a costume. I was Pippi Longstockings one year and my brother was a pirate...and she did not spend a dime. My dad had had an eye injury at some point and had to have an eye patch, so my brother used that and my mom drew a mustache on him with her eyeliner, tied a bandana around his head, and he had a play sword that he carried, just wore blue jeans and white tshirt. I wore mismatched clothes (my shirt, my mom's bloomers from years ago, two different long socks), my hair in braids that she put a popsicle stick in to make them stand out, and freckles on my faces....I won third place in a costume contest at my brothers scout party. First place went to a three year old who went as a pair of jeans....they took his dad's old jeans, cut the legs short, cut arm holes in the side, cut eye holes in the front, put him in the pants, and stuffed newspaper (painted blue) on the top. That has to be the most creative costume I have ever seen.
 
I have made some, but also just made costumes from clothes I already have, adding things to them to go with the costume, like as a demon and as a chauffeur for the dead.

My favorite one was when I took a London Fog trenchcoat and wore it over a box that I cut to sit atop my shoulders, making me appear headless. I added fake blood to the top and stuffed the arms and gloves to look like my arms. One of them was attached to a tray I held secretly underneath with my own hand (at my waist and held thru the button area) that I had a hole in. I stuffed a face mask and put it on the tray, using my hand inside it thru the tray to move the mouth as I spoke. So it looked like I was headless, holding my head on a tray, having the mouth move as I talked. It was fun and scared a lot of people when I sat by the door and started talking as trick or treaters came up. Then we went to a party and no one figured out it was me underneath it since I made sure to wear pants and shoes that I normally wouldn't wear.

Great thread, Jammers! :clap:
 
I would to have seen that costume. My brother LOVES to scare the parents of trick or treaters. He usually does not scare the kids. He hangs his homemade dummy (jeans, long sleeve shirt, and gloves stuffed with newspaper) with a skeleton head from this tree in the front yard and has a rope attached to it and the rope runs up to the porch (out of sight) and he sits on the porch handing out candy and will slowly lower the dummy down by the parents....he gets a bunch of them every year!
 
Wow, both of you are creative! I wasn't very original. Dressed my kids as pirate and gypsy. But at least it was long before all the rage over pirates in recent years. :)
 
I have tried for years to get my daughters to go as a black eyed pea....all they have to do is put black makeup around one eye and wear a tshirt with a big "P" on it. They think I am crazy. I think it would get some notice.
 
I once took an old, black, very full skirt (it was wool, I think???) cut it vertically in half, and by hand, sewed red satin material inside to line it. Voila, it became Dracula's cape. A white shirt, black pants, slicked back hair, and whitish makeup...and there he was. Cannot tell you how many times that cape was "borrowed" for some party, and unfortunately the last person to do so never returned it. For shame.
 
That sure is a way to get a lot of mileage out of a homemade costume and sounds like a great cape that could be used for many costumes.
 
We took a big card board box and made a Snoopy doghouse that fit over my 3rd grader, painted box red and got card board jar seperators from the local grocory store panted them green and put them on so they looked like real shingles. Put big stuffed Snoopy (that he had) on top and strapped large carnival sunglasses on the dog and cut a hole above painted dog door so he could see out. He won second place in the halloween parade!
A few years ago I dressed up as a baby. One piece pajamas, My Grandma's old sun bonnet and I carried a bottle that you use to feed a baby calf (betcha some of you have no clue about the bottle)!:)
 
Jammers, I think the black-eye pea idea is quite clever!
Barb, great idea with the cape. Those old homemade costumes were the best!
The look of love, that would have been a pretty hefty bottle for a human baby. lol.... Cute idea!
 
I have sewn costumes, in the past. One year, when she was about 6, my oldest wanted to be Sleeping Beauty, in the pink dress. You can find pink sleeping beauty dresses all over the place now, but then all they had was blue. So I went out and bought the pattern and pink fabric.

Less labor intensive was the year she wanted to be Daphne from Scooby Doo. She had a purple long sleeved shirt, but I had to make the skirt. Then I bought some lighter purple ribbon and hand stiched it on the skirt. I'd do a short stitch on the front and long one on the back, so that it was secure, but not permanent. Then she had a green scarf and hair band.

One year, she was a hippy. I took a pair of jeans and undid the outside seam up to just below the hip and sewwed in a big triangle of red paisly print fabric. The bell on those bell bottoms was huge! We borrowed some vintage jeans patches from my parents, who still had most of theirs from the 70's. She'd also borrowed my step mother's orange and white poncho, but a warm front moved through and it was just too hot to wear it. I don't think the temps dipped below 70 over night that night. (She'd gotten the idea to be a hippy from my dad, who had been telling her about his bell bottoms in the late 60's/early 70's and how they were made by adding triangles of fabric. He was in the Navy and the Navy bases wouldn't allow the bell bottoms on base, so most of the guys would have zippers put in where the seam used to be, so they could unzip the jeans into bell bottoms when they left the base and re-zip them into regular jeans when they returned. My dad, who had been taught to sew by my grandmother, put buttons in his. He said it took him a good 10 minutes to button and unbutton them, but everyone thought they were just the coolest jeans!)

My youngest was a black cat two years in a row. We bought the ears and tail and she wore a black turtle neck, pants and shoes. Add a little face paint for the nose and whiskers and it's done. The first year she was a black cat, my oldest was a witch - they'd collaborated.

I went out with my oldest as a witch a few times. I owned a black dress and some black granny boots, so all I had to buy was the hat.
 
I just completed several costumes for my daughter and her family as they are leaving for Disneyworld on Oct 30 and will be there for Halloween festivities. I made a pirate costume for one granddaughter and my daughter. She bought pirate costumes for her hubby and the youngest girl. They are going as a family of pirates to the big halloween party.

I also made mermaid costumes for both the girls, one in pinks and one in blues.

I made a Rapunzel costume for the younger granddaughter. This was a pattern, but we made it different from the pattern. The older (8 yr old) granddaughter wanted to be Merida from Brave, and my daughter and I were able to create a costume for her that looks almost exactly like what the character wore in the movie. The purchased ones are nothing like the one in the movie. I even made a belt and quiver for the bow and arrows my daughter got for her.

I made a pink princess gown for my 2 yr old granddaughter. This is her first halloween to make her a costume, last year, she and her family lived in Japan and they don't really celebrate Halloween like they do here. She loved the dress, she also loves PINK!

As far back as I can remember, I always made costumes for my kids and now I make them for my grandchildren.
 
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