Hey everyone, the hubby and I are trying to save money on halloween costumes by making our own but we haven't really been able to come up with any ideas and the ones I have found online seem like they are going to end up costing almost as much as the store bought ones!


Any ideas? :] Oh, the kids will be 18 months and 6 months old.

chocolate chip cookie or decorated sugar cookie
skeleton
ghost
wizard
bumble bee
farmer
cowboy
doctor (there may be a play set at the dollar store for the accessories)
superhero

Being that they are so young, do you have things around the house that could be incorporated into costumes. Or if you have places like "Once Upon A Child" stores near you, you can try there. (they resell gently used kids clothing and often have halloween costumes.)

Hi
I myself had 4 kids. I always made their Halloween costumes, but I love to sew also. A very easy costume is a bumble bee. Take black garbage bag, cut a hole for their head, and arms. Take wide yellow tape, and tape on stripes. They can wear either black pants or tights, and a yellow long sleeved shirt or sweater. For the head, you can either put two black pipe cleaners, hot glue two yellow pom poms. To make the stinger, once you have the costume on the the child, stuff some newspaper or pillow filling forming a point, and tape to hold the shape. They look really cute. If you do sew, its also very easy. You use the same idea as the bag. You can also make them pumpkins if you use orange fabric, same bag idea, and for the hat, take a heavy duty paper or styrofoam plate, cover in orange fabric, put ties on each side,(so you can tie it on) and make a brown stem out of either fabric or rolled construction paper. I'm just trying to remember what the babies would let me put on them. They want to be comfortable at those ages. Pussy Cat is easy also. Black tights and shirt, headband with ears made from poster board, and glued on. Paint nose and whiskers. Same idea for a dog. You can attach tails. You can also use those sleeper blankets as the base for the costumes, and do the same for the tails and ears. Just some thoughts. If you have anything in particular that you would like them to be, pm me and I'll brainstorm for you. Have fun. HTH
Kathy

Oh, using the blanket sleeper they can also be bunnies, only made floppy ears, and glue a big pom pom on the rearend.
Kathy

thank you you guys, these are all great ideas! :] And seem like they would be much cheaper then the ones I am finding online!

Its so true about the garbage online. Very costly. Also, the best part is that you can say, "you made it". How cute though. I miss those Halloween days. Not too sad though cause now I have 5 grandchildren. I love Halloween!

Thrift stores often have costumes around Halloween. If nothing else you can find clothing items to be used in a costume.

Dollar stores have fairy wings, tutus, cowboy hats, and other costume components at this time of year.

Striped overalls, a hat, and a shirt make a cute train engineer costume. The best part is they can be worn for day to day use as well.

Skeleton shirts are normally inexpensive. Our son wore one last year for Halloween and then wore it the rest of the year.

What a great idea. The train engineer. I forgot that one of my grandson's was that 3 years ago. So Cute. My daughter bought the white and blue striped overalls at either Osh Gosh (hope I spelled that right) or Baby Gap. Put a red bandana on him, and a hat.

I have 2 boys as well, and when they were 6 months and 2 1/2 we dressed them as a firefighter and dalmation. The firefighter was just a $9.99 costume that we added to by attaching a hose, using his own rubber boots etc. The dalmation costume I made...I had a white fleecy bunting-type hooded suit that was soon to be outgrown...I glued on irregular spots made of black felt, 2 black felt ears and black dots for paws. Then a red collar around the neck made from a ribbon. I always just look around my house to see what I have to work with, take a trip to the dollar store, and there you go That year was one of my fave years to date.

I love the firefighter idea! We just found one online that makes the wagon into a tub and you make bubbles and stuff and the boys could be sitting in the tub, maybe the smaller one could be a rubber ducky... now I have too many to choose from!

I love Halloween too!

How cute is that?

I also love making the costumes for my kids and me and my husband since we do a party every year. When my son was just 5 months old we dressed him up like charlie brown. All we had to do was buy a pack of dye to color one of his onesies yellow. I took a sharpie and drew the jagged line on it and he just wore a pair of his kaki pants and shoes and then we drew the curly q on his forhead. Thrift stores are great places to get stuff and ideas. Good luck

Last year I saw a little girl dressed as a bumble bee and her father...a bee keeper!!! It was adorable!

My husband, for whatever reason is known as Papa Smurf. So my 10 month old grandson will be Baby Smurf and my husband will also have to get into the holiday spirit and live up to his nickname. LOL

Easy costume, white cap, white pants, blue shirt, blue face.

I am airbrushing one of my nephews green. He wants to be the Hulk. then using the black hair spray. he is going to wear a pair of purple pants (his little sisters). He is so excited.

I stopped in at GoodWill yesterday and they had a BUNCH of costumes for very little...

Just found this link today: http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/holidays/halloween/last-minute-halloween-costumes-00000000008498/index.html. Some cute ideas. I have often made costumes, but to be honest, by the time you buy materials, it is often more expensive than buying a cheap-o ten dollar costume. When my oldest was 2 years old, I made him a little pirate costume. He was having a meltdown by the time we went trick or treating (we only went to my mom's and my brother's because they wanted to see him, and I even brought our own bags of candy in case they didn't have any!!), so I ended up putting on him an old tie of my dad's, a hat that had been my grandpa's, and gave him a cane to hold. He was a Dido (grandpa)! It was actually pretty cute, except for the tantrums. For a Christmas pagent, I happened to have a brown fuzzy baby coat, so I just cut out two felt ears and pinned them to the hood, and then my one year old was a sheep. It was super cute, and would have been a fine halloween costume as well.

Thrift stores are a great idea! (I haven't been getting emails that this post had replies!)

I agree with the comment that after you buy all of the supplies, sometimes it's cheaper to buy a costume! But going to the thrift store, I forgot about that option!

I ended up going to this huge consignment sale and they happened to have a pair of cowboy boots in my toddler's size. So we have those and my dad does cowboy action shooting, so he's letting us borrow a hat, bandana, bolo (sp) tie, and a sheriff badge! :] I'm excited, now my hubby wants to decorate his wagon to be a covered wagon!

Not sure yet if we will dress up the baby, if I can find a thrift store costume I probably will!

when my daughter was about 2, we had just moved and Halloween just snuck up on us. I found a box that I had just unpacked, covered it with gift wrap, made the lid like a hinge, added yarn suppenders, and a ice cream crank handle. She was a catharine in a box. She ended up winning a costume contest and I spent less thsn 5 dollars.

when my daughter was about 2, we had just moved and Halloween just snuck up on us. I found a box that I had just unpacked, covered it with gift wrap, made the lid like a hinge, added yarn suppenders, and a ice cream crank handle. She was a catharine in a box. She ended up winning a costume contest and I spent less thsn 5 dollars.

That's adorable! Haha I was trying to think of box costumes!

It's easier for girls...I buy old formals at the thrift store when they have their dollar sales, rip the seams out and then use the fabric to make princess costumes. One year we took my sister's bed canopy and made pop star costumes for my daughter and her best friend. (she was tired of the canopy because the fringe rattled when the AC came on) Last year I traded two dozen cupcakes for an old wedding dress and my older daughter was the Corpse Bride.

Walmart usually has baby costumes for less than $10. They're the ones that are a sleeper with something printed on it, like a skeleton or a pirate outfit or a pumpkin. You can use them for pajamas for a while after Halloween, so they're not a total waste of money You could also buy grey sweatpants and a gray sweatshirt, then buy a white square of felt and cut out a circle...tack it onto the sweatshirt like the white tummy on a mouse. Cut a long narrow strip from the felt to be a tail, and draw whiskers on.

I remember when my youngest was a baby, I bought a costume at the thrift store for two dollars. It was a really cute pumpkin, but when we got home and tried it on, we couldn't make the arm holes line up with her. It turned out it was a pumpkin costume for a dog!

Haha that's too funny! I have a pair of red footie pj's I thought about buying a piece of felt and writing Thing 2 on it, and tack it on the front of the pj's. But then I don't think a 6 mnth old would like a blue yarn wig!