The 6’2" trick-or-treaters thread got me thinking about some of the Halloween costumes I made for my kids when they were young. One of my son’s classes recently asked for old Halloween photos for a guess-who game, so I was going through those photos recently.
Here are the most memorable ones for us. How about you?
– S was a rocket labeled “Mars” and his sister was a rocket labeled “Venus”
– Chain Chomp from Mario Brothers – papier-mâché over an exercise ball and then painted
– Bowser from Mario Brothers
– A $7 bill. I spent a lot of time modifying a dollar bill image to make it a $7 bill on both sides and then printed it about 4’ wide.
– A chocolate milk carton. This was the year S spoke before the school board (unsuccessfully) protesting the removal of chocolate milk from school lunches. (He had 300 signatures on his petition, including most of the teachers at his school.)
– S was the Big Bad Wolf, D was Little Red Riding Hood, H was the woodcutter, and I was grandma.
I don’t think S is dressing up this year. D in 7th grade has made a steampunk aviator costume from some thrift store things and a bunch of small gears.
I sewed Jedi costumes for both kids. I also sewed Griffindor cloaks for the kids. I sewed “chain mail” and knight’s cloaks and my dad had each grandkid over to make a heraldic shield. They are pretty amazing. I did a lot of scouring Goodwill and Value Village for items that could outfit a dwarf, hobbit, or elf during several years of heavy obsession with L of the R. I also sewed a number of wizard cloaks (now repurposed for the dog).
For my oldest, I did a pretty amazing Sonic the Hedgehog costume one year with paper mache headgear. He also was Thomas the Tank Engine one year. The year he was a computer he realize comfortable costumes were A Good Thing. My youngest was a really cute pirate in high school. He got a shirt at Goodwill, made a cardboard sword and attached himself to a boat and had a paddle.
When they were under age 5, we did a lot of story book characters. Curious George. Clifford The Big Red Dog, etc.
Some other memorable ones…
D who has LOTS of thick wavy/curly hair went as a bad morning person. (wild hair, coffee cup, pj’s)
We also but LOTS of those dang expensive recital costumes to work for Halloween.
Spider with pool noodle “legs”
MANY variations on “princess” between 2 D’s!!!
I’m not a creative costume maker…but DS wanted to be a skeleton. I got black sweatshirt, and black sweatpants…and glow in the dark white paint…and painted a skeleton on the sweats. It looked great. I passed it on to some friends…and they passed it on to some others. I was so proud!
Lol, mathmom. The princesses quickly realized that warm costumes were a Good Thing.
The height of my costume creativity was reusing the pattern for a genetic cat costume 3 years in a row to produce a generic leopard, a black Beanie Baby cat (complete with the Ty heart-shaped tag on the ear!), and a Pikachu.
Thumper, I did that for my S, too, only I had to use black tights and a black leotard and black slip-on sneakers. Halloween in south Florida is WAY too hot for sweats! It was a great costume.
We did all the classic horror movie creatures: Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein, Werewolf…and then we had to dig deep and S was “The Swamp Thing”. I was always a big advocate of being warm and comfortable, so we usually did makeup and wigs over masks and bulky costumes. Until in fifth grade, when S designed a transformer costume out of cardboard, which converted from a robot to a NY taxi. Fun to look at; not so fun to trick or treat in.
D did a lot of gender bending, and did all the Mummy and Dracula costumes, plus was the white Power Ranger. As a matter of fact, DH bought her a Superman costume when she was an infant, because he used to fly her around the house, and she put her hands out like the real guy.But she made a great Sally costume from “Nightmare Before Christmas” in middle school, and has been making costumes ever since. She’s on tour in Europe right now, and she’ll be in London on the 31st. She messaged me that she’s going to be a demon, that she already has makeup and a lot of steampunk type costumes. All she needs is horns.
My friend is a great seamstress, and made costumes for her kids, and other people’s kids for years. My favorite: a Dalek costume for a little girl. And my friend didn’t even watch Doctor Who!
I just love hearing about all your costumes. This is a great thread!
I sew a lot so was pretty ambitious with costumes- a complete Ninja Turtle with padded, stuffed shell, a lion with fur, a pink dinosaur with blue spots, a Davy Crockett with suede boots( this was actually an Xmas present for my now 30+ son who loved the Disney Davy Crockett movie). One of the funniest was for our at the time 5th grader who wanted to go as a “disco King” but ended up looking like Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch. I sewed a panty hose scrap into the v of a velvet shirt and glued hair trimmings from his Afro wig on it so it looked like he had a very hairy chest.
Bought a lot of Disney costumes when they were really young (Buzz, Woody, Simba, Pocahontas. Jasmine, etc…). We are in Sourhern California, and year we sprung for the “Deluxe” Simba costume it was 80 degrees for the preschool costume parade. Homemade costumes included Pippi Longstocking, Clark Kent (button down shirt/tie/glasses with a Superman shirt underneath), Where’s Waldo? Etc… After his Power Ranger, Anikan Skywalker phase, son #2 went as a football player for several years in a row.
For the last few years. As an empty-nestor, we have gone to a dog Halloween party/contest. Our black lab has gone as a lifeguard, Mickey Mouse, a Tiffany’s Box and this year he is going as. VW bus.
Daughter was a flower fairy at around five. A local retirement home had an indoor trick or treating event with the residents set-up outside their rooms. D had a basket of silk flowers that she handed out as she received her treats. Thanks for giving giving me the opportunity to remember a sweet, buried memory. :x
So much creativity! I don’t sew and I’m not very crafty, but one year I made a Hershey’s Kiss costume for D. Silver material gathered at the neckline stretched over a hula hoop at the hips - complete with the paper tag. It was adorable, if I do say so myself.
My favorites: when S was about 3 he wanted to be a jelly donut. I sewed (badly) a tan flannel donut that he wore with a tan sweatshirt and I sprayed some pink color in his hair. No one had any idea what he was but he thought it was the coolest thing ever. Older D loved dalmatians and wanted to be one at about that same age-easy peasy-white sweats with painted on spots. She loved it and slept in the sweats until they no longer fit. My youngest was a princess or a fairy, or a fairy princes several times. But her favorite was a real Ichiro baseball shirt and hat. We lived in a primarily Asian area at the time and everyone got so excited to see her. I think she was 2 because for the next 4 or 5 years she was some variation of princess.
Love it!!! One year, Mr. attached angel wings (that came with one of the kiddos’ Barbies) to our dog’s back and took him ToT with the kids… Our white pup looked so cute with those angel wings! No matter how hard we tried, our cats never became fans of costumes.
We had a store bought Sonic costume for two years but that was followed by years of home made video game characters: Tails (used a couple of hangers to create the two tails), Knuckles, Earthworm Jim (only one person recognized that; I stuffed one leg of pantyhose to create the “worm”), and Ash Ketchum (that was the easiest). The best part was that I could integrate a sweatshirt into each of the costumes to keep him warm.
My favorite little-girl costume of D’s was also super easy and very cheap. She went as a cat. Black jeans, black turtleneck, white tennies, white mittens. Eyebrow pencil-ed whiskers. The only items I had to buy were a cat-ear headband, and the materials to make the tail: black bias tape (belted around her waist) and about 2 feet of very fuzzy black boa (sewed to the back of the bias-tape belt).
When she was a college sophomore, she went as Justin Beiber. She’d just gotten a pixie haircut, and (I never realized it before that) her face looks something like his. :-S
It would probably be scarier if he were taller…
