Halloween Costumes? - Topanga,CA

I did her first two, but we got a dragon off freecycle today that she might wear this year. DD's first year she was Pebbles (brown shoes, simple green felt dress with glued on black triangles and a paper bone for her hair) and last year she was a teapot (just sandwich board worn over a white shirt and white pants with a crochet hat for a tea cozy).

My husband and I are going to be The 10th Doctor and Rose Tyler form Doctor Who!
11 year old daughter and 10 year old son going as Ginny and Ron Weasley form Harry Potter
6 year old girl is going as Elphaba form Wicked
5 year old girl is going as Amy Pond form Doctor Who
3 year old son is going to be Spock form Star Trek

My husband and I make the costumes myself, or find pieces on the internet. We have always dressed the kids up as characters form books or television.

I want to sew one. My 18 month old is very small. 0-6 month sizes small... So it is hard to find anything that lows for 18 month old walking yet fits even remotely!

I am thinking a dinosaur for him as his favorite word is "raaaaarrrrrrrr".

I always made my kids' costumes when they were little, and then we would make them together as they got older. I let the kids' imaginations guide our creations, but drew the line at anything really gory. We shopped at Goodwill, Salvation Army, the fabric store, and children's resale shops for supplies. Most costumes cost under $10 to make. Some of the more memorable costumes we've made over the years were:
DS (1 yr old) was a calf, I was a cow (hand made, before you could buy cow outfits off the rack), DH was the farmer
DS (2 yrs) was the terrible twos: Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster (two stuffed heads sewn onto a sweat shirt)
DD (2 yrs) was Queen Celeste from Babar
DS (6 yrs) was a one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eater
DS (9 yrs) was the Hydra from Greek mythology (painted a green sweat suit to look like a snake, made multiple heads out of papier mache and stuck them on dryer venting sewn onto the sweat shirt and attached to the hood, which was the largest head)
DD (5 yrs) was a bird in a nest (recycled parts of the people eater costume)
DD (6 yrs) was a hypogriff from Harry Potter (required LOTS of feathers and hot glue!)
DD (7 yrs and 9 yrs) was Hermione Granger in her Gryffendor gray-wool uniform and black robe. The most challenging part was creating the school seal on the robe. (A friend helped me paint it.) We altered a vest and skirt from Goodwill to make the uniform and bought a black choir robe from Goodwill for the robe.
DD (12 yrs) was one of the astronauts from Alien, complete with a springloaded alien that jumped out of a panel sewn into the front of his spacesuit. We used a jumpsuit he had gotten at space camp the summer before to make this one.
DS (13 yrs) was Zaphod Bebblebrox (President of the Universe from Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy: 2 heads, 3 arms). Definitely the best one we every made. I made a full size head from a wig stand and papier mache, painted it to look like him (as best I could) and added a wig to simulate real hair. DS made a prosthetic, moveable arm from Knex, which I sewed into an extra sleeve and added to a jacket we bought at Goodwill. He used it to hold his Trick or Treat bag, and raised the arm using a pulley system he rigged up in his coat to work off of one of his hands.
DD (15yrs) Eliza Doolittle from the Ascot Races scene in My Fair Lady. DD sewed the dress herself, starting with a used wedding gown and adding ribbon and trim to it and a large floppy sun hat.
DD (18yrs) Wood nymph from Greek/Roman mythology. Emphasis, I'm afraid, on the nymph (LoL!) We made this one together right before she left for college a few weeks ago. She sewed the skirt and top from green velvet, added a gold center, lace trim, and gold laces to simulate a rennaisance-era corsett, and sewed gold tulle into slits in the skirt. (I helped with alterations and sewing in the tulle). She also made a beaded tiara from gold jewelry wire and plans to weave in wildflowers. Of course, by the time Halloween rolls around, I kind of hope she's too busy with school to actually wear it (then again, maybe she'll attract a nice boyfriend! :-D).

We also celebrate Purim, a Jewish holiday when people often wear costumes. My personal favorite was when my husband went as Lot (dressed as a CA lottery ticket), and I went as a salt shaker (Lot's wife, of course!).

I think the best part of making your own costumes is the opportunity to be creative, and spark creativity in your kids. You don't have to be a good seamstress -- you can do a lot starting from already made clothing, hot glue, fabric paint, and odds and ends. Have fun!

I don't sew at all Good for you for being able to make your own, I always envy you moms who are so crafty.
My girls the 5 year old is going to be a clown, I am so excited about it. Got the costume at party city. The 7yr old is going to be a pirate found a really cute costume from Marshalls for $13

How old are your children? ?MIne are 6 & 7 and they have been everything from superheros (I have a boy and a girl and i love them to match LOL!) and prince/princess.. Last year i found really cool costumes on my Vegas trip in Cesears palace so they were Cesar and a Maiden?? but this year they want to be like witches/zombie :: GROSS for me but I saw Monster High Costumes that look adorable so we will take a look at that..
I have always wanted to make them pebbles and bam bam but I guess its too late now!

my daughter was a lady bug, red sweats and black dots on everythnig. a fairy, she had a leotard already so we made a ribbon skirt and halo and bought really small wings she took her doll stroller and had it full of cabbage patch fairy dolls. the rest have been bought or were old dresses from goodwill. she even wore my prom dress one year. my son was a home made pirate we stained his shirt with coffee and bought brown fake leather that had felt on the inside and i cut a vest and shoe covers that looked like boots. he was really cute i made him a fake beard and everything. this year he wants to be frankenstein and she is another princess but a dark one so we are making those. a friend of mine was a thaeter floor one year. trash bag with movie stuff glued to it she even stepped on some gum to get the shoe print. when i was pregnant and HUGE i was a bouquet of flowers. i had green sweatpants and a maroon sweatshirt, i painted flowers on my face and put some in my hair and used a huge bow to wrap some celofane around my neck and had a huge card. it was comfy!

by the time my kids stopped dressing up, we'd only bought masks & that's it....everything else was made together as a family. I still use the costumes & masks as props for inside/outside for Halloween.

Whoops- now to finish my answer! I used sweatsuits a lot when the kids were little. My favs include a "pile of leaves": I sewed on silk, artificial leaves all over a green sweat suit...hood & all. Still use it on my front porch!

An "autograph hound": I sewed patches onto a brown sweat suit, & we bought a 1/2 face dog mask. My son carried a permanent marker & had his friends sign his costume.

Robin Hood: green sweatshirt, brown sweatpants. Big belt & hat + the accessories. (just answered this ? a couple of days ago!)

King of Hearts: red sweatsuit with an overcoat/vest made from a 1yard piece of white, heavy-weight fleece. I cut a hole in the center for his head to go thru, used a wide belt to hold his "sword", & then I sewed a huge red heart onto the back/front of the overcoat. Oh, & a Burger King crown which we recovered & decorated. (actually, we made several - knew they wouldn't last the night!)

My son loved Stitch from the Disney movies. He was an Elvis version of Stitch one year! We used my niece's fake white fur cape, decorated with oversized sequins....over a sweatsuit which I Bedazzled to death, cut off the wrist/ankle bands & added flared inserts to both. He wore retro sunglasses & we blackened his hair. Oh, & he also carried a fake microphone & a stuffed Elvis/Stitch! 2 cute...it was one of my personal favs!

Good question....thanks for the memories!

I've never made any of my daughter's Halloween costumes. This year she really wanted to be Ariel, but I had to nix that because the dress is so narrow and I'm afraid that she would trip and fall. She finally settled on Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty for this year but I may try to change her mind (she's 5 so that may or may not work). She was Cinderella last year and I would really love for her to be something other than a Disney princess this year. She loves 101 Dalmatians and Cruella De Vil so maybe I could talk her into being Cruella. If she would agree to that then I would try to make a black dress and a dalmatian spot cape with fur trim for her to wear.

Our daughter was about 3 months old and wore a onsie that had a pair of Angel Wings sewn on to the back.. I made a halo out of some star garland I had..

From then on, my mom either found cute costumes through Garage Sales or our daughter designed what she wanted and we put them together or my MIL and daughter would sew and design them.

When the kids were little, I made several costumes using just sweat pants and sweat shirts. (dalmation, lady bug, bumble bee, cat) Two advantages, you can use the sweat suit after halloween and the costumes are heavy enough to wear over leggins/tights and long sleeve shirts so they stay warm.

I am not the least bit crafty and I have no costume making ability whatsoever, so I have no problem shelling out a reasonable amount of money for whatever costume DD has her heart set on. This year it is Ariel, but as she puts it, "Ariel as a princess, not as a mermaid! With feet!" I think she can't picture a costume that makes it look like she has a mermaid tail that she can still walk in. I got an Ariel dress and wig from a site on-line. DD (age 4) put the wig on when it arrived and thought it was pretty hilarious.

My boy is going to be a fireman. I'm trying to talk his little sister into being fire. I could dye his old spiderman costume red and hairspray her wild hair red. She doesn't like that idea. She wants to be lava girl, the casue of the fire, so now it's back to the drawing board, how do I do that one?

One of mine wants to be a penguin and the other wants to be a princess. The only penguin costume I could find in a 3T was $42! I just cant do that! My husband is out of work, house in forclosure, etc. etc.
I am going to put her in a black leotard and tights and put a white felt "belly" on it and little yellow penguin felt feet over the top of her shoes. I think I will make a really long, thick "tutu", down to her feet in black with a panel of white in front, then, somehow gather it close to her ankles. I'm not sure what to do to make wings, but if anyone has ideas, I'm open.
Sister will probably end up in pink leotard/tights, with jewels, crown, etc, with some shiny fabric to accent the bodice and maybe trim around the neckline.
Even Walmart wants $25-$30 for small costumes and they are junk!

My son was 6 months old his first Halloween so he had no problems wearing the bumblebee costume my parents bought him. Then he refused to wear a costume for the next 2 years. One year he wore a sweatshirt with bones on it and last year he wear skeleton pants and screamed when I tried to put on the skeleton top. This year he says without a doubt, he wants to be a firefighter pig. He even explained to me what it looks like. He only wants a red jacket though. I am hoping he will forget about the pig nose part. And no, I am not making it but will not pay more than 15 dollars for a POS jacket.