I love sewing, but I’m not very good at it. I dislike knitting, and I’m not very good at that either. I really like crocheting, but the thought of crocheting an entire Halloween costume makes me shudder. While there’s a lot you can do with duct tape and crazy glue, I tend to go low tech and low prep for our Halloween costumes.
If you have similar crafting challenges but don’t want to spend $30-$40 on a new Halloween costume, where can you find one?
Last year’s Halloween costume was a great find. I went to a local thrift store, only to find a gorgeous handmade ladybug Halloween costume for under $10. Ah, beautiful. Halloween was finished, and since my 5-year-old was uncommonly easily persuaded that this was a glorious Halloween costume, I was done. Thrift stores are also good sources of material for princess dresses or other costumes that can be created from kid clothes.
Another good source of costumes is your local Freecycle or Craigslist. Post a wanted ad or scroll through the Craigslist ads for free or inexpensive Halloween costumes.
Ebay is also a source of Halloween costumes, although I find that they are almost as expensive as the local mall. While there are lovely secondhand costumes there, around Halloween there is also a glut of new costumes.
This year, my daughter wants to be a cat for Halloween. Although cat costumes are easy to find at the local mall, I was a little appalled by the skin-tight nature of these costumes. I turned to my Facebook friends for an answer, and was rewarded with several offers of nice, six-year-old style Halloween costumes. We’re looking forward to trying them on this week.
Other ideas? How about a children’s drama troupe or your local church? Our church has a large number of animal costumes for plays, and they let the children borrow these costumes come Halloween.
Or how about trading costumes with other families in January, when the kids are starting to lose interest in their old costumes? Go a couple of sizes up, and you have next year’s Halloween costume. Of course, you can also rely on your old standby: raiding your child’s stash of dress ups!
What do you do to create a fabulous yet inexpensive Halloween costume?
Image credit: thadz