Halloween, part 2 (the girls)

Or: how to put together 5 costumes (with a surprise 6^th 2 weeks early) on a budget

And now . . .  the girls’ costumes!

Raspberry had a very particular character outfit (one of several in said character’s movie), also cosplay level. Peach actually decided to re-wear one of her costumes from a previous year and 

Strawberry picked a character with an iconic (and set) look.

Raspberry:

This year Raspberry decided that she wanted to be Mulan. Specifically, Mulan from the rooftop fight scene 

in the 1^st movie.

 Ok, lots of layering, some pretty specific colors, 

but overall very do-able.

The bottom layer is a white, greek goddess costume dress. The blue v-neck originally had puff sleeves (I made the trim out of the same remnant fabric as the waist piece and some blue ribbon), and the pink sash is actually blanket binding (I could not find ribbon in the right color that was wide enough or the right type of fabric). I bought the shoes at a discount store and took a plastic dollar store fan 

and used yellow satin from my craft supplies to 

make it match the one she uses to disarm Shan Yu.

 White dress, blue v-neck blouse, fan: $1 each

Light blue long sleeve shirt: $2.50  

Shoes: $3  Remnant fabric: $1.50  

blanket binding: $3 after coupon

Blue ribbon: $3 after coupon  

Satin and thread from craft supplies: $0

Total: $16

Peach:

Normally, I don’t let the kids reuse costumes 

(the birthday pictures get hard to identify if the kid is dressed the same every year) but due to my parents moving (my dad had been our photographer since the girls turned 2) we missed a year of pictures. 

Peach had found that year’s costumes hanging in the closet and insisted on being Hello Kitty again on the basis that they didn’t do birthday pictures that year, so there wouldn’t be a problem with her re-wearing the costume. 

After this argument, I just decided to go with it.

Her costume dress had lost a few crystals and she needed new shoes and tights as well as a long sleeve shirt for under her dress, but the main part of the costume was done. 

I had originally used part of a set of Hello Kitty crystal decals to decorate the pink dress I found, and still had enough of the set left to replace the missing crystals and 

add some more sparkle to the dress. 

Unfortunately, Peach and Strawberry refused to hold still long enough for good pictures of their costumes. 

I’ll try to remember to switch them out for the nice ones when we do pictures this year . . . but no promises. 

 Pink shoes: $4  white tights: $3 for 3 pairs  

long sleeve shirt:$1

Dress, crystal decals, face paint 

and hat we had from before: $0

Total: $8

And last but not least . . .

Strawberry:

Strawberry has a thing for nice vampires lately. 

Last year she was Draculaura (from Monster High) 

and this year she decided to be 

Mavis from the Hotel Transylvania movies. 

 Luckily, Mavis has a fairly easy to re-create outfit 

(that stays pretty consistent). 

I never did find the sheer fingerless glove/ sleeves that she has (and I wasn’t paying $14 for a spider web pair from a costume shop), so I may need to look for a sheer top for her pictures. I also had to spray paint her high tops red (the only place I found any that would fit her only had grey) but I think it came together overall 

(I couldn’t find any kid size fangs in time, 

so I painted them on her bottom lip for the parade).

Black and red striped tights: $3  

High top shoes: $3  Black sweater dress: $1  

Spider drop earrings: $3 for 6 pair set

Red spray paint and 

face paint we already had: $0

Total: $10

So, for those keeping score . . .

Halloween 2017 kid costume total cost: $84

(for reference, that’s about the cost of 

2 ‘deluxe’ costumes at Target or Wal-Mart) 

or an average of $14 per costume!

Not too shabby (and nobody was covered in paper mache, cardboard or tinfoil *gives own mother the side eye*).

Anybody else go this in on Halloween costumes? And any ideas what I can do with 5 decent size pumpkins that 

didn’t get cut into jack-o-lanterns? 

Before they rot in my back yard?

Halloween, part 1 (the boys)

Or: how to put together 5 costumes (with a surprise 6^th 2 weeks early) on a budget

I know it’s been a few years since I posted one of these (mostly due to real life craziness, not lack of things to share) 

*drumroll*

This year’s Halloween costumes for my boys 

(The girls will be part 2)!

So, the last couple of years I have really had to step up my costume game. This year, the first since 

I started working again, was even more so.

Elroy is all about cosplay level costumes. Bam-Bam can’t make up his mind (this year he decided as he was getting dressed for the costume parade Halloween morning that he was an entirely different character

than he had dressed as.

Because my children get all grouchy when they don’t eat, I have a strict under $35 per child budget for costumes (as the most basic, won’t even survive trick or treating store bought costume starts at $35). Thrift stores are my secret weapon for costumes (I love Goodwill, and Thursdays the color of the week items are $1 each). So long as the shape and material are right, it’s not impossible to adapt pieces 

to what you need without too much trouble.

Elroy:

This year Elroy and I have been watching Attack on Titan 

(a beautiful, but incredibly dark anime) and he decided he wanted to be the main character, Eren, who becomes a Scout to fight the titans who are destroying humanity.

As per usual the last few years, 

Elroy’s costume was the most expensive. 

All the clothing was from Goodwill (the cloak was a lucky find, but was not discounted and ended up being the single most expensive piece this year). The jacket was too small, so I split the side and sleeve seams and added a 2 inch wide strip of vinyl (on sale at the craft store) to each side. It’s still fairly tight across the shoulders, but I don’t want to split the back, too. We used more of the vinyl to make, the straps, waist and belt, and put him in a pair of Hunny’s tall boots. He couldn’t have any weapons, 

so we plan to make the sword box and flight canister pieces when we do his birthday pictures this year.

And here’s the final product:

 Jacket, shirt (a hoodie with the hood removed), 

and capri pants: $1 each

Cloak, with scout symbol already on back: $15

Dark Brown Vinyl for jacket, straps & belt: 

1 yard for $8, after coupon

Belt buckle: $5, Rivets, glue & boots we already had: $0

Total: $31 (just under, but still . . .)

  

Bam-Bam:

So, for my sanity in the lead up to Halloween, I have the kids decide their costumes early (so I have time to piece items and get things on sale). Like by 4^th of July, early. 

Initially, he wanted to be the 11th Doctor 

(in the purple coat and old fashioned shoes). 

Then his teacher threw a big old wrench in my plans. 

All the 5^th graders (I know!) had to do a biography presentation, the Wax Museum, which included dressing as their subject . . . on the 18^th of October.

At this point, I had already found a grey coat for him that could be dyed purple as well as a black vest for underneath. 

Bam-Bam gets assigned Abe Lincoln. 

Ok, I can work with that.

I found plenty of portraits of him in not-black coats that are conveniently similar in style to the one I already got for him. And the black vest is tall enough to look like a waistcoat. I just need to find a passable cravat (I ended up finding a tie and tying it loosely at the fat end and tucking it in) and some dress shoes for him. But I was having a hard time finding any sort of old man boots for his actual costume . . . 

And then he changed his mind! 

He decided (after a birthday that did not include his own sonic screwdriver) that he would prefer to be a gunslinger from the old west instead (he found the plastic bullet bandoleer I had picked up for steampunk uses). 

Fine. Halloween morning, getting ready for school, Bam-Bam decides that he isn’t a gunslinger at all. 

He’s Van Helsing. At this point, I’m like . . . whatever, dude. 

Grey coat, vest, hat, belt, cowboy gun set and shoes: $1 each

Black pants: $8  Plastic bullet bandoleer of his own: $5

Jeans, shirt, brown western coat 

and bandanna we already had: $0)

Total: $19, for both costumes

Not bad, right?

Next up: the girls costumes!