Halloween Costumes for Children

Making anything homemade is usually worthwhile for the pride it brings. Homemade children's Halloween costumes are no exception. But they are more fun to make if your children participate. It is wise to consider the cost and time you will be putting into making a costume if your children don't help you or have any desire to learn about the process. It may be more economical and quicker to simply go buy a ready made costume available at any number of stores.

One way to ensure you do not spend excessive time on making a costume from the raw material on up, is to start with old clothes from the family closet or a thrift shop. That way, most of your effort goes into the fun part that your children might enjoy being part of. That is making the accessories and getting made up for the part.

A basic pirate costume could be made from little more than an old shirt and cut down old jeans, with a bandana around the head. Your main effort would go into setting up the accessories such as a broad belt and sword, an eye patch, face painting and artificial tattoos.

You could make a scarecrow outfit. Somewhere in your family closets there is likely to be a well worn, torn and frayed pair of jeans, and an old shirt. You may even be able to find an old straw hat. From that foundation costume, glue some straw under the hat and around the cuffs of the shirt and pants. You might find a bird you can sit on the hat from your Christmas tree decorations. From there most of your effort will go into face painting and finishing off the overall look.

A basic low cost outfit of stretch pants and a long sleeved turtle top is another way to get the starting foundation for a costume. A black outfit like this needs only a black cape and a witch's hat and you have the beginnings of a witch's costume. Other colors could become animal costumes with the addition of a tail, ears, mittens and some face paint. Some costume shops have partial costumes such as faces, noses, tails and ears available to add these features to your basic costume. For a tiger, for example, some black fabric paint on a yellow outfit could be used to create stripes. A little stuffing under a yellow outfit and you have the beginnings of a plump Winnie The Pooh.

Use luminous paint on a black outfit like this to draw a skeleton front and back and you have a very scary Zombie costume. Just add some white fabric around the head and some face paint for a skull.

The Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz could be represented by spray painting this basic outfit with a metallic paint. Gloves, old shoes and a hat could also be painted to complete the costume.

When you use one of the above approaches, you will not spend most of your time cutting out and sewing fabric. You can start from an already made foundation and go from there. Most of your time and effort will go into the fun part of costume making. A part your children might be excited about helping you with, or even doing themselves.

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