Sunday, October 21, 2012

List #48: Ten Halloween Costumes

This week's Listicles topic is all about Hallowe'en. I've loved Hallowe'en since I was little & I still do, which is why I've already written a list (illustrated, of course) about all the things I've dressed up as over the years. In fact that was the list that started it all off for me. You can read it here, if you like.

So what to do with the topic? Sprout's only on his third Hallowe'en this year, so I can't talk about his costumes in a list of ten. Then I thought of why I like Hallowe'en in the first place: making the costumes. I find it sad how few kids wear homemade costumes these days--the trademark-character off-the-rack ones are just so... boring. Before you take offense, I know that many families just don't have time to make costumes, or lack the sewing/design skills to do it, but it still makes me sad that 90% of the boys I've seen in costume this year were superheroes & 90% of the girls were princesses. I can't even get into the gender stereotyping issue with that one, argh.

So I'll share with you a list of my ten favourite home-made costume ideas, including tutorials/videos if I can find them. I haven't necessarily done them all myself, but I may get to in the years to come if Sprout's willing. :)

Spider: a few pairs of black tights, possibly some colourful mini gloves on the ends of them, plus a black shirt & you're done! My sis did this when she was about 8 or 9.
From MarthaStewart.com: Homemade Halloween Costumes for Adult

Mummy: Threadbanger has some awesome & relatively simple costume how-tos. Here's my favourite:


Baby Skelly was Sprout's first Hallowe'en costume. I made a simple hooded sleeper out of one of his Papa's old t-shirts, then cut out all the bones from a sheet of adhesive felt & stuck them on.
Halloween 2010

Zombie: find some old clothes, rip 'em up a bit & splash on a reasonable facsimile of blood, maybe some dark eye makeup & voila: the walking dead.
My cousin-in-law & her husband on Vancouver's Zombie walk

Lego brick: you've probably all seen this making its way across the blogosphere, but I love the idea because I was such a Lego fan as a kid:

Monster: simple & a bit silly; I love the tentacles.


Jellyfish: umbrella + bubble wrap + white clothes
From MarthaStewart.com: Homemade Halloween Costumes for Adults

Witch is always easy, once you have the hat.

Vampire: I loves me a good vampire, I does.
From MarthaStewart.com: Homemade Halloween Costumes for Adults

Ghost with tulle--so simple.
From MarthaStewart.com: Homemade Halloween Costumes for Adults


As you can probably tell from this list, I'm a bit of a traditionalist--I like costumes that are creepy & classic themed.

What are your ten favourite Hallowe'en costumes?



Why Monday lists? Reading the lovely Chloe's blog, Tea Swamp Park, I found an idea I had to 'steal': a list of all her Halloween costumes, with quite a few photos. She got the idea from Hula Seventy's List Project. I've decided to do the weekly lists for a year that Hula Seventy is doing. 

Tea Swamp Park & Hula Seventy are not the only ones doing lists, however. Click on the Listicles badge to the left to check out NorthWestMommy's list & 'assignment' for next week.


24 comments:

  1. That jellyfish is so cool!

    When we did the spider, we connected the extra arms to the actual arms with ribbons that looked like web so that when our daughter moved her arms, the other legs moved, too.

    Ellen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! That was how my mom did it for my sister's spider costume. She bought three pairs of different coloured mini gloves, stuffed two pairs & put them on the ends of the extra arms.

      As for the jellyfish, I've always thought it would be an awesome costume to do someday--just never got around to it. Maybe a future Hallowe'en we can go for a marine theme with our whole family? :)

      Delete
  2. How cute is your little skeleton? And a hat really does make or brake a witch, yours is great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I was pretty proud of pulling that off with a two-month-old. :) As for the witch hat, it's just a cheap one I picked up at a store somewhere, but I added some skull ribbon & a black netting (tulle?) veil. I should probably add a strap on it--currently I have to pin it to my head somehow, or it flies off. :)

      Delete
  3. The spider costume is so cute and the jellyfish one...very creative.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Love her or hate her, Martha (& her huge staff, no doubt) has some great ideas. :)

      Delete
  4. In my defense, I have tried my best to convince J to have a homemade costume. He's determined to be Darth Vader. Hard to make that helmet at home! Paul has a helmet from when he was DV about 7 years ago, and we will make a cape for him. The girls are being bunnies, of course. I am making ears and tails for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was thinking of that as I wrote this post - that the kids themselves want to be, well, unoriginal.

      Delete
  5. When I was a kid, we all had homemade costumes. Our ghosts were sheets - not as cool as the one you posted. And, love the jellyfish! My kids like the off the rack costumes. At least when they are young, they dress up in them for more than just a day! My 8yo has been wearing his Evil Emperor costume for a couple of weeks now!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Getting more than a day's wear out of a costume is definitely WIN! Can't see that happening with the Lego costume... :) I think that peer pressure & all the marketing that kids get exposed to these days has a lot to do with how Hallowe'en costumes have changed.

      Delete
  6. The jellyfish costume was particularly good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's particularly good for the rain we often have at Hallowe'en!

      Delete
  7. These are all great but I really love the tulle ghost. I'm a Martha fan from way back!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love tulle & netting for costumes--it's cheap, light, you can add a lot of colour with it & it's stiff, so you can make great big bows with it.

      Delete
  8. Creepy and classic themed are great! I made a mummy costume for the ex one year. It took me like 48 hours to make it. Yes... I counted because it took me SOOOOOOO long. I burned it. :D

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've spent about that much time creating costumes before, but it was usually for stilt performing, so the time was an investment that paid off over the years. That's some serious commitment to Hallowe'en when you're doing it not only for free, but for someone else! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I usually not one for creepy costumes, but I must say, the tulle ghost is beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, Martha's got some really beautiful costume ideas, most of which are not at all creepy.

      Part of the reason I like the scary ones is connected to the origins of the holiday, scaring the living & celebrating the dead. I tend to think we need a little more BOO! in our lives once a year. :)

      Delete
  11. I love the jellyfish! If I ever have an occasion to dress up for Halloween again, I think I'll total do that. Thanks. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad to help! You need to post photos when you do make that one... :)

      Delete
  12. I really love that monster hoodie! It would be cute to wear anytime! I can't believe you made that skeleton costume, I am so amazed by people's craftiness

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I'm very tempted to do something similar to one of Sprout's, or for gifts. It could be pretty simply done with felt & fabric glue or sewn on.

      Delete
  13. That spider and web costume would surely be lovely for a mother and an infant! I would love to see somebody wear this costume for this year's Halloween celebration!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I randomly have a tiny top hat that I bought from F21 in High School. animal onesies

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting! (I've had to enable comment moderation on older posts to thwart spammers, so your post may not appear right away.)

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...