I love ghost face, he is my favorite character of all the evil serial killers in any movie. I always chose to go as ghost face when I was much younger and still trick or treating. That costume cost me more than $30 dollars. I was thinking about it, and wanted to know why people just don't make their own costumes, I would do it now if I still went out on Halloween. I'm just going to guess it's because buying an already made costume is more convenient for most. But still making your own for your kids could be cheaper, but also you might need some design skills. Would you rather buy a costume, or make them for your kids?
Making Halloween costumes is cheaper or should be if you are good at needlework. Thing though is if your kid asks for a particular costume and you can afford to buy it and aren't skilled enough to make it yourself then I think you'd have no choice but to buy the costume your kid wants. To get a kid to wear a home made costume, you should ask them to help make it.
I always help to make my friends kids costumes. Often they can be pretty easy to make, actually. Particularly for younger kids. A huge box, painted, with arm holes cut into it can be turned into a robot really easily for example. Torn clothes and some face paint can create a zombie look. Or a smart looking suit, white face paint and a set of cheap fangs can create a vampire look. Superman can be created with a cape which you can make out of something you've got already potentially and the S logo can be sewn onto a plain blue t-shirt. You could easily make that out of felt or something like that.
I always make my costumes I do not find them to be to expensive last year me and my husband was chia heads. I find ways to make them cheaper, costumes can be easy to do with face paint and buying clothes for them at thrift stores. I love making my costumes becasue we like being quirky things and usually they don't sell costumes for them plus I an get creative and have fun. Here is our costumes last year, I made the "wigs" for 4 dollars and the shirts I think for about 5-6 dollars. They we carried a watering ca that we had. .
Well the first thing that immediately came to mind was the various office Halloween parties that I have been dragged to as an adult, where I do make my own. By that I mean throw a white sheet over my head and go as a ghost, or get a name tag and write someone else's name on it. So yes, those are the cheaper routes. I did like the fancy ones a kid though, and I am sure that this is still the case for the majority of kids out there, so parents be prepared to pony up the dough. Thanks for sharing.
I like the chia head idea. I haven't been to a Halloween party for ages though, and because I am stuck out here in the boonies..we don't even get trick or treaters, so I am not going to dress up just for myself.! I do plan to put my house on the market though, so with any luck I will get to move..by then..That would be something! Realistically, I will probably be here though..(insert sad face here)..! Making your own has got to be cheaper.
I made nearly all of the costumes my kids wore when they were growing up. I made several handmade outfits over the years. I thought they were cute too. One even one a prize in a costume contest. I enjoyed doing it and it saved a ton of money. With four kids to buy for at $20-30 dollars each that would add up quickly if I purchased costumes for everyone every year. I could make all of them costumes for that price instead of spending that much on each one. Some of the ones I made even got reused, so we really got a bang for the buck. It's fun too. I think it's worth a try. You can always start out simple if you aren't particularly into making stuff.
I definitely say that making the costumes is the economically best bet. But many people would not know the first thing about putting a costume together, so the convenient thing to do is just to buy them. You do definitely save money making them yourself though. Saving on fabrics and such.
I have four kids, and have run the gammit of halloween costumes. Goodwill is a pretty good option for finding almost anything very cheap around halloween time. I think make your own costumes are FUN, and we regularly engage in piecing together creative costumes, but very often entire costumes are nearly unused at Goodwill for less than $5. I will say that when I was a kid, my mother made ALL our Halloween costumes for many years, and then we eventually started creating our own from things we had in the house. Her homemade costumes were adorable and enviable. Our homemade costumes were a lot of fun and always better to me than the crap you can buy at Walmart.
I don't have any kids, but I think that buying one is so much more convenient rather than making your own. If you don't have some sewing or "tailor-like" skills under your belt then you won't even get to make a good costume in the 1st place.
I would definitely rather make a costume than buy one! Honestly, the prices for Halloween costumes are really steep, and most of them don't have a great quality and aren't very long lasting. I think that it's better to make an original costume at home, to be honest. Some of the best costumes that I've seen were homemade! Last year, someone who lives near me made a Sharknado costume, where they taped bubble wrap and ribbon around them (to look like a tornado) and then taped sharks to it. It looked great!
That's a really good idea, to shop thrift stores for costumes. These kinds of items are often either new or only gently used. You can get them for a few bucks instead of paying full price. To add to that, there's also usually a good chance that you can find cool stuff for making homemade costumes there as well. I always too advantage of fabric sales, discounted craft supplies and sew notions, and trim and stuff as well. Some of these can even be found in thrift stores too. Saving money is always in season, right? Savings on costumes is a good trick and it can leave you with more money for treats.
I don't really celebrate Halloween these days, but I always enjoy seeing homemade costumes, since they're usually a lot more original than the storebought ones. I really like the chia head idea. Another way to save money and be original is homemade decorations and/or treats. I don't suggest giving out homemade treats to strangers though, since people have to be cautious these days, and they could end up being thrown out for safety reasons. A few in my neighborhood go all out and decorate their whole property with ghosts and hanging bodies, etc., and it's fun to drive around and see the decorations.
