If you’ve dared to enter a Halloween costume “superstore” with children, you understand the ridiculousness of it all. The kids go nuts for an overpriced, poorly made superhero costume and the begging commences. If you make it out without a costume and your wallet (and sanity) intact, you’re a stronger woman than most. I’m sure you’re just chewing at the bit now to get to the Halloween store, but as much fun as this sounds (not), I’d like to offer an alternative to the pricey, megastore costumes.
Growing up, my mom would pack all of us in to the bus-burban, as we fondly called our behemoth family vehicle, and take us to the local Goodwill store. Each of us were given a certain amount of money and let loose for an hour. I remember turning choir robes into scary monster costumes, old sheets into capes, and used prom dresses into an outfit fit for a queen. Not only did she minimize her expenses, my wise momma encouraged creativity and pushed us to think outside-the-box.
I absolutely loved creating my Halloween costume as a kid, so when I had the opportunity to work with the Socks4Life.com team to put together a DIY Costume Ideas guide, I jumped at the chance. The list of costume ideas and descriptions on how to put the ensembles together is a part of their new resource, Heel to Toe: A Guide to Feet. A few of the costumes include socks as a crucial part of the costume, i.e. Tom Cruise in Risky Business, but if you’re looking for costume ideas we’ve got it all—from character costumes to clever, funny costume ideas for groups. Below are a few examples:
· Tom Cruise in Risky Business:
· Men’s over-sized dress shirt
· Wayfarer sunglasses
· White slouch socks
· Pretend like you’re singing into a microphone and slide around on your socks.
· A Picnic:
· A red and white checkered picnic table cloth: Cut a hole for your in the center of the cloth and wear as a poncho.
· Attach plastic food (or pictures of food) to the cloth and carry around a picnic basket.
· The Weasley Family (Harry Potter):
· White button-down shirt
· Oversized red or maroon sweater: If you’re really creative, use yellow tape to put the first letter in the name of your favorite Weasley on the front of the sweater (i.e. R for Ron).
· Dark dress pants
· Dark shoes and dress socks
· Temporary color hair spray: Orange of course!
· Lady Bug or Bumble Bee
· Red or yellow long sleeve shirt
· Black spandex pants or tights.
· Create wings using cardboard: Draw a large circle on red or yellow (depending on your bug of choice) posterboard. Color large black dots or use tape to create black stripes (again depending on your bug). Draw a line down the center of the circle and cut down the center of the line to create two wings. Attach to back of shirt.
· Attenae: Create using a black headband and pipe cleaners.
· Where’s Waldo?:
· Jeans
· Red and white striped sweater
· Red and white striped snow hat: This might be tricky to find, if so, get a solid colored cap and use colored tape to create stripes. Attach a red poof to the top of the hat.
· Fake round glasses
· Walk with a cane and hide behind objects.
Halloween costumes don’t need to break the bank or require the talents of professional seamstress,, so for more ghostly good costume ideas using items from your own closet or the local secondhand store, check out the DIY Costume Ideas page. Happy Halloween!
Guest author Maggie Voelker, works as a writer in Indianapolis, IN. She loves fashion, bargain hunting, good food, live music and spending time with family and friends.
