y do kids costumes suck?

[L]

seriously??

I thought maybe this year i would get away with not making a costumes for my daughter

BUT

i searched and searched for girls age 7-8 all there is is fairies, princesses, hannah bleeping montana, cheerleaders, high school musical crap....

UGH im so fed up...
i want something good, creative, noticeable by her friends, approved by the close minded school officials

please any help would be greatly appreciated. even mother/daughter costumes is cool.
I try to stay away from super cutesy for halloween...

[Aislynn]

What are her tastes?  Does she like story book characters?  (Alice, Little Red, Dorothy)  Or does she like spooky, traditional Halloween?  (Witches, ghosts, mummies, etc...)  Easily thrifted costumes are a gypsy/fortune teller, a bride, Miss America, a scarecrow, and a zombie.  Togas are also easily made from sheets (decent ones, even) and can be accessorized so that she can be any number of Greek or Roman figures.  Animals also tend to be easily accomplished.  My advice:  talk to her about what she wants to be.  Then check out your local thrift shop/second hand store with her choice(s) in mind.  Oh, poodle skirts are insanely easy to make, too.  Good luck!

And my God, what is with the Hannah Montana costumes?  Really?

[rabid.dustbunny]

I grew up in a strict, no cheesy store-bought or cutesy costume, or anything slutty tradition.  Mom was pretty adamant, and so am I.  I was always a witch, and my little sister was always a devil.  Typecasting?  Thanks Mom! We had glitter and rhinestones and makeup in the right places and doses and we looked scary and kind of pretty.  I loved it. 

One year my daughter wanted to be a princess, so I made her a black cat-princess outfit as a compromise.  We were both happy.

I absolutely despise the mini-halloween slut costumes, and ditto the Hannah Montanas, but there are some kind of fun witch costumes available this year, and there's a zombie cheerleader that's age-appropriate and cutely scary, and a dragon costume that comes back lately each year that's really cute.   

I'm glad young moms are standing up against the commercial onslaught of hideous Halloween costumes and the crappification of my favorite holiday!  Good luck, I hope you both have a wonderful, fun and spooky night   

[Thesingingllamas]

#1 What does she want to be?
By that age I think she can decide.

#2 If she doesn't know what she wants to be, what does she like? Does she have a favorite tv show? a favorite book?

What about a cat or some other type of animal, a devil, a superhero? A pirate? An olympic gymnast? A zombie? A pumpkin? A ghost? Non-disney mermaid? Doctor? Lawyer? lol I'd love to see a kid come to my door with a mini suit and a mini briefcase. A skeleton?

In high school I was a zombie mermaid.
Lets see as a kid one year I was little bo peep, another I was wendy from casper, I think I was a 50s poodle skirt thing.
My mom always helped with the class halloween party. She would always be a gypsy and have a crystal ball and tell vague fortunes.

Although I have seen hsm, if a kid came to my door with this costume I would have no idea who she was dressed up as, I would however recognize belle or cinderella.

[karmellah]

i have always done my own costumes, never store bought. maybe an axces, but never the full thing and with me i dont believe in being the same thing twice. lets see if i remember some....

A glowworm (my only store bought. rememebr those plastic smocks and the masks lol)
A Princess
hula girl
Gypsy
Cleopatra (The frigging hair dye spray made my tub black)
Doctor
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Vampire Victim
Baby Spice
Drama queen
im having a brain freeze right now though. I know ive done more

[chattyKathi]

I am so glad to see this thread! I have always made my kids costumes (except once) and I am really not THAT crafty and usually have no money,lol I make costumes from stuff I have or can get at garage sales. Here's a list of what my kids have been.
Son- Ghost, made from daddy's white undershirt covered with cut up white sheers.
        a lion, made from an old pikachu costume someone gave me I crocheted a hat then weaved in yarn for the mane. made small ones for wrists.
         made a "superAustin" costume out of an old red ninja costume, I stitch witchery-ed a superman style thingy on the front and wrote Super Austin on it, also made a mask for his eyes. stuffed the arms and chest for muscles. and a cape made from the same fabric as the super thingy on the front.
           a scarecrow, and last year he was Frankenstien which was wicked easy  made from a green suit I found at a garage sale and a black Tshirt I had on hand. I made a paper mache;' head for him too, it was great! This year we are going with dracula, easy peasy, black pants white shirt, black cape. (found some great fabric at walmart for two dollars a yard!
     For my daughter she has been a princess the kind with the tall pointy hat. used alot of tulle on that one! lol

she wore the lion costume too, little red riding hood,last year was Snow princess made from a white bathrobe with glitter glued on it and I fashioned a crown with lots of  crystally pony beads.

oh I forgot the christmas tree! I took an old turtleneck and cut the arms off it then made a bajillion  green popmpoms from yarn and hot glued them on decorated it with tiny ornaments I found at a garage sale and she had a star on her head(lconnected to a head band. and my son also was a mummy made from a white bed sheet and hot glued on shirt and pants and a baseball cap I cut the brim off of.

 this year she wants to be a bat so I got a black shirt at the thrift store and sewed on a skirt someone gave me, velvet no less, after cutting it up the seam.spread it out  for her wings and then a black pair of knit pants! all I have to do is cut the fabric I have already sewed to look like bat wings and use the extra material for her ears.

thats not all of them but I am having brain fade.

Make your own costumes is easy. Just look to see what you have around the house and what you might need to gt to finish it. Garage sales are great, thrift stores etc.

Good luck! I hope I have given some ideas to you!
 

sorry for such a long post. This is my passion!


   

[fannydimples]

I HATE store bought kids costumes!!! I got lucky because my son never wants to be anything we see in the stores lol. Last year he wanted to be a hitch Hiking ghost ala' disney. I made him a pair of knickers and he had knee socks with an old tux jacket we found at a thrift store. I fogged out the jacket with white hair spray dye stuff to make it look ghostly. Bought him a short top hat and covered it with spider webs. Completed the look with a long stick and a hanky bag at the end. He looked way too cool lol. This year he is going as a zombie cowboy. I'd say pick your kiddos brain for ideas, mine always surprises me.

[L]

I HATE store bought kids costumes!!! I got lucky because my son never wants to be anything we see in the stores lol. Last year he wanted to be a hitch Hiking ghost ala' disney. I made him a pair of knickers and he had knee socks with an old tux jacket we found at a thrift store. I fogged out the jacket with white hair spray dye stuff to make it look ghostly. Bought him a short top hat and covered it with spider webs. Completed the look with a long stick and a hanky bag at the end. He looked way too cool lol. This year he is going as a zombie cowboy. I'd say pick your kiddos brain for ideas, mine always surprises me.

aww...id love to see a pic of last years costume!! It sounds really awesome

[L]

karmellah, great ideas...ill pass them onto the little one in hopes to spark her imagination!!!


Thesingingllamas, yea i dont know how that could be a costume. Theres no creativity in todays costumes.


chattyKathi, i was actually thinking about a ninja. She draws them all the time so maybe ill put a twist on it.

Thanks guys

[string theory]

I have a problem with store bought costumes as well... not only because they are cheesy, expensive and poorly made, but since we live in phoenix and it is always about 90 degrees at halloween... and all of the costumes for toddlers and babies (my kids are 3 and 1) are plush and extremely warm. My son's first halloween, we bought him a costume from old navy that was just precious (a teddy bear) but we had to put it on him, take pictures, and take it off so that he wouldn't die of heat exhaustion!
  This year, my son (3) said that we should all be pirates... I think it is going to be hilarious to be a troop of pirates walking down the street!

[fannydimples]

here are a couple pics I dug up...

[karmellah]

Fanny, i love those!

[fannydimples]

hey thanks, easy costume and my Kiddo , as you can see, totally loved it.

[L]

ahhh...that costume is so cute!!

i have to show my kid this pic!!

[fannydimples]

it would be cool to see a girl variation on the hitch hiking ghost, I have never seen one before.

[peeloutyourface]

when i was about 7 or 8, my dad made me a costume. i was frankenstein's bride. my hair was made of posterboard wrapped in foam batting spray painted. then i just wore this white gown thing that my mom made. the teachers at school were not happy about my distracting hair-do

oh and one year my dad made me into a giant trick or treat bag. i was literally the brown paper bag and you had to put candy inside my costume. confused many people

[BadWolf]

I'm trying to remember when I was that age...I have always been very tall for my age, I am 5'9" or 5'10" and I stopped growing when I was 13...

I remember I was a pink fairy one year even though I hated pink. Oh! One year I was a frog and I just wore all green and had a green baseball cap with white styrofoam ball eyes glued to the bill.

When my younger brothers were little guys they were dinosaurs(purple sweatpants and a sweatshirt that had spikes), pumpkins, a bazooka joe bubble gum box, an M&M, train conductors, ghosts. It was fun with them cause they're twins. Heheh. Greg would pull his arms into his gum box costume and hide in it.

[thepaintinglibra]

I agree that the store costumes are too commerical pushing the sexy factor a little too soon. I have seen crop tops, short shorts etc on the smallest of girls. My boss had to struggle with her 7 year old daughter last year with wanting a too sexy devil costume. 

I like the idea of doing something with history with your daughter. Make it a learning experience for her. The roman toga idea is great - it is comfy and cheap and she can learn about ancient Rome. If not Rome, Egypt, the roaring twenties, the 70's etc, a beautiful Geisha, etc?




What way she can about other times/cultures as you help to create her costume. See what she is learning in school and she what sparks her interest.

[eukarya]

Ninja sounds great for a little girl!  I'd love to see it!

My game geek brother convinced me to be a druid for Halloween when I was 8.  It was so fun to be something completely different!

I also abhor store bought costumes.  Especially the ones that are just a plastic sheet with a picture of something printed on it...I always feel sorry for the kids who get stuck with that.

Has anyone else noticed that a lot of trick-or-treaters don't even bother wearing costumes any more?  This really bothers me...I mean couldn't they try just a little!?!

[fannydimples]

YES! I wont give more than 1 piece of candy if the kid is older and is not in costume. i hate that. Hate it lol. Hmmm.... I'm trying to think of the one costume i did when i was a kid that i had to explain the most. I think it was probably when i was 13 or so and I dressed up MOD. No one i went to school with had any idea what the hell i was lol.

[Seika]

Has anyone else noticed that a lot of trick-or-treaters don't even bother wearing costumes any more?  This really bothers me...I mean couldn't they try just a little!?!

I know around here the general consensus is no costume=no candy.  Which rocks cause anywhere else, as a teenager, I don't think they'd give me anything

[eukarya]

I know around here the general consensus is no costume=no candy.  Which rocks cause anywhere else, as a teenager, I don't think they'd give me anything

I confess that I'm miserly with un-costumed trick-or-treaters.  I give them a single lollypop and save all the chocolate for the kids in costume.  If someone is wearing a particularly clever homemade get up I give them lots of candy!  ...age is irrelevant after 8pm  

Once when I was a kid (like 15 years ago!) we had some soldiers show up at our door fairly late with pillowcases.  When my sis asked what they were for Halloween, one of them answered "Landshark, Ma'am!".  We were so amused that we gave them all our remaining candy!

[La Maestra]

My 3 year old keeps changing her mind, so I'm hesitant to get started - last year she was a ladybug - red T-shirt, sewn on black spots from felt, and an upside-down Y of felt down the middle of the back for "wings" line  - two extra legs sewn into the side seams (pipe cleaners inside felt tubes so they stuck out stiffly), black pants/long-sleeved turtleneck- cheap foam visor with antennae stuck through and glued on (pipe cleaners with puff balls.)  Black shoes.

Did it the day before Halloween for pennies ...  boy was she happy, and a total hit everywhere!  Bugs are just cute, no matter what you do.  Especially when their antennae bounce when they move.

I'm thinking cowgirl 'cuz she has a lot of the riggin' already, and likes to yell "Yeehaw!" - what I need to do is get one of those "no sew" or "little or no sew" costume books that show a million different tunics and additional pieces that can be whipped together in a flash to make a "look" - after all, she's only going to wear it once, and not on a runway!  She could even help!

Or - maybe the Paperbag Princess...

[Aislynn]

My 3 year old keeps changing her mind, so I'm hesitant to get started -...

This is why last year, my friend's little girl was a fairy-princess-pirate-cat.  All four, at once, it was utterly fantastic.

[La Maestra]

My 3 year old keeps changing her mind, so I'm hesitant to get started -...

This is why last year, my friend's little girl was a fairy-princess-pirate-cat.  All four, at once, it was utterly fantastic.

Soooo - I'm looking at a fairy-cowgirl-dinosaur-horse.....interesting concept...  I'll have to think about that!

[streetjunkie]

When I was 7 i went as the paper bag princess.  It was my favourate costume by far.  My mom got one of those brown burlap sacks, and cut out arm and head holes, i wore that with a brown turtleneck, brown tights, and my runners, covered in brown paper.  And then, so no one thought that I was being a log, I wore a crown. It was super easy, and everyone was impressed that I read books.

Also I went as a munchkin from the Wisard of Oz a couple years back. It was a simple costume, with a too short babydoll, white tights, bright pink flats, my hair in two pigtails at the side of my head, and a HUGE lollipop. 

[Tero]

I have two little girls and although one year I did have to give into the princess thing we did all homemade and same with the year we had to do a fairy. Both years my daughter was not happy by the end of the night because she was one of 10,000 fairies. Same with the year of the princess.

We are strict no store bought costumes and we try to do costumes with almost no money put into it as well.

Last year one daughter was a lion, NO money into it at all. I used all recycled materials. The other daughter was a peacock with a working tail. We did have to buy the feathers but the rest of it was all recycled material.

The best costume we have done for the girls so far was my youngest one wanted to be an eyeball. It was a SCREAM !!! Sooo incredibly funny and very very easy to make.

This year they want to be a gnome and a mushroom house. Not sure how I am going to pull off the mushroom house but here we go.

Good luck and I am loving reading all of the Halloween ideas and stories in this thread.

[alli.illektro]

kids are fantastic. mushroom house?! haha, what the hell!? forget about kids costumes being too sluty, why is it so hard to find an adult woman's costume that doesnt look like stripper wear!?

[Aislynn]

I must see the mushroom house...that's the best idea, ever...I forsee a hat in your daughter's future.

[karmellah]

i remember many years ago, i went to my landlords hosue around holloween time and her son was miserablebecause shewas forcing him to be something that he didnt want to be. As I climbed up the stairs I saw a big thing of cardboard. I asked my landlord what that was and she replied, Oh his costume. She proceeds to pull it out slip it on him and Like the little kid in A Christmas story who couldnt move his arms, he turned around and he was a giant peice of toast.

[KrisCreates]

Last year my kid was Mario, this year he's going to be Link from legend of Zelda (Video game crazy...)  And I'm totally making his costume.

Buying costumes where I live makes NO sense because its usually REALLy cold here and often there's snow on the ground, store bought costumes are useless.  Zelda costume will be made so that several layers of clothing can fit under it.

[L]

i remember many years ago, i went to my landlords hosue around holloween time and her son was miserablebecause shewas forcing him to be something that he didnt want to be. As I climbed up the stairs I saw a big thing of cardboard. I asked my landlord what that was and she replied, Oh his costume. She proceeds to pull it out slip it on him and Like the little kid in A Christmas story who couldnt move his arms, he turned around and he was a giant peice of toast.

hahahaha oh my!!! thats effing hilarious

[artist.nerd.musiclover]

I've been a lot of different things in my 18 years...and now, in no particular order... my mom helped with all of the costumes

-Bunny
-Dinosaur (my aunt made this for her son, then I got it)
-Nurse
-Angelica Pickles
-Belly dancer
-Charlie Eppes
-Bank robber
-John Lennon
-SpongeBob

...and that's all I can think of right now.  Not sure what I'm doing for the campus's art club Halloween party.

[gretchilou]

I think Pippi longstocking is a super fun girl costume...striped tights..braids with bendable wire in the to make them stick out..freckles..impr ovise from there with clothes from the closet.

[gretchilou]

oooh...another one that my friend did with her daughter was a peacock.  She bought teal colored tights and a dance leotard, some peacock feathers from the craft store to make a tail..and sprayed her hair with color and sparkles.  It was really fun for her 3 year old.

[L]

I think Pippi longstocking is a super fun girl costume...striped tights..braids with bendable wire in the to make them stick out..freckles..impr ovise from there with clothes from the closet.

oh man i totally forgot about pippy longstocking. I dont even think she has seen the movie.