Costumes In The Closet - Where To Find A Great Kids Halloween Costume

It's time! Time to raid the closets and dig through the workbaskets. Time to sort through Great-Grandma's cast-offs and rummage in the attic for treasures. It's time to unearth the boxes full of old crinolines and Mom's embarrassingly out-of-style clothes, and discover a new use for them - as a great, cheap kids Halloween costume.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Oh, alright! I admit it! I adore all holidays, and this one is no exception. There has always been something special about Halloween, though, from carving your own jack o' lantern and creating those amazing, oh-so-spooky decorations, and amazing Halloween Lights, to fabulous parties, complete with special treats.

Perhaps it's the crisp fall air, redolent with the scent of apples and new beginnings. Maybe it's the anticipation of new adventures at school. Whatever the cause, Autumn is always a magical time for me; a time that sets my skin tingling with the feeling that the whole world is poised, breathless, ready for something special to happen.

What is it about wee mites dressed up in Halloween costumes. They are so cute. You just want to give them a big squeeze...and there are so many adorable infant halloween costumes.

My son's costume for his kindergarten class Halloween party was fashioned after his favorite Sesame Street character, Big Bird. To this day I am so grateful he didn't pick Oscar, or The Cookie Monster - I could never have found that much bright blue fuzzy fabric that year

I decided against making a Halloween mask to go with the costume, opting instead for a hood. Then I had to figure out how to make one.

In the end, the hood wasn't hard - I cheated. I bought a cotton sun-hat, dyed it bright yellow. Then I glued two red baseball caps together. Rather than stacking them one on top of the other, I faced them together so that their inside surfaces were touching, and I curled the bottom brim slightly into the top one.

When I attached the yellow hat over top of them, the brims of the baseball caps stuck out in front, creating an instant bird beak.

Then I sewed a cluster of fuzzy yellow chenille stems (we used to call them pipe cleaners) to the center top of the hat. I had carefully attached little yellow fuzzy balls to the upper ends of the stems, and they proved to be a great touch. They wobbled enchantingly at the ends of the stems whenever my son moved his head, just like Big Bird's own whimsical comb.

I managed to convince him to wear the baggy tights and cotton turtleneck I had died bright yellow, but in the end we decided that he would wear yellow rubber boots with three black-painted foam strips glued around the top, as Big Bird feet would be too much hard to walk in and were quite beyond his mother's abilities as a seamstress.

The rest of his costume was really just a large, yellow felt, tear-drop shaped bag with two elasticized holes in let into the bottom seam for his legs, another elasticized hole on either side at the shoulders for each arm, and a ruffled, drawstring closure at the neck.

Once we popped this on over the yellow turtleneck and tights, adding the rubber boots and hat, he was all set for Halloween trick or treats. He looked so cute!

Princess Costumes Rule

When I was of an age to wear one of these, we hadn't yet heard of the Disney Princesses. Yes, Virginia, there were other princesses, long before Uncle Walt made famous the beautiful princesses we know and love today. The Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson had their own, unique ways with princesses, too. Many didn't start as princesses, and some had to endure great hardships, but in the end, they shone as brightly as any Disney star.

We dressed up my little sister as a princess one memorable Halloween. She had lovely, long fair hair that we tortured into soft ringlets. Our father helped us fashion a tiara from a headband, which we proceeded to adorn with every jewel and bauble from our mother's costume jewelry trove we could cajole her into lending to the venture.

The next step was to take in our mother's Bo-Peep costume. The lovely sky-blue floral-sprigged seersucker had already stood the test of many "dress-up" sessions. It had been cut down only the previous season so that my other sister could wear it to her Halloween party, so it didn't need major alterations to fit - only some judicious pinning and a bit of basting.

Then, with the help of more pins and several strategically placed floral rosettes, I gathered the full skirts into panniers - just like those fancy, puffed scallops on Belle's beautiful gold ballgown. We used one of mother's satin and tulle square-dance crinolines for the underskirts, and voila! One dainty princess all ready for the ball.

The following year, we added pink sparkles to the tiara, changed the floral rosettes for clusters of lustrous stars, and created an amazing, star tipped and beribboned "magic wand". We sewed a little drawstring bag from an old doily, and lined it with a scrap of silky fabric. It looked just like an old fashioned reticule.

Then we filled it with glittering "fairy dust" and handed it to the enchanted fairy princess with stern admonitions about keeping the "fairy dust" away from little faces. Peter Pan and Tinkerbell-style blowing of fairy dust into faces was strictly disallowed on pain of no Trick Or Treating the following evening. True Fairy Princesses, we reminded her, made children close their eyes first (or the "spell" wouldn't work) and only sprinkled the magic dust on their shoulders.

I am quite sure we weren't popular with the janitors, but the sprinkling of each tiny pinch to seal her spells was the hit of the Grade One Halloween party.

I was never moved to dress in the garb of some crazed axe murderer, monster brain-eating zombie or scary ghoul, like the costumes pictured at the left, available from Amazon.com.

I did once dress up as a lady vampire, with one of those incredibly long necklaces of funky hand-made Halloween beads, but that was purely for the sex-appeal of the costume. After fighting with the fangs for a couple of hours, and managing to bite my tongue every time I tried to talk, the fangs went the way of the dodo and became extinct.

There's nothing very sexy about leaking blood into your lemonade punch!

One of our perennially favorite Halloween costumes was the Gypsy Girl look, largely because it could be updated so easily to reflect current skirt lengths and a growing interest in teenage boys.

As well, it is dead easy to create from even the most modest of closets. You need a blouse or shirt with loose, flowing sleeves, several large, colorful triangular shawls or scarves, a bandanna, lots of long gold chains (costume jewelry), and several crinolines, or ruffled petticoats.

You may have to raid a trunk or two to find the petticoats, but if that fails try one of your local re-sale clothing stores. The Value Village stores here specialize in vintage "re-runs", and are always incredibly busy around Halloween, so be sure to shop early for the best selection.

After donning the blouse, open the collar and as many buttons as modesty allows. To camouflage a button-front blouse, drape one of the shawls across your shoulders over the blouse collar, letting the triangle hang down your back. Then, cross the ends over your chest covering the blouse placket (where the buttons and button holes are), and tie the ends in the back. This will snug up the triangle across the shoulders, and shorten it somewhat, making it look more like a scarf.

Put on the crinolines or ruffled petticoats, and top them with two more triangular shawls, one tied over each hip to form an asymmetrical, colorful over-skirt. Add some colorful ribbons, pinning them to the waist of the underskirts and letting them trail down both over and under the shawls for added color and visual interest.

The real prize for this look is one of those great sixties-style gold-metallic coin belts. Wear this as a necklace, with several other long gold chains.

Topping off her costume with a colorful bandanna, with a rolled cuff to frame the face and tied at the back of the neck, my sister's finishing touch was always bright red lipstick and three "kiss curls", one on the forehead and one on each cheek.

...and what would a Halloween party be without a nod to our very own Hub Pages Buccaneers, BadCo and his mate.

When I was a kid, you could count on seeing at least two or three pirates at any school Halloween party. They looked so darned cute in their dashing red head scarves, eye-patches, and hand-drawn eyebrow pencil mustaches. Top it all off with a dangerous-looking tin-foiled cutlass, and here was a worthy heir to Long John Silver.

Once we were a bit older though, we were far more interested in making a sexy halloween costume, and we discovered that the pirate look had great potential. Mom's white peasant blouse was nipped in at the tiny teen waist with an amazing fringed sash - Granny's evening shawl, re-purposed - or one of Dad's big leather belts.

You remember that peasant blouse, the one with billowing sleeves, a draw string at the neck and ruffled cuffs? It looks even better off-the-shoulder, accented by long gold chains. Add the crinolines from the Gypsy girl costume, a piratical head scarf over tousled curls, and you're half-way there.

Older pirate girls may want to update this look with a bustier [booss - tyay] and separate bloused sleeves rather than the blouse. Whatever the case, though, the crinolines should definitely be sheer and short, with lots of silky, colorful ribbons dangling against dark stockings or sexy bare legs in high leather boots.

Aarrr, me hearties! Happy Halloween!