It’s Halloween! Finally! I feel like this year it has drug on….and on…..and on….but that’s probably because we’ve done so many trick or treat events already. Gotta get more than one day of use out of these costumes! I thought I would dedicate this post to costumes and how to make homemade or semi-homemade costumes. Most of the time, they are easier than you think and cost waaaaay less money than big box store costumes. I can’t remember a time growing up where my siblings and I actually went to a store and picked out costumes ~ we simply told mom what we wanted to be and it showed up Halloween morning. Moms are cool like that 🙂

My biggest suggestion for making your own costume is to start out with a pre-made base and go from there. There is absolutely no reason to make a pair of pants from scratch! It’s always cold (and usually rainy) on beggar’s night, so my first thought is how can I build a costume on TOP of a jacket because seriously, if I’m taking the time to make something, the last thing I want to do is cover up my creation with a jacket. Walmart is my go-to place for solid color sweatshirts, long sleeve shirts, and jackets. Craft stores have lots of solid color short sleeve shirts, but again, think about warmth going under the costume, not over it. Once you have a base piece of clothing, you can build off that using felt, fleece, or even cardboard. Felt is a great fabric to work with because it doesn’t fray on the edges and is easy to cut.

My second costume-making tip is to use hot glue. You don’t need to own a sewing machine in order to make a cute costume and in fact, many times I have opted for using hot glue instead of sewing simply because I don’t feel like getting my sewing machine out and clearing a big space on my craft counter. Certainly if you are a talented seamstress, go for it, but hot glue will hold up just fine, especially if you are only using this costume for 2 hours of trick or treating! Hot glue will bond to fabric, plastic, paper, acrylic, and more.