I like to make Halloween costumes for my boys. It just is.
Last year, I was a costume-making machine because as part of my Yahoo! Shine gig, I spent 7 hours being interviewed by about 17 morning news programs across the country. I meant to post a semi-tutorial here wow, after all of those interviews (and being up for 20+ hours) I was a little Halloween-costumed out.
A year has passed. It's safe to say that I've recovered.
If you are looking for an easy DIY Halloween costume for your kid (or yourself!), here's a little info on how to make a skeleton costume on the cheap.
Skeleton Costume
Because I needed to make costumes for Shine, I made sure to create ones that my kids would actually wear that year. Seven selected a skeleton costume -- called Mr. Rattles -- from FamilyFun.com. You can get the step by step instructions from their site, but I wanted to share a few tips photos of how it looked along the way:
I picked up a cheap pair of Hanes black sweats ($6) at Target, along with black glow-in-the-dark skeleton gloves (in the boys' department - a two-pack cost $5 last year). I had a tough time finding a simple, long-sleeved black shirt for my son. Seems they didn't carry them in the boys' offerings, but I found several in the girls' department. I found one on sale for $8. We had black socks and shoes on hand. The only other supply we purchased was white contact paper ($6). Grand total? $25. And the clothing items would be used all winter long. (Confession: I took the mittens. My kid didn't miss them.)
Working with Contact Paper can be a pain. I used the templates that I downloaded from FamilyFun.com and traced them onto the paper using a pencil. I started with the torso because it had the most difficult pattern to cut out. You may not need to use all the "bone" pieces if your kid is younger (and small!) -- the shirt may not be big enough to fit it all. I first laid all the pieces onto the clothes for placement. I removed the backing and secured them once I knew how they would all fit together.
Note: The contact paper will stretch and move a bit when your kid puts the costume on. Don't fret; it's very easy to adjust.
Remember how I just said all the pieces might not fit? Check out the arm; I had to cut one bone in half. The costume calls for the placement of two bones (like a real arm, of course).
Legs! This was, by far, the easiest part of the costume. Again, notice a half-bone by the ankles.
Scary! Seven (then Six!) loved this costume so much. But guess what? He never made it to his school's Halloween parade because like the previous year, he got sick with the stomach flu. Only instead of throwing up in class on Halloween morning, he threw up in the car the day before Halloween.I kept him home on Halloween and since he was feeling better, I let him put the costume on to visit a few neighbors. (PS: If you notice something funny in this photo, be the first one to comment on it -- and you're right -- and I'll send you a cute coffee cozy!)
This year, Seven has decided to be a vampire-count and this afternoon, I'm off to our local fabric shop to pick up some taffeta to make his cape. And I'm already sending my good health prayers to the sky so that he doesn't miss another Halloween parade.
Tomorrow: I'll show you have to make DIY pirate costume. So so easy and the kids can even make it with adult supervision.
Other Halloween fun stuff on the cheap...
You've been boo'd
