Favorite Handmade Halloween Costume

[daniel]

Every sewer that loves Halloween has a story to tell about the best costume they ever created. Whether it was for a child or themselves, there is one Halloween that stands out. We'd love to hear about your favorite Halloween costume that you created yourself.

[SoMuch2Sew]

While I was in college I had a party to go to, but I was too broke to buy a costume or even afford nice material. Over one weekend, I think I hit every remnant and dollar shelf at every store in town and found various pieces of material I liked and turned the mismatched collection into a gypsy costume. I made a baggy blouse, a long, full skirt, corset, and 2 scarves for around my waist and head. I think the whole thing cost me $20 to make (including jewelry I found on sale and still wear).

This year I am going to attempt a Cleopatra-like costume in a lavender dupioni silk and eggplant chiffon (bit of an upgrade from college! :D )

[dcd4602]

would have to be the clown outfit i made for my son his first Halloween.. he was adorable!!!

[Moreen]

I think my favorite is one I just finished for my dgd (3 yrs old). Her mom asked what she wanted to be and she said a tree! So, I made a tree costume! I just saw pictures and she looks SO happy so I guess I made it right!

[jesdown]

Two halloweens ago, my kids chose the fish costumes by Simplicity. They were so adorable, especially as the three ran down the sidewalk with their tails wagging. However, this was the worst sewing experience ever! In my opinion, Simplicity shouldn't be publishing the pattern, at least without some major warnings.

The pattern calls for 1" foam. Being cheap, when I was buying everything, I figured 1/2" would do. It's a good thing! To construct the pattern, you have to sew 2-3 layers of the foam together. It was a major effort to get it through the machine, and I'm sure I couldn't have done it with double the thickness. The pattern is otherwise well designed, but I can't think how they expect people with typical machines to complete the construction.

What we won't do for our kids, right? After swearing my way through the first, I still had to do two more. This was the only pattern I've ever thrown out once I got done.

Jess

[Janazur]

My son, Bryan was 19 months old and I decided I would take him Trick or Treating to the Grandparent's houses and a few neighbors. I bought some bright orange material for the costume and green felt for the stem and made him a pumpkin costume. I was so proud of that costume and felt like such a SUPER MOM!. The 1st house I took him to, the man that answered the door said, "awww look honey, Bryan is a little tomatoe." I covered Bryan's ears and cussed all the way home.

[lilyapplecheeks]

My all time favorite costume as a young girl was an angel costume Mom made for our Christmas pageant. I wore it the following Halloween because I loved it so much. It was a simple white long dress but it had wings made with bent wire coat hangers covered in fabric, with gold tinsel edging. I know my Mom struggled with making it but I adored it.

[FeistyEily]

This year I made my husband a pirate costume for Halloween, right down to the leather tri-corn hat. He loved it, and it was wonderful to see my sweet computer nerd swaggering around in his costume! He loves it so much that he's been wearing it for the last month to the local Ren Faire - we traded out the tri-corn hat and sashes for a leather belt and cavalier hat, so now the costume is pulling double duty.

[lscsing]

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! The best thing I ever made for Halloween was my son, born at 8:03 p.m. on Halloween night. He is now grown and will soon celebrate his 23rd birthday.

But my sewing skills and creativity have flourished every fall. I made costumes to turn my little hobgoblin into a rabbit, a dinosour, a knight, a Civil War Soldier, a Star Trek officer. His younger sister has been a fairy princess, a Native American, A Jazz Singer, a Southern Belle, A pirate, a gypsey and probably even more characters that blur in my memory. I have made so many costumes over the years for theatre, Halloween and living history events that I can't name them all. Last Halloween I made my three adoptive grandchildren into Spiderman, A pretty pink Princess, and a blue Fairy. I also turned a 6mo old into a petite little lion and his sister into the Blues Clues Dog. Did I have patterns for most of these? NO. I just sketched out a picture and started cutting and sewing until it resembled what was in my head.

I have so many costumes at home that I have been tempted to open up a costume shop at Halloween time.

Linda:)

[maleveque]

We LOVE Hallowe'en at our house! We've had so many great costumes over the years (my oldest is 19, my youngest is 10).
This year my middle child wanted to go to the Renaissance Festival for her birthday, so I made dresses for both sisters and helped with the dress for a friend - they were a bevy of princesses! These costumes are going to do double duty for Hallowe'en and maybe our church's International Dinner. Last night my youngest daughter wanted a cloak to go with her dress, since as she says, it'll be COLD on Hallowe'en, so we got the crushed velvet that's $3 a yard at Joann's and whipped up a hooded cloak. She wore it to bed!
One of my favorite costume memories is from when my son was 6 and we had just moved to our town. There is a Hallowe'en parade and costume contest and I made a beaver costume for him (they were his favorite animal at the time) using a bear pattern and adding a different tail, rubber buck teeth and a painted nose. He won "cutest" costume. He's also been Napoleon, the mummy, Lord Voldemort, Professor Plum, and lots of other fun things!
Anne L.

[zerodigit]

just a mummy, i'll take more tissue :D