Easy DIY Halloween Costumes!

For the last three years I've made some (I think) pretty impressive costumes for a girl who doesn't own a sewing machine! I think it's because my mom made a lot of ours as kids and I just think there is something special about keeping the homemade tradition alive. I don't do it for a lot of other things, but for Halloween, it's special that I can create a whole world for my boys in just a few visits to a craft store and a few nap times and evenings.

In 2011,  I was pregnant with Theo so I wanted a cute costume, and Hank had a pretty intense love for construction vehicles, in fact, they were doing construction in our neighborhood so when he found out he could be a construction worker and Eric could be a bulldozer, he was thrilled! (My belly said, "bump") This costume was so simple! We had just moved in so I wanted to save a few boxes so we could create a bulldozer. I used foam circles for the wheels, but covered them in classroom board boarders to get the texture. I used bungee cord to hold the bulldozer to Eric and poster board for the scoop and sign. I used a wrapping paper tube to hold my sign and puffy paint to paint my shirt. I made a quick order on Amazon for the hard hats and vests for Eric and Hank, and BOOM! Construction crew!

2011

In 2012, Eric and I were watching How To Train Your Dragon and Henrik walked out his room during bedtime and instantly fell in love with Toothless and Hiccup. It was a no brainer, that our little Thornado would make the perfect dragon,  Eric was Stoic, I was Astrid and Henrik was Hiccup. Plus, with Swedish names like ours, how could we not honor our Viking Heritage. This costume took a lot more work than the construction crew, but it was pretty easy after I realized they were vikings and the sewing could be done by hand. I pretty much got some fake fur from the fabric store and used it (and leather cord) to make the vests and shawls. I made Eric a shift dress and an apron that looked like it was made out of chain meal, and I picked up a leather skirt and added fake leather to it with metal beads sewn on. Eric's dad had the Viking hat and arm armour, so I just had to make a beard out of yarn and elastic! For Theo's Toothless costume, I found a sweatsuit, chopped up an old pair of black tights for the tail and stuffed it with plastic bags. I used felt for the tail that Hiccup made for Toothelss. For the wings, I used fleece, double sided-iron on adhesive, and a metal coat hanger. I added some felt eyes and fleece ears. And, Hiccup was easy, I just got leggings, a green shirt we already had, and some fake fur as a coat. I also covered his beloved tractor rain boots in the fake fur with double sided tape and done! We were vikings!

2012

This year I was trying so hard to come up with a costume that wasn't a character that my boys had seen from a TV show or heard about on the playground, but this year, during Shark week, I got a brilliant idea, and underwater theme! Henrik and Theodor LOVE playing sharks and submarines and play with plastic ocean animals in the bath daily, so when I came up with this costume, I knew it would be perfect! I was an octopus, Eric was a sting ray, Theo was a shark, Hank was a scuba diver and of course, we had to turn our wagon into a submarine! 

2013

Before I did anything, I ordered sweatshirts from Target, they were $5 each. Then, I went to the fabric store and purchased felt. They had some felt that had adhesive already on it so I bought a pack of that too. For the octopus costume, I simply cut it up so that I had 6 additional arms and sewed them together. I used the adhesive felt to make the suction cups and used cupcake holders and cotton balls to make the eyes stick out of the hood. The shark was pretty simple too. I used regular felt to sew on a tummy and adhesive felt for the teeth and eyes! Hank the Scuba diver was the easiest! I just got him a black sweatshirt and sweatpants, diving goggles and made air tanks out of 2L bottles of pop, spray paint, yellow ribbon and elastic so he could wear it like a backpack. Eric's sting ray took a long time because I had to sew the "wings" on to it from the under arm of the hoodie to the side of the hoodie, but once that was done (white on one side, black on the back), I just added a felt tail and the markings of the sting ray in the adhesive felt to the belly! The submarine was done with cardboard and paint, pretty easy and we propped it up on the wagon with the wooden paint mixers you get for free at the hardware store.