Halloween costumes

I made a Dorothy dress (wizard of oz) for my older daughter this last Halloween. (she's 5) I have to admit she made the cutest Dorothy ever!!! We had so much fun spray painting and glittering a pair of shoes for her. I'm hoping that she will wear it again this year, but she must have gotten too much fertilizer, as she's growing like a weed!!!

When our kids were small, we always made their costumes. We did not have the money to purchase one. We used things that we already had to make an original costume. It is so easy to make things that go with original costumes. Like a wand cut from cardboard and tin foil over it to make it sparkle. I wish my grandchildren lived closer so I could help make theirs. Like you I miss them.

I haven't made Hallowe'en costumes for many, many years. I think the last ones were for my grandson and son and then they were passed around in the family. They are apparently stashed away for the next round, my daughter told me. Her grandchildren will be starting to wear them soon.

I prefer to use "homemade" costumes instead of store-bought ones. I can usually put together some pretty nice costumes from things around the house, supplemented with some store-bought accessories if necessary. But as for actual sewing...the last time I did this was a few years ago. My son was about four at the time and still in pre-school. I got the idea that he would look really cute as a little Harry Potter. From the thrift store I found some grey dress slacks and a grey sweater as the Hogwarts school uniform as well as a red time (I used yellow fabric paint to create the red and yellow stripes). I bought the pre-made Harry Potter glasses from Toys R Us--the only commercially-produced part of the costume. But the wizard robe--that was the tricky part. I found some pre-made robes at Walmart, but they were adult size only and cost $30. No way was I going to spend that kind of money! I thought to myself, "I can sew a robe for less money than that..." So I bought the fabric and found a pattern for a child-sized wizard's costume that would do nicely. This was going to be a breeze, I thought. I did pretty well with sewing in high school home-ec classes, and the pattern was simple enough. So I pulled out my old sewing machine and got to work. It turns out I was a bit short on fabric, but not enough to justify going back for more, so I had to modify the sleeves a bit. Then I had to re-sew some darts I had sewn on the wrong side of the fabric. And unstitch a sleeve I had put in inside out. And a second hemming because the robe was still too long... I literally worked throughout the night before Halloween trying to finish this robe. I think I nearly fell asleep over my machine at one point! My son had to be out the door at 8:30 am to make it to his pre-school for the costume party. I managed to finish the robe...at 8:25 am. When my son got into his costume and put on the wizards robe, I got tears in my eyes. He looked so good! Throughout the rest of the day he got compliments from his friends and teachers. Several people asked where we bought the robe and were shocked to learn that I had made it for him. To this day, my son still remembers that Halloween. Every so often he will say, "I liked when you did that for me. Can you do that again?"

i have not sewed any of my old halloween costumes all of the costumes that i used to wear were way too extravagent and complex for me to try to make for myself although with most of the costumes that i used to wear the stitches and seams were so poorly sewn that i probably could have made it better myself when and if i have children of my own one day i plan on sewing their costumes for halloween and if i do not have children then i will just sew my dogs a costume haha