Homemade Halloween Costumes for Kids and Families

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.

If homemade Halloween costumes were on the application for Mother of the Year Award then I think I might win. I adore homemade Halloween costumes and have made them with love each year. I thought I’d share costumes of Halloween past to help get your juices flowing and to show you that they don’t have to be super complicated.
We’ve already had many dinner discussions about this years’ costumes because things this cute sure don’t make themselves. One hard thing about the kids getting bigger is that they have opinions of their own, which means they want to be something different every day. I’ll be interested to see what we decide on because we’ve talked about everything from dinos and alligators to chefs and fairies. Only time will tell what we pick.
Halloween 2011: Bugs
Macey wanted to be a butterfly and I love matching costumes so Henry was a caterpillar and the baby was a potato bug (pill bug, roly-poly…). To make things easy I suggest starting with a sweatshirt or hoodie. So much of the work is done if you just add to an existing piece of clothing. I just find what I need at thrift stores.

Homemade Halloween Costumes for Kids and Families

pill bug costume, lady bug costume, caterpillar costume

Halloween 2010: Little Red Riding Hood and her crew
I was grandma, Thomas the lumberjack, Macey was Little Red Riding Hood and Henry was the Wolf. The only things I actually made for this was my granny bonnet and the wolf costume. Seriously though, we were so cute. Check out that bottom picture of the Little Red. I think she was happy about getting her mits on some candy.
Little red riding costumes for family
Halloween 2009: Lioness
Henry was born at the beginning of October this year and Macey hated her costume. I had to bribe her with candy just to get it on her. Again it was low key though. I used a hooded sweatshirt and added some yard, a tummy, and ears.
homemade lion costume

Halloween 2008: Lion and Safari-ers
A friend had a Tigger costume that I borrowed, but I didn’t really want Macey to be Tigger, so she was just a tiger. Thomas and I sported khakis, white tops, hiking boots, hilariously large walkie-talkies, and a canteen so that we could be people out on a safari with a tiger in tow. The tiger ears are just paper around a headband and eyeliner makes her whiskers.

homemade tiger costume

Halloween 2007: The Ballerina
I made a quick tiny tutu from elastic and tulle. She wore her tutu with a onesie snapped over a pair of tights. Easy!

homemade baby ballerina costume

There you have it: cute homemade Halloween costumes that aren’t at all hard. By starting with what you have and adding a few cute touches you end up with something really unique that didn’t take all year to create.

Quick poll:
Do you buy or make your costumes? What did your mom do for you growing up (buy or make)? Have you decided on this year’s costume? I love to hear/see great ideas so please share.

About Melissa

You May Also Like:

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

7 Comments

  1. these are cute! can’t wait to see what you do this year. So far we’ve had store bought (the year before or received gifts). What I’ve been meaning to do for each baby is make them a baby chick. The inspiration is a yellow sleeper (you know, the kind that don’t have any legs). I have never dressed up the baby because I STILL haven’t made a hat! PLEASE give me an idea of how to make the hat-I’m no good coming up w/this stuff on my own.

  2. That was really nice collection for kids costumes. At this time so many complication to getting better one but can giving me a better suggestion for getting it. Thanks for sharing a nice information about it.

  3. We’re finally moving on from the 4 years we did Jedi Knight (and I made that one!) to Batman and Robin. Only problem is I think Robin thinks he’s Batman… but oh well. 😛 I’m in the process of making the costumes, but all I’m making are the capes… and they get enough fun out of the capes throughout the year it’s worth the time to make them!

  4. Cute costumes! You are the most creative mama ever. I always buy my kids costumes the year before so I get cute costumes at a steal of a price. This year Ella will be a pink lady from Grease and Knox a farmer.