Avoiding the Costume Conflict and Finding Balance in DIY.
I was so excited when my friend Rachal reached out to me about putting together a blog post about making Halloween easy on mom's! I love her take on mixing a little DIY with purchasing pieces that are practical and will be used again and again to build a homemade costume. My girls are being easy this year as they both requested to be a princess of which we own a handful of dresses for, but growing up our costumes where very much as Rachal presents and it is what I'm intending to do next year when I get requests for other characters. I would love to know what you do. Plan ahead? DIY? 11th hour run to Target?
- Jenna
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Halloween- As parents, it’s one more holiday to plan and prep for that has just as good a chance of resulting in tears as it does in gleeful play. You know what I’m talking about especially if you're raising toddlers: Costumes. They cost you a pretty penny, are worn for only one day, and it never fails- at the last minute, your toddler decides that they don’t even like their costume!
Here’s my advice on how to avoid the costume conflicts:
I like to be crafty using a mix of things we have, regular staple clothing, and finding accessories that can be purchased by themselves or easily DIY’d … hello Pinterest! I focus on the main pieces being clothing staples, either purchased and re-worn over and over, or even something found in your kids’ closets already.
For Melody’s Owlette costume, I did both of these things. I looked into an Owlette costume online. I even checked it out in the store, justifying that it could be worn in her dress-up collection for the whole year, but it looked like it would fall apart within the month. So… off to Pinterest I go…
I decided to make the wings and mask out of felt and wear some easy basics to complete the look. I found this long-sleeve red shirt in her drawer (I honestly didn’t know she owned it… this kid has so many clothes) and then knew I could get some high-quality leggings from Bumbelou that she would wear all winter long. The Design Your Own section had just the right shade of red!
That got me thinking about all the different costumes you can easily create with some simple basics that can be re-worn over and over. So if you’re having trouble deciding on a costume or don’t want to shell out for just one night, here are some ideas:
Black Dress / Socks and Hat from Target Dollar Spot
Leopard Bodysuit / Leopard Dress / Leopard Leggings
And at the end of the day no matter if you are running to target to dig for a costume at the 11th hour or have been thoughtfully planning for months, I hope you have a super spooky, fun and safe Halloween.
- Rachal Depuydt
Rachal is a working mom of two littles (Cedar, 1 and Melody, 4) trying her best to find that elusive “balance” in motherhood. She combats the busyness of life with weekend pajama parties, baking from scratch, and the occasional frozen pizza for dinner. In her spare time, she likes to sew and DIY as many projects as possible and sometimes gets to hang out with her husband while they both fall asleep in front of the TV.