How to Make 3 Halloween Costumes for Less than 20 Dollars

I love making Halloween costumes.  I don't know why.  I just get a kick out of it. But the challenge to me isn't how elaborate I can make a costume, but rather, how can I make them out of the cheapest materials possible. I think I did all right this year:

Behold, the Paper Doll:

We made this from scraps of fabric I had on hand,
a swatch of butcher paper
two sheets of poster board
spray adhesive
hot glue
and bias tape
and a feather from my feather duster

What I like about it:
1. Mattie designed the dress herself
2. It isn't ridiculously sexy for a young girl.

 Look out for the LegoMan:

I made this from an empty cheese ball container (from Sam's)
a foam life belt from the thrift store (99 cents)
the bottom of an oatmeal container
two plastic drink cups
lots of hot glue
Krylon spray paint for plastic
and a circular metal candle holder that I cut in half to make the curved hands.


The only problem with this costume is that he can't use his hands much.  But it turned out pretty cool.


And that brings us to Tinkerbell.

Charleigh always thinks up cool things that she wants to be for Halloween.  The other two labor over it, auditioning ideas for their cool factor ...and I have to shoot some of their ideas down, like when Vin wanted to be Neil from Dead Poet's Society. (Not an easy one to explain at a stranger's front door.)  But Chuck usually just pipes up sometime close to Halloween what she wants, typically low maintenance.   So when I was in the thrift store the other day and a pair of fairy wings brushed my arm on the half-off rack, I was all over it.  The wings turned out to be attached to a very cheap and flimsy green dress or shirt which reeked of BO.   I took it home, took the wings off, soaked it in a vinegar bath and it turned out fine.  At the thrift store, I also found a pair of camo ballerina flats, a big yardage of green felt for a dollar and a little piece of gold lame' for 25 cents.   

I'm not a great seamstress, but I tweaked the dress into a shirt and a pair of pantaloons, and the felt into a tunic, to which I sewed the wings (which worked much better since the felt has more body than the flimsy stuff).  I used a couple of scraps to make rosettes on her shoes and some more scraps for hair-bows.  I also made a little over-skirt with the gold, trying to give her some warmth in layers.  Finally, I bribed her to eat her eggs this morning by telling her she could wear some green eyeshadow.  Done.

And that, my friends, is three cute costumes on the cheap.