Remember with Pinterest started? I was so interested but really never knew how to best use it - so I did my best to share craft ideas and not get overwhelmed. Every once in a while I still go on there, and do you know what our most popular post ever was? Our Halloween Hoodies! Well, good ideas stick. When I was looking at our halloween posts over the years, I saw that I have in-fact been making hoodie based costumes for a long, long time.
It started with my son's first Halloween, when I made him this shark hoodie with craft felt from the shop. I sewed it on in the hopes we could save the hoodie for use down the road, but it became a costume hand-me-down for many many years to come. Next came the little fox, (which I can't find photos of!) when I simply added ears to a hoodie and sewed a pom pom tail to a matching pair of sweat pants. We used a little facepaint to give him a nose and whiskers which he loved.
The following year, my son wanted to be a crab - which came out more Lobster looking, as I made a matching one for my husband. I made craft felt "mittens" that worked as pinchers, and added big eyes and pipe cleaners to the hoodie. The following year, my kiddo wanted to be a crab again, but this time a Hermit Crab. His little sister got the red-crab handmedown, and his blue hoodie and felt mittens got an added felt shell attached to the back (which we took off for music class - big shout out to Marnie! We spent so much time with you!)
We got one more year of under-water themed costumes when my daughter went as a jellyfish and my son went as a squid. These costumes didn't exactly turn out the way I had anticipated, but they loved them and they were warm! This time I used simple toques as well as their hoods, lots of felt and some tulle. The following year Card Board Robots took over, and it was one of the most fun projects we ever did. The kids covered them with big circle stickers from the shop (you can see the bright pink ones!) and though it was a wee bit awkward to walk, we did it!
Subsequent years had us thrifting and buying the occasional store bought costume; but I'm happy to report we've been back to a mix of making/thrifting/buying that we can all feel good about.
I'd love to hear what you're all making this year and how we might help you achieve your home-made-costume goals. Let me know and come on by for all your supplies and face paint too!