Dress-up Fun

Since Halloween is just around the corner, I thought I would share a couple of simple dress-up/costume ideas.

My daughter's school has a Storybook Character Dress-Up Day, when the kids dress up as a favorite storybook character and bring in the book to share with the rest of the students. The school urges parents to keep the costumes safe, inexpensive, and simple.

Last year, Shannon dressed up as Horton from Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. I altered a plain gray hooded sweatshirt for her costume by adding felt ears, black yarn, and a felt tail. She also wore matching gray sweatpants. She made the clover herself out of pipe cleaners. When she's done using the sweatshirt for dress up, we can easily remove a few stitches and use it for everyday wear.

Shannon likes her costumes to feel more like regular clothes, so when she wanted to be a fairy for Halloween last year I knew the free instructions for a fairy dress on Hillary Lang's Wee Wonderfuls blog would be perfect for her. The dress, which is constructed very much like an apron, slips on over Shannon's regular clothes and ties on the sides. She can put it on and take it off by herself and has worn it numerous times over the past year.


Another thing I do all year is scour yard sales and the thrift shops for used costumes. Costumes new at the stores can be so pricey. I've found some nice, quality customes in really good shape, like Ronan's dragon/dinosaur (we never really did decide what it was!). My other favorite source for kids' dress-up clothes and accessories is Etsy.com.I got these great capes for the kids from superflykidz. My kids love them! Ronan's even been known to wear his to church (not during the service though - we have to draw the line somewhere!) and the neighborhood grocery store!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope some of these ideas were helpful!