ProMom Tip: Make Halloween Costumes

I can't remember if I said anything here or not, but I was recently complaining on Facebook that the costumes for girls Mary Grace's age are already getting slutty.

She's four.

This is obviously unacceptable to any thinking parent.

I am happy to report that aside from the black shoes I need to find for Claire, the kids' costumes are complete, and completely un-slutty! And, bonus, they'll be able to wear the clothes again after the holiday.

I can't sew, but there are plenty of characters who wear regular clothes - Dora and Diego, for example, or the guy from Blue's Clues. Mary Grace wanted to be Daphne, to have Claire be Velma, and for Max to be Scooby Doo (which totally makes sense).


Here's the commercially available Daphne costume:

Ummmm.... No.

Leaving aside the fact that the dress barely covers her butt, she'll freeze to death in an armless dress in Indiana in October. And you KNOW that the wig in the package isn't going to look anything like that. The reviews of it are terrible.

The Velma outfit is better:

...but I can find an orange shirt for less than $25! We have a skirt - it's black, instead of red, and we're doing tights instead of socks. Claire isn't nearly as exacting with the details as Mary Grace - MG rejected about 11,000 scarves as being "not right" before we finally just bought a piece of neon green fabric at Joann's and called it "good enough." I found a lavender polo dress at Once Upon A Child, and we got her a pair of purple ballet flats (they're super cute, and she'll be able to wear the whole outfit to school without it screaming "Daphne!") We got a piece of red fabric to make BJ a scarf (so he can wear a white polo and jeans and be Fred). I'm going to be in charge of the camera and the Scooby Snacks (although I do have a green t-shirt and brown pants, I could pull off a Shaggy costume pretty easily if I drew a goatee on my face with eyeliner). I found a really cute little pair of magnifying glasses at Target that'll work just fine for Velma. They were a buck.

Of course, getting a dog that looks like Scooby Doo probably wouldn't be cheap if we didn't already happen to have one. I guess it's a good thing she likes Scooby Doo this year, and not Clifford!

So try to find a character that wears regular clothes and to eschew the commercially available costumes this year. It feels good to know that my kids will be warm enough for the weather and covered enough to be decent this Halloween!

We had them try everything on tonight, and I took pictures, but I'm going to make you all wait until the Big Day to see them!