Though there are only a few days left until Halloween, and hopefully you’ve already decided (or at least thought about) what you’ll dress up as, here are some tips on how to nicely pull together your own costume for next year.
- Start Planning Early!
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I love Halloween and I honestly start thinking about my plan in July. In the last few years, I’ve found that making my own costume is more rewarding than spending lots of money on packaged costumes. Starting in July allows me the most amount of brainstorming and creation time. When brainstorming, consider how much effort, time, and money you want to put into this costume. Since being in college I’ve had to really think about the best options for me that worked well with my time and money budgets. Sometimes this even meant recycling costumes from years past and that’s ok!
- Work Smarter, Not Harder
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This year, my boyfriend and I are going as Wirt and Sara from Over the Garden Wall. I decided spending money to buy polka dot pajamas for myself was worth it because (1) I couldn’t make those myself and (2) I know I’ll wear them again casually. However, finding a cape for Wirt’s costume was difficult and too expensive. It was much easier to buy cheap fabric from Joann’s to make it myself. I don’t have a sewing machine with me at school and I certainly don’t have enough time to hand stitch all that fabric together, so I used hot glue instead. I don’t need this cape to last forever, just for a couple of parties, so it was more time effective to glue it together. (However, when adding buttons I did hand sew).
- Be Flexible and Own Your Failures
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A few years ago I wanted to be Wybie from Coraline and I was so stoked! I had all of the stuff already for his outfit and I just would have had to fluff out my hair to match his. The only thing missing was his mask. I bought one of those silver faceless masks from spirit Halloween and I happened to already own green glitter paper to make the eyes. I spent a full night – about 4 hours – painting the mask and creating the eyes and it was perfect! Until I went to attach the eyes to the mask and found out that it was too round for them to stay glued securely. I eventually managed to just barely get them to stay and I figured that would be good enough. Unfortunately on Halloween, the eyes broke off right as I picked the mask up off my desk. The moral of this story is to expect things not to work the way they’re meant to. There can be a lot of errors when making your own costumes, especially if you’re an amateur like me. They’re lessons to be learned for the next time you try it. It’s also a smart idea to have a super simple backup plan in case this happens (you can never go wrong with just being a vampire, scarecrow, or zombie!).
- Be Satisfied With Your Work
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This is the last and most important tip I have to offer! I am a bit of a perfectionist and I sometimes get upset when my costumes don’t turn out as planned, so I totally get it. But I guarantee that other people will appreciate your costume and you should too. You put a ton of hard work into it, even though it might not be perfect. Whatever you make, be sure to own it so you can rock all of the Halloween parties that you go to! With each prop, mask, outfit, and makeup look you create you will be gaining that much more experience for next year.
So remember, be smart, be realistic, and be proud! Stay spooky, friends!