I have three kids and they all generally like the same costumes so I have been able to reuse our costumes year after year. One year old the littlest didn’t want ANY costumes! He didn’t like having to put the costume on over his clothes (something common in our northern climates). Well, he was determined. He agreed to wear his red hat and his sweatshirt, so with some felt he had on hand, he made eyes and ears for his hat and it became Clifford the Big Red Dog.

This experience got me thinking about other ways you can create costumes with what you have OR by getting basic sweatshirts and sweatpants (or regular shirts and pants depending on your climate and clothing) that can be easily reused after Halloween.

Cowboy and cowgirl style is common and easy with jeans/shirt and hat. Oh, don’t forget the red scarf that can be found very cheap in craft stores.

Ideas for red clothes:

• Lady Bug: By simply getting self-adhesive felt (available at craft stores) you can cut round dots and turn your little trick-or-treater into a ladybug. A little more creativity will allow you to make a red cape that can be easily held at the corners to make wings.

• Clifford the Big Red Dog – Like I did, just make ears and eyes (I looked at a Clifford book to see how to make his eyes) and quick-stitch (or hot glue if you feel like it) on the red hat and you’re done. I have Clifford the big red dog!

• An apple – Use green fabric and some craft stuffing to create a stem (stem of an apple) and glue or sew it onto a hat OR use ribbon sewn to the stem to make two bows that can be used to tie the stem into the top of the head (remember to use two ties and tie with one tie that reaches below the chin and can be quickly untied for safety). You will have an apple for Halloween.

Ideas for white clothes:

• Black irregular patches of felt and you have a cow OR smaller irregular patches and you have a Dalmatian puppy. You can add to the costume and make a LOOSE brown collar with your pup’s name OR add a Christmas bell for your cow.

Ideas for gray clothes:

• How about having a mouse or cat scurrying around on Halloween? Again, cut out the ears for a felt hat. Black eyeliner makes whiskers easy to draw on the face, and if you’re REALLY creative, choose felt gloves for her hands (plain, fingerless gloves, and add paw pads for realism).

make m&m’s

• Well, you know the colors, red, black, brown, yellow and now some additional colors like blue. To cut an “M” out of white felt, you will need two. There are several ways to proceed from here. You can use self-adhesive velcro dots to attach the “M” as-is to a colored M&M sweatshirt OR cut the “M” out of self-adhesive felt.

Create flowers:

• Purple, pink, yellow and other “flower” color clothing is great to send your little ones as flowers OR have them dress in green to be the flower stem THEN cut the flower petals from your felt and place them in a matching hat. . If you want to add a bit of stiffness to your petals, you can purchase a yardage size that can be ironed onto the felt and provides the desired stiffness.

The bottom line is to attach items so they can be easily removed later and you can reuse sweatshirts, sweatpants, and hats. It doesn’t take much to create cute and inexpensive Halloween costumes that will quickly go from costume to everyday wear again (which is a huge plus in this economy!)