buying vs making your own

[designbymaj]

hey do you guys buy your costumes or make them your selfs?

[shanda]

Both. I guess what I do is assemble them. I can't sew. I don't even try. But, I can glue and piece things. I usually buy my kids costumes. I have 2 girls and they love the pretty glittery things. My youngest dd has been some sort of a witch for the last 3 years.
My 12 year old son wants to be an illegal alien. I got him a white painters cover all. Added black tape stripes to look like prison issue. We then added green space man mask, gloves and shoe covers. Funny!

[MyersFan1]

If a person has the talent, patience, and time to create homemade decorations than I believe by all means that homemade stuff is better then bought stuff. First of all it lets you express your creativity, and secondly it can save you a lot of cash. However, if you are as far from artistic and creative as possible, like myself, than i believe that the safe bet is to buy decor.

[jadewik]

I prefer to make my own costumes because they seem to last longer and are made out of better materials. Unfortunately, this also takes a lot of time.... however... I'm of the opinion it's well worth it... especially since you can keep a theme and make costume parts inter-changeable.

I actually severely modified a Simplicity pirate coat pattern this year. It now includes 2 pockets in lieu of the flaps that led nowhere and a lining in which I inserted 2 more pockets. I also made the buttons work by adding button holes (as opposed to just sewing on buttons). It's very, very heavy, but extremely awesome... and... I can use it (for fun) as a coat in the winter if I wanted to.... (I was also going to line it with quilt batting, but that just doesn't make sense here in the desert.)

The only drawbacks to making your own costume are that it takes a lot of time... and it can take a lot of money. Like I said, though... I get a lot of use out of my costumes, so it's worth it for me.

[Andybev01]

...and from the pix you post your work is top-drawer.

[WitchyMama]

Costumes wise we tend to buy. My kids don't ever want to actually make their costumes. Plus they lack the enthusiasm I had as a kid (is it something in the water?) and want to go for something generic. My middle daughter is going as a powerpuff girl, my youngest son is batman. My oldest surprised me, she is going as a bucaneer but then asked if she can go zombified so we are going to destroy her costume lol. Because they do grow fast and rarely want to worn old costumes....I buy as cheaply as I can. I found a Roses about 20 min away where I got each of their costumes for $5.

Decorations we buy and make. Small stuff that I can pick up for a couple bucks I will buy. Big things (ie: coffins, mummies) we make.

[Andybev01]

"Decorations we buy and make. Small stuff that I can pick up for a couple bucks I will buy. Big things (ie: coffins, mummies) we make.[/quote]


LOL! it occurred to me that this is probably the only forum where you could make a comment like that and not have someone call the authorities on you!!

[Spookymufu]

Decorations we buy and make. Small stuff that I can pick up for a couple bucks I will buy. Big things (ie: coffins, mummies) we make.

I agree!

[Pumpkin_Man]

Buying a costume, if you have money, is a great 'means to an end,' but when I was a kid, there were 9 of us living under the same roof at one time, and we were anything but affluent, so as I out grew the $1.50 pre-packaged costumes that they use to sell at Zayers, I started looking for creative ways to make my own costumes. Keep in mind that I am NOT an expert on sewing or 'handi crafts.' But then a Halloween costume is supposed to look horible and scary, so I was able to be creative. The first costume I made was a Frankenstein monster. I even squared off the back of my head by using an old wig and some old cerial boxes. I wore a suit that has some moth eaten spots on it, and I used green grease paint to make my skin green, and I "borrowed" my older sister's lip stick to put a lightning bolt on my fore head. The following year, I used some old cloths dryer hoses, silver grease paint and old card board boxes to be a robot. I even jurry rigged some flash light batteries and lights together so it would look authentic. The costume that was the easiest and the best IMHO was the year I cout two eyes into an old bed sheat and went TOTing as a ghost. I used an old tow chain that I found in the garage, and some pad locks that I bought at the local hardware store. It worked great.

The funny thing is that I had as much fun comming up with these costume ideas and putting them together as I did wearing them on Halloween for TOT and the Mt. Greenwood Park party. I was also not the only one. Most of the people in Mt. Greenwood were "blud collar" working class, and an expensive costume from a specialty shop was out of the question. So the creative juices would flow as we would all get together with our friends to brain storm on what to be for Halloween. It enhanced the Halloween experience for us.

Mike

[WitchyMama]

"Decorations we buy and make. Small stuff that I can pick up for a couple bucks I will buy. Big things (ie: coffins, mummies) we make.

LOL! it occurred to me that this is probably the only forum where you could make a comment like that and not have someone call the authorities on you!! [/quote]

LOL! Last year I scared the <deleted> outta the guy at Lowe's. I was picking up stuff to make a coffin with and as I went through my list this employee came to help me. After 20 minutes he said "what are you making?" and I replied "A coffin". This was in May. He looked at me so confused so I added "yea the hubs finally got life insurance HA HA HA". He didn't get the joke right away.

[WitchyMama]

that <deleted> was C - R - A - P. Just wanted you all to know. I got a sailor's mouth but I rarely use it online lol.

[adrian]

HAHAHA i understand witchymamma.. sometimes it'll delete words that are ok but eh... better safe than sorry i guess:)

[Spookymufu]

I rememebr when we moved to Salt Lake City we were unpacking the moving van and we pulled the coffin off the truck and took it into the garage, the neighbors across the street just stared at us.......and my coffin looked real, not like the chepo's you buy...heres a pic of it. They never did ask about it and they moved away about 4mo later, but I think they were moving anyway.....I also found out that (along with most of the neighbors) they were Mormon....heh

[Pumpkin_Man]

GOOD GRIEF CHARLIE BROWN! That does look real. It looks like you have a vampire living in your house.

Mike

[Spookymufu]

thats probably what they thought..lol